As promised, I have a bit of a round up to go through! There's so much to talk about and a lot of data but I'll try to be quick and concise (and not sound like a school science report 😂) so here goes!
I totalled 122 birds over the year, which you could loosely split into the following categories
65 Passerines & Pigeons
9 Gulls & Sea birds
23 Wildfowl & Wetland birds
16 Waders
9 Birds of Prey & Owls
17 of those I would consider vagrants and brief passage migrants to the site, leaving 105 seasonal and resident birds!
I could go into a lot more detail splitting up the Passerines, for example I recorded 11 different species of Warblers, but then we would be here all day, but maybe that's something I'll look at in the future.
Alongside the birds, I noted several butterflies species, Common Lizards and Grass Snakes, along with a fair few mammals including Least Weasel, Grey & Common Seal and Water Vole.
The most productive month was December with 82 species, whilst I averaged 65 per month. Hopefully next year I can build on these numbers with improved knowledge of behaviour, site geography and calls/song.
There were quite a few birds that you wouldn't consider rare in general that I found myself getting excited for, for example Woodpecker species, Rook and GC Grebe. I found myself getting very excited for some fairly common birds turning up where the habitat doesn't necessarily suit a long term stay!
The dry summer did not help a lot of birds, particularly the wildfowl with most moving away, but a lot of the passerines suffered too. This drought was concerning in isolation, but we're trending on a national level to hotter summers, and if this becomes normal then very quickly we will be in trouble with a lot of our breeding wetland birds having no suitable habitat to raise their chicks. Swanscombe has traditionally been a stronghold for Red Listed breeders like Pochard, and their disappearance this year is a cause for concern.
It's not all doom and gloom though, as I recorded some cracking rarities over the year. A self found Spotted Flycatcher is right up there, along with Red Kite, Dartford Warbler, Spoonbill, Grasshopper Warbler, Long Eared Owl, Yellow Legged Gull and a host of waders. Cetti's Warbler is easily the most common bird on site (apart from your standard Magpies and Woodpigeons etc), and Goldfinch and Stonechat are both very dominant from the higher perches.
The real highlight though came on a ringing session with Terry, in a stunning male breeding condition Marsh Warbler. There are literally a handful of breeding records per year in this country, and this is one of the rarest birds I've seen, let alone held!
There's been a few seasonal highlights that have stood out with this, for example we have resident populations of both Common and Green Sandpipers, whereas you would expect them to be Summer and Winter arrivals respectably.
Wintering Warblers have done well, with Chiffchaff and Blackcap holding on with the resident Cetti's, this is a trend that is increasing nationwide.
It's also interesting to see how populations fluctuate, Blue Tit for example drop off spectacularly in the summer. They're still here, but likely move to nearby garden feeders and nest boxes to avoid competition with migrants, before returning en masse after breeding.
Kestrel were another bird that was remarkably thin on the ground during the breeding season before exploding in the Autumn to become a regular site again. This was particularly weird as I'm fairly sure they nest on the pylons, so maybe our individuals moved to a different site this year to raise their young.
Of course when doing something like this there will be a lot of birds that you miss, some found by others and some that fly under the radar altogether!
Firecrest, Bullfinch, Great White Egret, Brambling, Yellowhammer, and Golden Plover are 6 that I heard about on site but failed to connect with, and I'm sure there's potential for a few more, for example a flyover Osprey on migration en route to regular stop offs at RSPB Rainham or Cliffe Pools.
Full Species List
Next to each bird you'll find a number 1-10 designating how common they are on site, with 10 being a pretty much guaranteed sighting and 1 indicating 1 or 2 individuals in the year, and a letter corresponding to when you'll see them as follows
Resident
Passage
Summer
Winter
Vagrant (to site, not UK in general)
Don't take these numbers as gospel, it's purely my opinion based on my observations, and some birds (eg Oystercatcher and Stonechat) you may see year round but are designated to a season as that is when their numbers are greatest.
