It’s been rather a quiet period, with no surprises. Sadly, we don’t seem to have any reed warblers on Hambrook this year, and another lover of the same habitat, the reed bunting, hasn’t been recorded since March, so it looks as though we have lost at least two of our formerly regular breeding species. However, at times two Cetti’s warblers have been doing their best to fill that gap with their unbelievably loud song.
“Our” squirrel was back again on the 26th, favouring the trees on the old railway embankment. Once starlings have hungry chicks to feed, they often become more gregarious, descending locust-like on pasture, and a flock of 23 was in Tonford field early in the month. Three greylag geese flew upriver on the 19th, probably to feed in fields around Chilham, and a week later six swifts, now something of a rarity in Canterbury, were performing over the golden buttercup fields and river, twisting with effortless ease in their pursuit of aerial insects.