Dungeness and Pett Level

Phil and I started at the ARC Pit, where we had no luck with the Gull-billed Tern at the west end but caught a couple of brief glimpses of the male Black-winged Stilt near the screen. A Cuckoo, a few hundred Swifts, two Black-tailed Godwits, a Hobby, two Common Sandpipers, 25 Common Terns (most of these mobbing one Herring Gull on a raft at one point), a Marsh Harrier, four Sand Martins, a House Martin, four Swallows and three Lesser Whitethroats were noted before we made our way to Dungeness Point. There we had a Black Redstart gathering food, three Common Terns at The Patch and a couple of Stonechats. Our final call at Dungeness was a stop at Springfield Bridge, where Dengemarsh offered a pair of Yellow Wagtails, the male in full voice, a Hobby carrying a Swift, two Corn Buntings and a pair of Marsh Harriers.

Yellow Wagtail at Dungeness RSPB

Black Redstart at Dungeness

We finished the day at Pett Level, where it was no less gusty and there was another Common Sandpiper, a Bearded Tit, five Common Terns, a couple of Curlew and another pair of Marsh Harriers. Five Sand Martins flew through.

Hastings Country Park, Pett, Pannel Valley NR and Dungeness RSPB

Highlights at Hastings Country Park with Christian included a Grasshopper Warbler, a female Redstart, four Lesser Whitethroats, two Spotted Flycatchers, a Whinchat, a Wheatear, three Tree Pipits, three Yellow Wagtails, two Grey Wagtails, 100 Meadow Pipits, a Bullfinch, three Yellowhammers, seven Stonechats, a Nuthatch, eight Whitethroats, 40 Blackcaps, 30 Chiffchaffs and good numbers of hirundines, including 14 Sand Martins. Sandwich Tern and Gannet were offshore and raptors included eight Buzzards and a Sparrowhawk.

We stopped at the quirky Tic Tocery cafe in Pett where House Martins were still attending active nests, and a Sparrowhawk and a Kestrel battled for airspace.

Pannel Valley NR was depressing, with the scrape dry, but we did note two Bearded Tits, a Marsh Harrier, a Raven, a couple of Sparrowhawks, a Sand Martin among further hirundines moving, 95 Lapwings, a Cetti's Warbler, two Shelducks, two Whitethroats, a Grey Wagtail, three Meadow Pipits, a Wheatear, three Nuthatches and a Reed Bunting.

Dungeness RSPB offered a fine end to the day. The ARC Pit offered four Garganey, two juvenile Black Terns, an adult Little Gull, a Cattle Egret, a Great White Egret, two Snipe, four Dunlin, four Ruff, three Black-tailed Godwits, 160 Golden Plovers, two Common Sandpipers, a Greenshank, three Pintail, a Sedge Warbler, etc. Burrowes Pit provided a Black-necked Grebe, two 1cy Caspian Gulls, two Yellow-legged Gulls (2cy and 1cy) and a further Great White Egret. Three Cetti's Warblers were heard. The entrance track had three Whinchats and two Wheatears for our way out.

Whinchats at Dungeness RSPB

Cattle Egret at Dungeness RSPB

Golden Plovers at Dungeness RSPB

Great White Egret at Dungeness RSPB

1cy Caspian Gull at Dungeness RSPB

Crossness LNR and Dungeness RSPB

I returned to Crossness LNR in the hope of getting further, improved views of the Great Reed Warbler, encouraged by positive news early in the morning. However, after spending a couple of hours on site and listening to people who'd been there since mid-morning, the bird was not going to sing or show itself again for me. A pleasant visit nonetheless, and a chance to catch up further with the gent that is Ian Stewart. The Lesser Whitethroat was still in song, as were a few Reed Warblers and Cetti's Warblers. One of the Peregrines came into view, two Buzzards soared in the distance and I counted five Pochards and 24 Gadwall. Waders were represented by Redshank and Oystercatcher.

I then set off to Dungeness for another bird I really ought to have already seen in Britain. Thankfully, the adult WHISKERED TERN was performing superbly along with a bonus adult Roseate Tern. Also logged were two Egyptian Geese, a male Marsh Harrier, four Sanderlings, a Ringed Plover, around 60 Common Terns (including a 2CY), a singing male Cuckoo, Cetti's and Reed Warblers and Reed Bunting.

