Late spring at Dungeness

Spent the day at Dungeness with Rachel (yep, you read right! After hearing so much about this unusual place, Rachel wanted to see Dungeness for herself!). With a high pressure situated south-west of the UK producing moderate WNW winds, migrants were thin on the ground today, with just 1 Whimbrel, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Dunlin and c.80 Swift noted on the RSPB reserve and 3 Turnstone at the point. Personal highlight today was a pair of breeding Black Redstart at the power station, that did their best to avoid being photographed as they collected food along the perimeter fence (photo 1 below).

The long staying tail-less first-cycle Glaucous Gull gave excellent views at the fishing boats in the evening (photos 2-5). Also present here were large numbers of (mainly immature) Herring, Great Black-backed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls (as well as a few interesting birds I'm not certain of), exhibiting some interesting behaviour as they squabbled over Spider Crabs and fish scraps dumped by the local fishermen (interestingly, discarded dog fish were completely ignored?). A couple of Herring Gulls were also cracking open periwinkles by dropping them from the air onto the pebbles (photo 8).

The most intriguing sighting of the day was a possible Montague's Harrier, heading south over the A259 near Old Romney, seen briefly from the car on the way home! Unfortunately, a thorough scan after frantically turning the car around failed to relocate it. The only other notables were a male Northern Wheatear at the point (looked like a nominate oenanthe and so probably a local breeder), a 2nd summer Mediterranean Gull and c.200 Common Tern at the Patch, and 1 Hobby, 4 Marsh Harrier (1 male and 3 females), 4 Reed Warbler, 1 Lesser Whitethroat (heard), 1 Cuckoo (heard), 1 Cetti's Warbler (heard), 20+ Barn Swallow, 2 House Martin, 1 Sand Martin and 1 Gadwall at the RSPB reserve. Also, many wild flowers on the shingle are now in bloom, such as Yellow Horned Poppy Glaucium flavum (1st photo below), Sea Kale Crambe maritima (2nd photo below) and the invasive Red Valerian Centranthus ruber.