Wildlife Reports

KINGS END FARM, RICHBOROUGH, BIRD REPORT 2023

EAST KENT WILDLIFE GROUP

INTRODUCTION

Volunteers from the East Kent Wildlife Group began surveying the bird population at Kings End Farm near Richborough, Sandwich in 2015. The first four years were primarily a gradual expansion of the nest-box scheme and mist-netting was started in 2019. The amount of time and effort devoted to this site has gradually increased. Nest boxes, targeting Stock Doves, Barn Owls, Little Owls, Kestrel, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Tree Sparrows, House Sparrows and Starlings have been put up in many sites with varying success. Mist-netting has taken place over many of the fields with a British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Winter Ringing Project (November to February) set up at the chalk store feeding station close to the cattle barns on the marsh. More recently, considerable effort has centred on monitoring the juvenile dispersal and autumn migration (July to October) wherever there have grown suitable crops such as those that are full of aphids for example. Throughout these years there has been an increasing amount of data collected for the national BTO Nest Record Scheme and this site is a productive site for nest records and nestlings ringed. Both data from boxes and open nests are recorded….