Dungness - 10th August

Wednesdays are always a highlight of the week, and this was no exception.   A day spent at one of Kent's premiere birdwatching sites - Dungeness.   On the way down the M20 we saw a buzzard which started our list off well.

Once at Dungeness we made our way onto the beach for some sea watching - although it was sunny the wind was strong and it was hard to view with binoculars let along telescope!   Gannet were feeding out to sea and within a few minutes we had seen a black tern flying low over the sea towards Rye.   Over the patch were more black tern, common tern, kittiwake and herring gull.   Cormorant were flying to and from the reserve and on the beach were more herring gull, little gull, and common gull.   Swift flew high above us.

Golden Plover

After a quick cup of tea at the railway cafe we moved to the ARC pits and the Hanson hide.   Here we found shoveler, teal, pochard, golden plover, dunlin, ringed plover, little ringed plover, tufted duck, cormorant, great crested grebe and much to Malcolm's surprise/annoyance/disbelief I found a goosander preening at the back of the pool.   A female marsh harrier swooped low over the fields beyond the pool which disturbed the birds somewhat but they all settled back down eventually.

Little Egret

On we took lunch before going for a circuit of the RSPB reserve.   Herring gull, lapwing, golden plover, coot, mute swan, cormorant and moorhen were the main birds seen with swallow, swift and house and large numbers of sand martin feeding above us.

More common sandpiper fed on the edge of the islands in the pools, and little egret stalked the edges too.   Over on Denge Marsh we failed to find the great white egret, but did spend some time watching and enjoying the common tern who had taken up residence on the tern rafts.   One pair had a juvenile and appeared to be encouraging it in short training flights off the raft.   Greylag geese, mute swan, grey heron, mallard and little grebe gave us a great show.

Common Tern with young

Finally it was time to make our way home after another great day out.