The Stour Valley list for 2018 stands at 100 species so far.
March 2nd
I went to Stodmarsh this morning and had the reserve to myself and it was a bit Siberian weather wise. A bitter easterly wind with a fine rain that froze on impact, my camera and bins were covered in ice. I did not expect to see much. There were lots of prints especially fox, easily identifiable as the prints are almost in a straight line. Everything is frozen over apart from the Lampen stream and the river where most of the remaining wildfowl are. Birds seen today were 1 Snipe, 5 Fieldfare, 6 Pheasant, 2 Goldfinch, 1 Bullfinch and 1 Grey Heron. For the past few years i have been checking for Otter activity and regularly find prints and today there were some in the snow near Basils bench, a track used a lot by Otters. There was also a clear print with wide tail scoop in the snow by the river by our dam building resident. On the 28th Feb at Grove Ferry were 9 Water Pipits near Savvi's pool, the ditch was being cleaned out with the digger and they were on the disturbed mud, also there were 7 Black headed gull and 2 Snipe. A Kingfisher and Marsh harrier were near Feast hide and there were some Otter prints near the table opposite the ramp.
(Bryan East)