Woodpigeon... 10R
Collared Dove... 8R
Stock Dove... 5R
Feral Dove... 10R
Jackdaw... 8R
Jay... 4R
Magpie... 10R
Rook... 1V
Carrion Crow... 10R
Raven... 7R
Blue Tit... 8R
Great Tit... 7R
Long Tailed Tit... 7R
Bearded Tit... 7R
Stonechat... 9R
Whinchat... 2P
Robin... 10R
Nightingale... 4S
Spotted Flycatcher... 1V
Blackbird... 10R
Song Thrush... 4R
Mistle Thrush... 3W
Redwing... 9W
Fieldfare... 7W
Wheatear... 3P
Dunnock... 9R
Starling... 10R
Wren... 9R
Goldcrest... 4W
Goldfinch... 10R
Chaffinch... 7R
Greenfinch... 5R
Linnet... 7W
Siskin... 1V
Lesser Redpoll... 2W
Reed Bunting... 10R
Skylark... 2S
House Sparrow... 10R
Chiffchaff... 8R
Willow Warbler... 3P
Blackcap... 8R
Cetti's Warbler... 10R
Reed Warbler... 8S
Common Whitethroat... 8S
Lesser Whitethroat... 6S
Grasshopper Warbler... 5S
Sedge Warbler... 8S
Marsh Warbler... 1V
Dartford Warbler... 2W
Pied Wagtail... 10R
Grey Wagtail... 6W
Meadow Pipit... 8W
Rock Pipit... 6W
Water Pipit... 2W
Cuckoo... 7S
Pheasant... 9R
Red Legged Partridge... 4R
Green Woodpecker... 3R
Great Spotted Woodpecker... 4R
Swallow... 7S
House Martin... 8S
Sand Martin... 7S
Swift... 6S
Ring Necked Parakeet... 7R
Kingfisher... 5R
Black Headed Gull... 10R
Mediterranean Gull... 4S
Herring Gull... 10R
Yellow Legged Gull... 3R
Lesser Black Backed Gull... 8S
Greater Black Backed Gull... 9W
Common Gull... 5W
Common Tern... 1V
Cormorant... 10R
Oystercatcher... 8S
Common Redshank... 7R
Common Sandpiper... 7R
Green Sandpiper... 5R
Sanderling... 1V
Turnstone... 7R
Dunlin... 6W
Lapwing... 8W
Grey Plover... 2W
Common Ringed Plover... 2V
Common Snipe... 8W
Jack Snipe... 5W
Black Tailed Godwit... 3W
Avocet... 3W
Whimbrel... 5P
Curlew... 8R
Mallard... 10R
Shoveller... 4W
Gadwall... 8R
Pintail... 1V
Pochard... 3R
Wigeon... 2W
Teal... 9W
Tufted Duck... 7R
Shelduck... 8R
Greylag Goose... 8R
Brent Goose... 1V
Egyptian Goose... 9R
Canada Goose... 8R
Mute Swan... 8R
Coot... 10R
Moorhen... 10R
Water Rail... 6R
Little Grebe... 6R
Great Crested Grebe... 2V
Grey Heron... 8R
Little Egret... 7R
Cattle Egret... 2V
Spoonbill... 1V
Short Eared Owl... 3W
Long Eared Owl... 2W
Kestrel... 8R
Hobby... 1V
Peregrine... 7R
Sparrowhawk... 7R
Common Buzzard... 8R
Marsh Harrier... 8R
Red Kite... 1V
Total 122
This year the plan is going to be to build on this data, there are several variables that I want to explore, and see how they affect the bird populations, for example, if we have another dry summer will wildfowl decline more generally on site or will be see the return of breeding Pochard and Shoveller if Black Duck can stay wet?
I will be keeping an eye on how the new additions (like the central channel) develop for birds, mammals and reptiles, and hopefully every month can improve the total species counts on last year!
Wanted to give a big shout out to Barry Wright for his imperious knowledge and tips, to Terry Hilsden for introducing me to ringing and giving me the chance to get hands on amd learn a new side to birding, and to all the guys at Save Swanscombe who have done incredible things raising awareness for the site and halting the developments!
Lastly, a big thank you to anyone who has taken time to read anything I've posted, it's been a really fun project to bird one site for a year and record everything, but it's even better when you see that people actually enjoy following the journey and have sat and read the jibberish I spew out! Hopefully you continue to read the 2023 installments 😁😁
Enjoyed reading this, thanks Sam
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