Whiskered Tern (right) with Roseate Tern at Dungeness RSPB

Whiskered Tern at Dungeness RSPB

Roseate Tern at Dungeness RSPB

Worthing, Goring and Dungeness

I didn't manage to get out to the patch as planned during the morning, which was frustrating. I spent the morning writing in our West Worthing garden, which produced a tick in the form of a fly-over Yellow Wagtail, and later on had a possibly migrant Buzzard over the shops in Goring. Later on, a twitch to Dungeness was very satisfying and it was great that Ingrid could come along with me. We arrived at the RSPB car park in the evening and made our way to the Firth Hide, getting decent views of the juvenile Black Tern of the American form surinamensis along with several of its nominate congeners - mainly juveniles but including a couple of moulting adults - mixed in with the hordes of Common Terns. A juvenile Knot, a Little Ringed Plover and a Ringed Plover were on the mud in front of the hide, while the pit also held three Egyptian Geese, and a few Sand Martins were feeding.

juvenile Buzzard over the shops in Goring

Rye Harbour and Dungeness RSPB

I met up with Darragh C for a stroll around Rye Harbour. It was a fine, warm day with a nice light breeze but I was hindered with a pretty rough cold. Still, I thought the fresh air would do me good and I'm sure it did. Highlights included a Whinchat, three Wheatears and a few Yellow Wagtails, along with six Common Sandpipers, a Whimbrel, three Greenshanks and a Black-tailed Godwit among the waders. A few House Martins were over the car park.

Whinchat at Rye Harbour

male Linnet at Rye Harbour

We moved on to fit in a fairly quick visit to Dungeness RSPB. We enjoyed nice views of three juvenile Black Terns with the hordes of Common Terns on Burrowes Pit then Dengemarsh offered up a Wood Sandpiper, three Great Egrets, two Ruffs and four Snipe. A few Yellow Wagtails and Sand Martins were knocking around the reserve.

Dungeness RSPB, 25th March 2017

The sun came out for once but it was still hella windy. Nonetheless, Josh B and I had a quick trip to Dungeness RSPB, with good views of the flirtatious drake Ring-necked Duck, two distant Black-necked Grebes in their summer finery and, best of all, a drake Garganey, picked out on Cook's Pool by JB. It feels as though I haven't seen a drake for absolutely ages. Burrowes Pit also held singles of Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin and Pintail, along with three Goldeneyes and the aerial antics of a couple of Marsh Harriers over Dengemarsh also kept us entertained. We stopped by at the obs to say hi to Dave W and Gill H then called it a day, the wind unrelenting.

♂ Ring-necked Duck

♂ Garganey

Dungeness, 14th March 2017

A rare venture out of Surrey saw Magnus A and I head to Dungeness for a day's birding. Highlights included two 2cy Iceland Gulls at The Patch, where there were two 2cy Caspian Gulls. A Black Redstart and a Chiffchaff were around the Old Lighthouse. Later on, we had one of the Icelands and another 2cy Caspian on the RSPB reserve. We spied one of the Long-eared Owls hiding away behind the dipping pool near the RSPB visitor centre and the New Diggings held two Slavonian Grebes and a Black-necked Grebe, which was moulting through to summer nick. Other highlights on the reserve included a Great White Egret, a Raven and a spectacular show as two Marsh Harriers seemed to perform a series of mock food-passes. A flock of 130 Stock Doves was at Dengemarsh and a Ruff was showing on Burrowes Pit. A quick late afternoon seawatch produced four Red-throated Divers, a surprise Great Northern Diver and a handful of Guillemots.

Black Redstart

2cy Iceland Gull

Slavonian Grebe

Ring-necked Duck

Long-eared Owl

Raven

Three of seven Turnstones on the beach

Red-throated Diver

Dunge

On Saturday I spent an enjoyable day birding around Dungeness with Josh Burch and Pete Denyer. Highlights included the two male PENDULINE TITS, although they were distant, along with a juvenile Glaucous Gull on Burrowes Pit, Great White Egret, two Black-necked Grebes and three Smews.

