Birding on the Darent

This Wednesday we decided to explore the River Darent and in particular to search for grey wagtails. Last year we found 2 breeding pairs and this year we went one better. Much of the river is inaccessible so it is possible that there are more pairs breeding. Its good to know that this really wonderful bird can find nesting territories along the Darent. We heard and saw lots of other bird species – blackcaps, chiff chaffs, house martins and more. We finished our trip at Sevenoaks KWT reserve where we had good views of at least 4 little ringed plovers.

However (apart from the grey wagtails) the stars of the day were two different pairs of moorhens. The first pair was seen at Eynsford and the second pair were nesting at Sevenoaks. I don’t like the current overuse of alliteration in magazines and blogs – but manic moorhens does seem appropriate.

Malcolm