Swanscombe Part 1 - The Plan

So I wanted to try something new this year, the idea is to bird Swanscombe marshes at least a couple of times a month and record everything seen, and by the end of the year produce a picture of when the area is at peak numbers, what species turn up, when they arrive etc etc. 

I imagine it'll be fairly obvious as to what birds are resident, seasonal etc but you never know what may turn up and hopefully there'll be a few surprises along the way.

I'm looking to cover everything in the highlighted area, including Botany and Black Duck Marsh, and onto the river where its possible to view. The variety of habitat here attracts a wide range of species to breed, feed and roost, and by going at different times of day I'll hopefully get a few different bits popping up.

I'm not going to record mammals, this will be mainly focused on birds, but I will keep a note on reptiles.  Let's try and get 100 species at least throughout the year!

By no means am I expecting this to be exhaustive, there are far better birders than me who are going to see/hear a lot more than I do, but im hoping to pick up on a few rarities, and definitely piggy-back when I hear of something on Twitter 😂😂

I'm thinking currently I'll post the lists for each month with a kind of round up and any pictures worth sharing, including some scenery to see how it changes with the seasons, and then by this time next year I might have some data to present, and if its any good I'll continue it indefinitely!