This juvenile Glaucous Gull dropped in or a brush-up on Burrowes Pit

One of the two male Penduline Tits viewable from the ramp

The Long-tailed Duck on Burrowes Pit

Redhead Smew on Burrowes Pit

One of two Black-necked Grebes

Boxing Day gulls

Spent most of the morning at the patch, producing an adult Great Black-backed Gull then took Josh to Dungeness, where the highlight was the third-winter Glaucous Gull which showed well. Also seen, on the sea, were Red-throated Diver, Guillemots, Kittiwakes, Gannets and an adult Med Gull

Great Black-backed Gull at Canons

3rd-winter Glaucous Gull at Dungeness

Kent

Last Monday I took Alex Bowes for a day birding in Kent, we didn't find anything great but a selection of interesting birds were seen. We started at Dungeness where about half a dozen Manx Shearwaters and a Black Tern were the highlights plus Cuckoo, Hobby etc. Grove Ferry and Stodmarsh produced two Turtle Doves, about four Cuckoos including a hepatic bird, a Barn Owl, at least one Bittern, three drake Garganeys, a couple of Bearded Tits, a Common Sandpiper, three Wigeons, plus a handful of Ringed Plovers, Greenshanks and Redshanks.

All photos from Grove Ferry/Stodmarsh...

hepatic female Cuckoo

normal female Cuckoo

female Bearded Tit

Garganey

Turtle Dove

In which I finally find something half decent

Pectoral Sandpiper

I was at Canons this morning when Phil called to ask whether I fancied a trip to Dunge. I thought I may as well accept seeing as I'd done the key areas of the farm and there's usually something to look at down there.

We called in at the RSPB centre and we were reminded of reports of a Little Stint at ARC so crossed to the other side in the hope of finding it. There were fifteen Golden Plovers; a few Dunlin and Common Sandpipers; ten Black-tailed Godwits, a Green Sandpiper and, by my reckoning around two thousand Lapwings present.

After an hour or so from the hide there we thought the stint may be at the other end so we pulled up by the side of the road at the south end of the pit. Scanning didn't reveal anything resembling our quarry and I was about to stop searching when an adult Pectoral Sandpiper waddled into my view. Oh . . . cool! I put the news out and proceeded to sketch and photograph the bird which was always on show albeit a little out of range for a top shot most of the time. A little twitch materialised within half an hour. Other birds at this end included two Little Gulls and a couple of Turnstones.

Little Stint

Next we went to Rye where we sat in the garden of Edward and Mandy Mayer, a couple whom Phil befriended in Poland before joining them on a walk around the Harbour. Here I found a Wood Sandpiper and two Whimbrel. A redhead Goosander was a pleasant surprise and six Little Terns flew up. A convenient pager message resulted in us seeing our initial quarry as it wasn't long before we were getting smashing views of a moutling adult Little Stint.

Wood Sandpiper

pair of Whimbrel

A bit of a result really - good day, cheers Phil & team.

Dunge and Marbles

June has (as expected) been pretty poor at the patch, hence the lack of posts here. There have been a few signs of movement this month, though, with unseasonal occurances such as a singing Lesser Whitethroat (courtesy of Eagle), a flock of Lapwings and a Sand Martin. These things just about keep you ticking over but aren't anything to shout widely about.

Phil suggested a trip to Dungeness yesterday. We left reasonably early and dipped the Squacco Heron, not a bird that I need but it would have been a delight to see. We did get a few odds and sods including a Great White Egret fully draped in plumes and a close fly-by pair of first-summer Spoonbills. It was pretty cool to watch a first-summer Little Gull hawking with half a dozen or so Hobbies.

For me, though, one of the highlights of the last week has been the emergence of my favourite butterfly, the Marbled White. I was hoping to get a couple of snaps of one today to make this post look a little prettier but they were too quick. While I have always appreciated butterflies, I was reluctant to start trying to identify them until four years ago when a Marbled White dizzied my eye at Banstead Downs. A bit like how I started birding, I went and bought a starter butterfly book and identified it and my interest has since developed (with birds it was a Sparrowhawk over my primary school).

Dungeness

Little Gulls

After consistent reports of productive seawatching from the south coast over the previous few days I asked Eagle last night if he fancied a trip to Dungeness this morning - he was keen on the idea as there were a lot of lifers down there for him. Nothing that I needed had been seen but it had been a while since I had seen some of the stuff that was getting reported regularly.

