Virtually every area of bird habitat in North Kent is under threat, from unsympathetically placed proposals for a solar farm at Graveney, repeated proposals for airports, a proposed new Thames crossing to the ludicrous theme park proposal at Swanscombe, the dwindling wildlife of the area is being squeezed further and further towards oblivion. For an overcrowded and congested region it seems bizarre that authorities seem to think that developments that will bring even more people to the region will solve the problems that have been created by overpopulation and over-exploitation.

Currently there are still a lot of areas in North Kent that do play host to a wide variety and important numbers of birds, but for how long? With this in mind I decided to take a walk at Dartford Marshes, one fragment of habitat that has been progressively carved up and built on in my lifetime but which still provides a decent area of open space for wildlife and people to use. Species of interest included nesting Peregrine Falcon, House Martin, Reed Bunting, Black-tailed Godwit, Oystercatcher and Yellow-legged Gull plus much more. Read more »

Last week I made one of my annual pilgrimages to see Dartford Warbler. Last year I had a very successful day twitching at Frensham Common in Surrey so I decided to make the short trip there again to look for the bird that got me into birding as well as other heathland specialists. Arriving at around 9am I spent three and a half hours walking around the heath and woodlands, enjoying some superb weather, nice scenery and plenty of birds characteristic of the area including many pairs of Dartford Warblers feeding fledged young, Woodlark, Tree Pipit, Common Stonechat, Willow Warbler, Common Redstart and plenty of others. Read more »