Hi everyone!
After much success of our Great Kent Coastal Birdwatch back in February, we decided to join forces with Bird Aware Solent and participate in an October Great Coastal Birdwatch.
At Bird Wise East Kent we once again invited families and walkers to join us at various locations along our beautiful Thanet coastline to participate in group surveys counting all the different bird species we could see.
Thank you to everyone who came along and participated, we have had some exciting results that we cannot wait to share with you all. It was great to be able to chat with so many people about the local wildlife, and how we can learn to share the coastline with our feathered friends. As now more than ever is it imperative that we do everything we can to protect our local birds so that we can continue to enjoy them long into the future.
Thank you to Nina at Kent Wildlife Trust for joining forces with us on Monday to help spread the message and take families on guided walks around the picturesque Pegwell Bay National Nature Reserve.
Now let’s get into the long awaited results!
With all of your help we managed to count a whopping total of 4989 birds!
And 41 different bird species, that’s 11 more than in February! So well done guys, great spotting.
Here are our top 10.
10. Great Black Backed Gull – 118
9. Turnstone – 153
8. Lapwing – 155
7. Sanderling – 197
6. Wigeon – 211
5. Herring Gull – 238
4. Starling – 240
3. Brent Geese – 381
2. Dunlin – 570
1. Oystercatcher – 932
It was great to get sightings of TEN of our Daring Dozen, we were just missing the Purple Sandpiper and Golden Plover. This is great to see as they arrive to spend winter with us as their breeding grounds freeze over and food supply diminishes.
Lets breakdown what was most popular in each of the groups;
Waders
Ducks, Geese and Herons
Brent Geese are unmistakably the most abundant of the ducks and geese, which is no shock as over 100,000 of them come to stay with us for winter all the way from Russia. People are often shocked to see these geese in saltwater habitats, but they have developed specialised glands meaning they can actually drink the saltwater! They must really love that sea lettuce we can so often see them munching on. Quite the love story!
Gulls, Terns and other Coastal Birds
Don’t forget what we told you – there is no such thing as a Seagull! It’s become somewhat of a catchphrase for our two rangers. The term ‘Seagull’ is just a nickname for gulls, but there are lots of different types, 3 of which we saw during the Coastal Birdwatch.
Passerines
Some other exciting finds we managed to spot include a Red Throated Diver, Green Woodpecker and the noisy Ring Necked Parakeets!
Once again, a huge thank you to everyone that took part, we appreciate each and every one of you. Be sure to check our events page for any upcoming fun we have planned.