Dungeness, Kent: 16 September

A three hour seawatch in the morning found very little moving despite the fresh south-easterly. A mixed flock of 12 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 3 Wigeon and 2 Teal heading south west was nice to see (photo below), and 7 Common Scoter, 40+ Sandwich Tern, 30 Northern Gannet, and a Marsh Harrier heading south out to sea were the only other notables. An adult Little Gull, a 2nd winter Mediterranean Gull, 1 Kittiwake, 1-2 Juv Arctic Tern, 20+ Common Tern and 15+ Sandwich Tern were at the Patch and the 2nd cycle Glaucous Gull was following fishing boats offshore.

Migrating Dark-bellied Brent Geese, Wigeon and Teal.

Common migrants were in evidence on the land. At the point 6 Northern Wheatear, 1 Stonechat and 5 Pied Wagtail were noted. At the RSPB reserve, Chiffchaffs (photo 3) were seemingly in every bit of cover with at least 30 seen and many more heard, along with 2 Willow Warbler, 2 Sedge Warbler, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Common Whitethroat, 4 Blackcap and a female Pied Flycatcher that appeared briefly on the Willow Trail trying its utmost to avoid being photographed (top photo). 5 Whinchat (photo 4), 3 Stonechat, 2 Northern Wheatear, 1 Yellow Wagtail and small numbers of Meadow Pipit were also noted as well as 2 Common Buzzard and a Hobby overhead.

On the ARC pit, 2 Little Gull (1 ad & 1 juv), 2 juv Black Tern, 2 juv Arctic Tern and 1 juv Common Tern were flying around, and 2 Little Stint, 3+ Ruff, 1 Common Sandpiper, 2 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Ringed Plover, 5+ Dunlin, 200 European Golden Plover and 4 Wigeon were logged. A steady southwards movement of Barn Swallow (about 20 per minute) and Sand Martin from late morning onwards probably involved thousands of each.

Other notables seen were a 1st winter Shag and an injured Ruff on Burrow's Pit, the Great White Egret on Denge Marsh, 2 Sparrowhawk, 1 Peregrine, 3 Marsh Harrier, 5 Common Snipe, 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 4 Eurasian Wigeon, 5 Black Redstart, presumably the local breeding birds, feeding along the power station perimeter fence (photo 5), 4 Stonechat, 1 Cetti's Warbler seen well for a change (with several others heard), c80 Linnet and a Raven.

Dungeness, Kent: 3 September

A fairly productive day with a steady trickle of migrants. 1 Hobby, 26 Yellow Wagtail, 2 Whimbrel, c70 Barn Swallow and 3 Sand Martin were all logged heading south-west, and over the mid-afternoon high tide, 59 Red Knot (photo 1), 11 Dunlin, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, c200 European Golden Plover and c30 Oystercatcher were at the ARC Pit. A 40 minute seawatch this evening produced 1 Balearic Shearwater, c80 Sandwich Tern, and small numbers of Common Tern all moving west, c80 Northern Gannet and a Guillemot lingering, and 2 Little Gull (1 ad & 1 juv) and an adult Black Tern feeding at the Patch.

Other notables seen include the long staying Great White Egret, 1 Spotted Redshank, 2-3 Greenshank, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1+ Marsh Harrier, 7 Common Tern and an odd-looking leucistic Grey Heron (pics here) all on Denge Marsh, 1 adult Little Gull, a female Goosander and an eclipse drake Pintail on the ARC Pit, and c800 Lapwing, lots of Gadwall, Pochard, Tufted Duck and Northern Shoveler (in eclipse plumage) around the RSPB reserve, and 3-4 Sparrowhawk. Also, 6+ Harbour Porpoise were milling about offshore at the point and lots of Common Darters Sympetrum striolatum were about (photo 2 - male & photo 3 - female).

Polish colour-ringed Caspian Gull at Dungeness

While photographing gulls around the fishing boats at Dungeness on Sunday evening (15th), I found this colour-ringed bird that I suspected might be a first-summer Caspian Gull Larus cachinnans (below). The mainly unmarked white head and underparts (with just a few faint brown markings on the breast sides, flanks and under tail-coverts), dark beady eye, worn dark tertials and the worn and therefore rather plain pale brown greater coverts contrasting with fresh grey feathers on the scapulars made it stand out (oh, not to mention the bright yellow ring on the right leg). Structurally it also fit the bill: narrow bill, long legs (particularly the tibia), fairly small head with a gently sloping forehead and slight peak at the nape, long primaries and a full-chested appearance. I often struggle identifying immature large gulls, but after checking the literature I'm happy with the ID. A look at the European colour-ring Birding website reveals the bird was ringed in Poland (click to enlarge).

Also present was this adult colour-ringed Herring Gull, ringed somewhere on the south coast of the UK (below).

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.

Wader passage at Dungeness

With the persistent high pressure over northern Europe continuing to produce strong north-easterly winds, I was hoping to catch some of the incredible seawatching thats been happening at Dungeness over the last couple of days. However, soon after arrival it became apparent that there was far less moving today and seawatching was a little disappointing, perhaps due to the increased wind. Unfortunately I wasn't able to arrive until quite late so I missed out on 10 Pomarine Skuas, Little Gulls, Velvet Scoters and greater numbers of passage waders (see here). Nevertheless, a three hour seawatch still produced 150 Bar-tailed Godwits passing in small flocks (1st and 2nd photos), many in full summer plumage, along with 21 Whimbrel, 4 Grey Plover and 12 Sanderling, all heading east up the Channel. 68 Common Scoter, 4 Little Tern, 2 Gannet, a Yellow Wagtail 'in off' (3rd photo) and 3 Barn Swallow were also seen, and at the Patch another 2 Little Tern, 2 Black Tern, 1 Sandwich Tern and 200+ Common Tern were noted.

An afternoon visit to Dungeness RSPB found very little activity due to the very windy conditions. However, this Red-rumped Swallow was a nice surprise (found just before I arrived) and showed well for about an hour between Hooker's Pit and Boulderwall Farm, although it was far from easy to photograph (below)!

Also seen around the RSPB reserve were a further 60 Bar-tailed Godwits, 11+ Whimbrel (photo below), 1 Spotted Redshank, 6+ Greenshank, 1 Turnstone, 4 Dunlin, 4+ Common Swift, 20+ Barn Swallow, c.25 Sand Martin, a House Martin, another 2 Yellow Wagtail, 3 Marsh Harrier, 1 Redshank, 6 Ringed Plover, 2 Oystercatcher and 4+ Shelduck.

Yellow-legged Stilt-Plover

Try as I might, I really can't seem to get excited about twitching these days, but as a much needed break from seemingly endless DIY and sitting in front of a computer, I persuaded myself to make the trip to Dungeness for the White-tailed Lapwing. With so many photos of the bird plastered all over the net, there were absolutely no surprises when I clapped eyes on it running around on the mud - it looked, well, just like all the photos! Perhaps this is why I find twitching so dull nowadays. This fantastic bird showed well, feeding and flying around, but remained distant and unfortunately well out of DSLR range. However, my partner in crime, Pete Alfrey, did manage some digiscoped shots - here. 1 Garganey, 1 Green Sandpiper and a Marsh Harrier were also logged.