Spring watch on the solar park
Birds recently spotted in the monthly monitoring surveys include:
· A Green Sandpiper feeding under the panels in Zone I - while not a rare species it’s not common and a first for the site.
· Mistle Thrushes are already singing while sitting on the panels, and they are an early-nesting breed, so the ECoWs are optimistic for another season of them breeding underneath the panels. Last year 12 pairs nested in the panel structure and 11 of those pairs successfully fledged chicks, after a 10-metre exclusion zone was installed around each nest. Pictured – a Mistle Thrush nest beneath the solar panels.
· Marsh Harrier are regularly seen quartering the ditches through the site but mainly along the Fleet, as they did pre-construction.
· There have been a few sightings of Merlin.
· Peregrine have been seen hunting over the intertidal areas and roosting in a pylon and freshly picked kills have been found on the site.
· The occasional Red Kite passes over and the more common Sparrow Hawk, Kestrel, and Buzzard are often recorded.
The pools and rills dug in the Wetland Grazing Marsh are now full of water and the ECoWs report quite a high count of ducks there (Mallard, Wigeon, Teal, and Shelduck). Flocks of Curlew have been seen roosting there at high tide over the winter.
As spring arrives, the ECoWs will be looking out for the amphibians and reptiles on site to emerge from hibernation. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust has set up a BeeWalk survey route along the sea wall at the mouth of Faversham Creek and along the public footpath that crosses the solar park. This part of their national monitoring scheme and will help to identify the potential improvements to bee habitats arising from the Landscape and Biodiversity Management Plan.
On their initial visit to the area in 2025, the Trust found all five of the UK’s rarest bumblebee species that occur in Kent. The solar park team are very happy to support this ongoing research, and we will share their 2026 findings later in the year.