There was great excitement when, back in August, a honey buzzard came down to one of the shallow ponds in the wood:

Honey buzzards are summer visitors to the UK, leaving for tropical Africa during September. So this bird will have left now but we really hope to see him again next year.

But a different rare and rather wonderful bird of prey has visited the wood this week and stepped in front of one of our trail cameras – a goshawk:

Goshawks are powerful avian predators and, as such, are vulnerable to persecution and egg theft. They were unfortunately driven to extinction in the UK in the 19th century.

An increase in records in the 1960s is thought to be because of escaped or deliberately-released captive birds, and it is from these birds that our current population grew.

The goshawk is now a scarce but widespread bird across Wales and southern Scotland and in other areas where there are large expanses of woodland such as the New Forest, Thetford Forest and Dartmoor. The population in the United Kingdom is estimated to be around 620 pairs.

The British Trust for Ornithology shows its breeding distribution as below, although this is only up until 2011:

These birds are Schedule 1 protected but, sadly, persecution still remains a threat and exact nest locations are kept secret. A bit of further research, though, suggests that there are now a few pairs breeding in the large woodlands of Kent – maybe even in the Blean which is quite close to our wood. Goshawks have been sighted there showing territorial behaviour during the breeding season.

The goshawk is new bird for the wood and comes in as number 52 on the list.

Sparrowhawks are frequently seen in the wood and here two of them are visiting the water together:

The meadows have had their share of thrills as well this week, starting with this photo of a short-eared owl at 6pm one evening, just as dusk was starting to fall:

The much better image below was taken by John the bird ringer who was driving back from a meeting at Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory in February 2024 when he spotted the bird. Luckily he had his camera with him in the car:

These owls are famous for coming out to hunt during the day. It is speculated that the individuals that do this fledged in the Arctic where there is no darkness at all during the summer, so they became used to being out and about in daylight.

The most reliable place to see a short-eared owl locally is in the winter at Elmley nature reserve on the Isle of Sheppey and we are looking forward to staying there again this January.

Last week I realised that there are at least three different barn owls visiting the meadows. The bird on the left below appeared to be ringed on both legs, another one was ringed on the right leg and the third one was not ringed at all:

I sent the photo of what I presumed to be a colour-ringed barn owl to the other John who regularly rings here. The bird appears to have a metal ring on its right leg and a much bigger ring on its left:

John was intrigued because barn owls never travel very far and so are an unexpected species to want to colour ring. He spoke to a friend of his who has a lot of experience ringing barn owls in Kent and they both suspect that this might be an escaped captive-bred bird and that the ring on the right leg might be a ‘closed’ ring. Closed rings are seamless metal circles that are slipped onto young chicks legs when they are very small and can’t be put onto older birds with larger feet. They therefore act as evidence that the bird was bred in captivity and has not been taken from the wild.

I am hoping that this bird turns up again and that we can gather some further information on it but so far this week I have only seen unringed barn owls on the cameras. I would love to know where the barn owls that visit here are roosting and breeding. We do have a barn owl box up in the meadows which has a camera trained on it and I can tell you now that they are not roosting and nesting in there:

Here is an action shot of a tawny owl, the third species of owl seen here this week:

Tawny owls are also very active in the meadows at this time of year and we love to hear them atmospherically calling around the house once it gets dark.

Back in the spring we found a tawny nest less than a kilometre away from the meadows in an area blessed with many lovely old mature trees, so there has to be a good chance that the tawnies that come here are from that family:

And I can’t talk about tawny chicks without also mentioning the four tawny owlets that fledged from a nest box in the wood this May. John had ringed them all a few days previously:

John has been ringing in the meadows a couple of times this week:

He has been catching a lot of blackcaps and chiffchaffs:

This is a male firecrest weighing only 4.9 grammes:

And a goldfinch that looks a bit ropey because it is going through its post-juvenile moult:

Every evening I put a few peanuts out which allows me to keep an eye on the health of the resident foxes and take action if necessary. Mange is a terrible thing and is a recurring issue around here, but it is a relief to see that all of the regulars are currently looking in fine fettle:

With the addition of two of this year’s cubs, our badger numbers are up to six which looks like quite a herd:

This badger below was in the process of cleaning its armpit and having a good old scratch. Badgers really know how to loll around:

We are making progress on many of our autumn jobs. The first meadow is now cut and Dave has embarked on the much larger second meadow, rushing to get it finished before the weather breaks:

He really enjoys spending time out in the autumn sunshine, sitting high up on the tractor with far reaching views out to sea. I definitely do not feel the same about getting into his over-large waders and sinking into the sludge of the wild pond to pull out its overgrown vegetation:

I have made a bit of a difference and some open water is now visible, but I am the first to admit that there is still a long way to go:

This is also a time-critical job that needs to be completed before male frogs start to hibernate in all that mud at the bottom. But the problem is that there is not yet enough water in there to make the plants easy to pull. Perhaps all the rain that is forecast for the next few days will actually materialise and sort that out for me.

I finish today with our tile art installation which has just had its annual maintenance overhaul:

Made by Ellie, our daughter-in-law, a few years ago, I love how it looks now that it has aged and is becoming colonised by plants. A peep between some of the tiles shows that many invertebrates, small mammals and reptiles are happily living there amongst the tiles, which was exactly what we had hoped for. I cannot think of a better thing to have done with these surplus roofing products.