We arrived at about 6.15am and joined the throngs of birders with similar hopes, packed into the hide and around its exterior. We settled down infront of the hide, below the windows. While still settling down, four Pomarine Skuas flew east (my main target, so I was sorted for the day!) - another passed close-in later on. Six Black-throated Divers, four of them in gorgeous summer plumage flew past, often close-in, were sublime. A couple of Arctic Skuas were good to see, too. Hundreds of Bar-tailed Godwits and scores of Knot, Whimbrel, Sanderlings and Grey Plovers passed by along with a single Greenshank and other birds a bit out of context such as Tufted Duck and Shoveler.

Glaucous Gull

Among the sparkling flock of Common Terns, good views of at least three Little Terns, a couple of Black Terns, at least one Arctic Tern, the odd Sandwich Tern and two beautiful adult Little Gulls were obtained. A couple of Wheatears were kicking about. We checked out the fishing boats area and, after a bit of searching, located the immature Glaucous Gull.

Eagle had a tick fest with eight lifers!!! I expected none and got none but fulfilled my aim of having an enjoyable morning out seeing some good birds with good company and we both left beaming!

Dungeness

Great White Egret

Today Phil Wallace and I made our way down to Dungeness in search mainly of Herons and Egrets which the site has become a nationally famed location for recently.

Great White Egret

We headed straight for Denge Marsh Road, where most of the action was and watched from the bridge where we instantly got excellent views of the long-staying Great White Egret as it preened. To our delight it then became quite active and flew closer where it began feeding not at all far away, right out in the open! I glimpsed one of the Purple Herons a couple of times but it popped up far too briefly for Phil to get onto it. Eventually it flew out of the reeds, gained a bit of height and flew towards the New Excavations while Phil rattled off some shots. Little Egret and Grey Heron brought our Heron list up to 4. Phil spotted and photographed a superb male Whinchat but I didn't have time to get it on camera. The Whinchat and a nearby juvenile Willow Warbler were both sure signs that passerine migration is well underway while a juvenile Tree Sparrow was a nice surprise.

Curlew

We popped into the ARC pit where there were lots of Northern Lapwings but the White-tailed had long vanished. We didn't see anything outstanding and made do with a Whimbrel, a Curlew, a Greenshank, 3 Common Sandpipers, 2 Ringed Plovers (adult and juvenile), 2 Little Ringed Plovers (adult and juvenile) etc.


At The Point we got onto an adult and a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull while amongst the many Common Terns were about a dozen Sandwich Terns, a juvenile Mediterranean Gull and a 2nd winter Little Gull. The sea was pretty dead, the wind having a counter-productive easterly bias, with just 4 Common Scoters, a brief Curlew/Whimbrel and 7 Gannets to show for our efforts.

Little Gull (2nd summer)

At the RSPB visitor centre we learned that yesterday's Cattle Egret was still about and set about searching for the bird to no avail, after Phil once again failed to contend with one of the notorious RSPB coffee machines that always completely break down whenever he's around! 4 Dunlin and a Common Sandpiper were the highlights here.

We made one last attempt at locating the elusive Cattle Egret (which would have nicely very nearly completed our list of available Herons for the day, and provided a nice year tick for both of us) at Denge Marsh before giving in and heading home happy with an enjoyable day filled with some good birds.

Dunge

Slavonian Grebe

I popped down to Dungeness on Sunday, when, for the first time I was getting feelings that I'd rather be spending my time at my local patch rather than enjoying a guaranteed selection of nice winter wildfowl and grebes! Canon's Farm has really got its grip on me, I can't let it get any tighter or I'm done for.
Highlights included a showy Slavonian Grebe and 3 redhead Smew (including a very showy individual which was frustratingly obscured much of the time by reeds) on the New Diggings and a Black-necked Grebe on Denge Marsh, the former two year ticks. Marsh Harrier was an easy year tick with 2 birds seen in addition to 1 near Lydd.

Black-necked Grebe


Smew (redhead)

As I was leaving to have a bit of a late afternoon seawatch, one of the members of staff informed me he had found 14 White-fronted Geese on the fields around Denge Marsh; change of plan for an easy year tick.
Got to Denge Marsh road and soon got onto some large gathering of Greylags and Canada Geese, after a few minutes of scanning in the bitter wind, I got onto at least 3 White-fronts. I didn't bother even trying to get a photo, they were too distant and the wind was too strong.

A seawatch followed which got me nothing more than Gannet for the year and a frustrating diver which I'm pretty sure was Black-throated; couldn't have been the commoner one which I need for the year could it? Not a bad day overall.