Sevenoaks KWT Reserve

On Tuesday 19th May a large group of 23 of us met at 10am for a walk around Sevenoaks KWT reserve. The previous evening I had checked the reserves website to find out what birds had been seen on the reserve over the last few days. I was lucky that the monthly bird count carried out by a well known local birdwatcher had just been posted – so I knew what we might be able see. Before setting out I challenged the group to count the number of blackcaps that we saw or heard during out walk. After only about 10 minutes we were up to 5 singing males. We also heard chiffchaff, garden warbler, wren and song thrush. I knew that a pair of grey herons had nested on a small tree on an island in one of the lakes and I was hoping we would see the “chicks”. I know that grey herons usually start nesting early in the year, often in February, but even so I was rather taken aback by the size of the “chick”. Presumably the lakes are well stocked with fish!

From the main hide we saw 2 little ringed plovers, but as we could not see any sitting birds, I am not sure whether they have attempted to nest. There were several coot nests and blue tits were seen carrying food. The egyptian geese already had young. We ended the morning having seen 32 bird species. And the blackcaps? The highest count that we could come up with was 13. Well short of the 26 counted the day before! Someone suggested that this was because we talk too much. Thanks to Sally for the photographs.

Malcolm