Fort Burgoyne was built in the 1860s to protect the back of Dover Castle from a land-based attack. It is one of the Palmerston Forts, built following concerns about the strength of the French navy. There was much debate in Parliament as to whether the cost could be justified, but Lord Palmerston, who was Prime Minister at the time, argued strongly that it could. He was concerned that the French could land elsewhere along the coast and attack Dover Castle from the rear.

In 2014 The Land Trust charity acquired the fort and around a hundred acres of land from the MOD and is now running it for the benefit of the community by holding events and training sessions, as well as leasing some sections out to local businesses. There is also a ranger there who monitors and encourages its abundant wildlife and, along with the White Cliffs Countryside Partnership and a band of volunteers, manages the site for nature.

Back in May 2023 we went to a bat talk at the fort which finished with a walk down into the moat with bat detectors as darkness fell. The extensive fortifications are now disused and generally in a poor state but have become an important swarming and over-wintering site for bats.

This October we have returned to the fort to attend a three day Conservation and Habitat Management course. There are lectures in the mornings and then the group helps the volunteers with the management of the site in the afternoons. On the first afternoon we were removing cut grasses from the bastions and creating large compost piles, although unfortunately this was in the rain.

On the second afternoon of the course we went across the road to the sixty acre Coombe Hole wildlife site, also part of Fort Burgoyne land:

The south-facing slope at Coombe Hole was covered in ivy bee burrows at this time of year:

We had been learning about habitat features in the morning and then, after lunch, we spent a couple of hours creating some of these features at Coombe Hole. Dead hedges are great shelters and corridors for all sorts of wildlife:

A scrape is a habitat feature that will allow pioneer plants to appear, increasing biodiversity. The bare ground will be warmer than the surrounding grassland which will be appreciated by basking butterflies and burrowing bees next year.

Working all together like that was really good fun. The third and final day of the course this week will be about small mammal surveying and we are looking forward to that.

This autumn there are a pair of kestrels often to be seen in the meadows:

The female was ringed in the meadows in 2019 and has been hunting here ever since:

The male is unringed:

We have been seeing a lot of them both:

But unfortunately there is a problem. On Monday afternoon Dave went out into the meadows with his birding scope to see if he could get some better photos of them. The female looks really good here…..

But when she turned to show her right eye, it was clear that something was terribly wrong:

How did this happen? She had been perfectly alright on trail camera photos of her on Sunday. I wonder if this photo below is significant:

By Friday the situation was not improved, throwing cold water onto any hopes that her eye issue was just a short term thing:

I am not sure if she is going to be very effective at hunting without her excellent binocular vision but, realistically, there is nothing we can do other than watch on helplessly and wish for the best.

The buzzard is a natural at posing for photographs:

Sparrowhawks are a constant feature of the meadow wildlife:

And jays are very busy at this time of year as they work to strip all the acorns off the holm oaks and bury them in the ground to feed themselves over winter.

Migrants en route to warmer climes further south have been turning up on the trail cameras all week. What a shame the bird ringers are not available at the moment to get rings on their legs as they leave the country. Wheatears here:

And chiffchaffs and a redstart here:

As we head towards winter, there are still four badgers living in the network of burrows dug into the cliff and reaching inland under the meadows.

Over recent years, three or four exits from this tunnel network have been dug upwards and now open directly into the meadows rather than out onto the cliff.

The fox that we call Tripod has been unable to put any weight on his front right leg for many months. Since he is always waiting for me to put out peanuts at dusk, we have come to know him well:

Despite his injury, he is looking very healthy. Although he is still not able to put much weight on his leg, I was pleased to see that he is now occasionally putting it down onto the ground:

Another fox emerges from dense cover out into the meadows. In the background is a ship that was anchored alongside us for many days this week:

The ship is the Northern Rock and a photo taken of her with her bow pointing towards us, shows that the bridge is off to one side rather than in the centre. I cannot imagine how she manages to steer in a straight line:

A photo from the website of Amasus, the Dutch company that operates eighty vessels of which the Northern rock is one, shows her as she transports a load:

I am still not really sure why the bridge isn’t in the centre though – perhaps sometimes the load is even longer.

This weekend we have been spending some time in Maidenhead in Berkshire where we have family and friends and where I grew up. Still in the south of England, the wildlife there is largely the same as it is at home in East Kent. However, there are definitely some differences.

Sadly we hardly ever see hedgehogs in the meadows and have never seen one in the wood. However, in the mature suburban gardens of western Maidenhead they still seem to be doing alright:

On the slopes of Ashley Hill, a beautiful Forestry Commission woodland near Maidenhead, we came upon a large flock of fallow deer, including many males with wonderful antlers. For many reasons I am really pleased that we don’t get any kind of deer at all in East Kent, but there is no doubting that they are lovely animals:

Red kites haven’t yet reached us in East Kent, although we do occasionally see them flying overhead. In Maidenhead, however, they are absolutely everywhere:

Dave took a fantastic photo of a red kite on Ashley Hill a few years ago and this is my last photo for today:

Surely it won’t be too long before these lovely birds decide to settle in East Kent.