by Graham Tutthill

gtutthill@thekmgroup.co.uk

More than 20 harbour porpoises have been seen in the Channel off Samphire Hoe.

Local wildlife expert Phil Smith, who is a volunteer ranger at the Hoe, reported them in a flat, calm sea last Tuesday.

“They are the smallest of the dolphin family but an adult can be six feet in length,” he said.

“It is the only porpoise living in Europe, but unfortunately they often drown in fishermen’s nets.

“A recent beach survey in Kent found several dead and mutilated carcasses on the shore.”

On Friday, despite the freezing easterly wind, several Sandwich terns were feeding in the lee of the Prince of Wales Pier where the waters were a little calmer.

“Amazingly, only a few weeks ago, I was watching these birds feeding off the west coast of Africa in The Gambia,” said Mr Smith. “I bet they wished they had stayed there!”

Also arriving this weekend at the Hoe were the first wheatears of the spring.

Some breed locally at Dungeness and Rye Harbour but most move further north to breed on Scottish islands and some even as far as Greenland.