105 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM ROMNEY MARSH 



AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 



By Boyd Alexandeb, M.B.O.U. 



" Times are not what they were" is a saying that might 

 well be applied to Romney Marsh and its neighbourhood, as 

 regards the numerical distribution of species now breeding 

 there as compared with formerly. Disturbing influences of 

 one kind and another have come about, which have sadly 

 thinned their numbers. Indeed, in the case of the Kentish 

 Plover and Thicknee, it well nigh approaches extinction, since 

 the Lydd Beach, the breeding resort of these species and of 

 several others besides, has long been threatened. This locality 

 can hardly, at the present time, be described as a wilderness 

 or the home of many rare birds. The direct causes may be 

 attributed to the increased firing of both artillery and small 

 guns during the height of the breeding season, and also to the 

 Dungeness railway, which has opened out a considerable 

 portion of it. 



On the other hand, there are portions of the shore-lines 

 between Pevensey and Dungeness quite as rich as they were 

 in the days of Knox in the visits of summer migrants, that 

 pass northward to breed. On May 9th, a Temminck's Stint, 

 female, was obtained in the Pevensey levels, and during the 

 following day a number of Bar-tailed Godwits appeared near 

 Rye Harbour. Several were shot. The last of the Godwits 

 was seen on May '28th, when a small party, consisting of five 

 immature birds, alighted on the sands at low water. One of 

 these, a male, was shot. This bird was still assuming the 

 pale plumage. Several Grey Plover with black breasts were 

 obtained on May 10th, and individuals of this species continued 

 to arrive, off and on, up to June 13th, when I saw two birds in 

 company with a knot on the Midrips.* By the next day, 

 however, all these had disappeared. On May 22nd, a flock of 

 six passed over my head. They were making in a northerly 

 direction. A pair of Black-tailed Godwits appeared on the 

 Pevensey levels on May 13th. This seems somewhat a 



* The Midrips are a series of shallow ponds on the Lydd Beach. 



