Friday 20 August 2021

20/08/2021

Ready made Tern Islands being towed past Dungeness yesterday afternoon
Juvenile Yellow-legged Gull at The Patch this morning
I joined DW at The Patch this morning where there was 60+ Mediterranean Gulls feeding off shore, also a couple of Yellow-legged Gulls. A small number of Gannets were off shore with a few Sandwich terns and the Kittiwake and Common Tern, very quiet for this time of year.
This afternoons sea watch was even quieter apart from 620 Sand Martins that went out to sea. 
Juvenile Mediterranean Gull at The Patch this morning
3TJ6 a French colour ringed juvenile Mediterranean Gull at The Patch this morning
Glossy Ibis at The ARC today, also a Black-necked Grebe there with apparently 3 there this evening per GP. At Lade Sands the Little Stint present for its 4th day. The Long Pits and trapping area were very quiet. Galloway's was virtually an avian free zone.
Although White Spot is a quite common moth just a couple of Kilometres away on the shingle, this was my first and probably only one of the year in the trap this morning. 
My second Peach blossom of the year, a beautiful moth
 

Wednesday 18 August 2021

18/08/2021

A few bits from the MV this morning
Only my second Cydia amplana this year
8 of these Jersey Tigers in and around the trap this morning
Roesel's bush-cricket was new in the trap for me this morning
I spent most of the day at Copt Point reading Mediterranean Gull rings and managed 87 today.
From the reports I received from local Dungeness birders today the peninsular was very quiet. Richard W did see of note a Balearic Shearwater heading West this morning. The juvenile Little stint was again on Lade beach.

Tuesday 17 August 2021

17/08/2021

1 of c25 Willow Warblers seen this morning
With a NW 4 blowing this morning I gave the sea watch a miss, instead I spent a couple of hours wandering around The Desert and Trapping Area. A Greenshank over The Desert was probably the highlight, a Great Spotted Woodpecker looked like it was a new arrival as did 2 Collared Doves that appeared to come in off the sea as I was checking the lighthouse garden, c25 each of Willow Warbler and Common Whitethroat were seen and a couple of Lesser Whitethroats were heard. The only Chats were a new brood of Stonechats and 3 Wheatears.
At The Patch lots of Black-headed and Herring Gulls with singles of Kittiwake and Mediterranean Gull, there no Terns of any description there while I was there.
A look at the western end of Scotney found just 2 Common Sandpipers of any note. 
Osprey over Burrowes this afternoon viewed from the ARC
Mid afternoon at the ARC c200 Sand Martins and 12 Common Swift flew South during a light shower, an Osprey also flew South over Kerton Road and Burrowes where it hovered the once but appeared to move on quickly. On theARC there are now 2 Black-necked Grebes present among the many eclipse Duck, also 2 Great White Egrets there today.
2 poor images of Black-necked Grebes, but they do prove to myself that there is 2 birds on the ARC today

 

Monday 16 August 2021

16/08/2021

06.00-08.00 from the sea watch hide, thanks to AJG for collating the numbers:
Fulmar: 4W
Gannet: 194W      8E 
Oystercatcher: 3W
Kittiwake: 23W
Sandwich Tern: 67W
Common Tern: 1W
Wheatear: 3 around sea wall
Hornet Hoverfly in the trapping area

A long wander around the Trapping Area and Long Pits looking for migrants was very disappointing, just a few Willow Warblers were seen, along with a few Common Whitethroats and Lesser whitethroats that were probably summer residents, 120+ Sand Martins flew NW with 10 House Martins and 2 Swallows.
Early afternoon on the ARC a moulting adult Black-necked Grebe and 2 Black-tailed Godwits of any note. 
This afternoons sea watch from the fishing boats was also very poor.
14.15-15.00
Gannet: 10W
Cormorant: 4W
Oystercatcher: 4W
Sandwich tern: 15W
Arctic Skua: 1W
Grey Seal : 1
Harbour Porpoise: 3+
                                                                    Arctic Skua
 



Thursday 12 August 2021

12/08/2021

While sea watching this morning, I watched a RIB full of refugees c6 miles off Dungeness making their perilous crossing of the English Channel being dwarfed by the 400,000 ton Pioneering Spirit as it steams down the channel just in front of them. To put the size in context the Ever Given ship that blocked the Suez Canal is only half the size of the Pioneering Spirit.
A very poor sea watch this morning 
08.30-09.30
Gannet: 86W    4E
Cormorant: 4W
Oystercatcher: 1E
Sandwich Tern: 6W
Common Tern: 12W
Grey Seal: 1
Harbour porpoise: 6+
Hummingbird Hawkmoth warming up on the perimeter wall
Pine Hawkmoth, Privet Hawkmoth, Poplar Hawkmoth and a Jersey Tiger all in the Plodland MV this morning
a minimum 186 Mediterranean Gulls with Black-headed Gulls were in the field opposite my house, frustratingly several were colour ringed, but I was unable to read any of them because of the stubble and furrows.
Mediterranean Gull over the garden lunchtime
Border force recovering a migrant RIB off the fishing boats this afternoon
Sand Martin going out to sea at the fishing boats this afternoon
A visit to the ARC this afternoon could find nothing of note, even scoping from the top of the bank I could find nothing notable. Several lapwing came in and settled on the Tern Raft but soon left.
Burrowes was much the same, very disappointing.

