Chiltern Birder

As illness had prevented me from taking a holiday last summer, and as I had to use up some leave before the end of the financial year I took a few days down on the South Coast starting with a visit to Dungeness. The most obvious attraction is of course the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway but that is only one aspect of this remarkable ecosystem. From a birding point of vie w there was a lot of interest. Without making any effort I quickly saw black redstarts and wheatears. I didn't have time for serious birding and didn't manage to see the serin that I was told was around. The shingle landscape and the architecture are both fascinating. Look closely at the right hand hut in the photo, the central section is clearly an old railway carriage. The power station dominates of course, show here behind the formeer Trinity House experimental station. The Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond, to give them their full title has a long association with Dungeness with two lighth

With longer days I am now starting to see things while travelling too and from work. A yellowhammer perched on a phone line, primroses out beside the railway with a muntjac feeding, an egret flying up the Chess valley at Latimer and always the red kites. At home the quince trees are in bud while the forsythia will be over soon and the dogwood will need pruning. Visiting my mother's house I saw a long tailed tit in the next street. Unremarkable except in my childhood we saw nothing except sparrows and starlings. My first bird book was the collected set of british birds cards from packets of PG tips.