 

Wednesday 11 August 2021

11/08/2021

Juvenile Kittiwake from the fishing boats yesterday
I joined RW in the sea watch hide this morning, many thanks to him for collating the numbers:
06.30-09.00
Common Scoter: 28W  1E
Great-crested Grebe: 1E
Fulmar: 3W
Balearic Shearwater: 1W
Gannet: 132W      2E
Cormorant: 6W
Grey Plover: 2W
Kittiwake: 49W
Sandwich tern: 11W      1E
Commic Tern: 2W
Swift: 1In
Swallow: 2 out
While we were in the sea watch hide we were joined by a very amiable chap from Southend whom we have never seen before, while chatting and without any prompting from us he said that Dungeness RSPB was a  miserable place, looking neglected and disappointing since his last visit a good number of years ago and that's from a visitor.
A wander around the trapping area with RW and JTM saw/heard 25+ Willow Warblers, Common Whitethroats, Reed Warbler and Sparrowhawk.
A few images from the fishing boats from the last couple of days
Juvenile Kittiwake
Turnstone
Common Terns
Juvenile Mediterranean Gull


Monday 9 August 2021

The Fabulous Sooty Shearwater

When I arrived at the fishing boats the Sooty Shearwater was cruising up and down c100-400mts off shore, after a while I threw some bread out for the Gulls, the commotion they made attracted the attention of the Sooty Shearwater, which came right into the beach to join the feast, it certainly wasn't fazed by the Gulls. I doubt I'll ever get views like this again from Dungeness beach.
 
The fabulous Sooty Shearwater that spent the best part of 2 days off Dungeness










 
This one gives an idea of how close the Sooty was coming to the beach at times

Saturday 7 August 2021

Sooty Shearwater

A superb Sooty Shearwater flying past the sea watch hide this morning
All day coverage today, many thanks to AJG, RW, CP, JA, DW et al for help with the totals:
06.00-16.30: 
Teal: 3W
Common Scoter: 54W  4E
Fulmar: 1E     4W
Manx Shearwater: 1W
Balearic Shearwater: 3W
Sooty Shearwater: 1W at 08.50 then spent the day till 17.00 at least at The Patch
Gannet: 437W      18E
Cormorant: 17W      9E
Oystercatcher: 2W
Kittiwake: 81W
Mediterranean Gull: 6W
Black-headed Gull: 245W
Yellow-legged Gull: 1 around
Sandwich Tern: 238W
Common Tern: 509W
Arctic Skua: 3E
Swift: 49 out
Sand Martin: 27 out
Grey Seal: 2
Harbour Porpoise: 4+
Sooty Shearwater feeding at The Patch
Plunge Diving


It was brilliant to see it feeding rather than the usual distant view dashing down the channel

A surfing Sooty
Gannets passing the sea watch hide

Friday 6 August 2021

06/08/2021

Adult Common Tern past the hide this morning
Near gale force SW wind this morning gave hope of an exciting sea watch, but it was not to be with just a trickle of birds through, though the first Black Terns of the autumn were nice.
05.45-11.30 thanks to AJG, JA, JY, CP and PT for  collating the numbers
Common Scoter: 9E      12W
Fulmar: 2E     3W
Balearic Shearwater: 2E      1W
Shearwater: sp: 2E
Gannet: 17E      389W
Cormorant: 12 around
Dunlin: 2W
Knot: 2W
Whimbrel: 1W
Kittiwake: 5E       16W     
Mediterranean Gull: 2W juveniles
Sandwich Tern: c30 around
Little Tern: 7W   flock of 6 and a singleton
Common Tern: c200W
Black Tern: 12W   (11ads + 1Juvenile)
Great Skua: 1E
Arctic Skua: 1W
Swift: 2 out
Juvenile Common Terns past the fishing boats this afternoon

14.00-15.30
Fulmar: 2W
Gannet: 22W
Cormorant: 14E
Kittiwake: 2W
Sandwich tern: 4W
Common Tern: 14W
Swift: 34 out
Swift moving out to sea at the fishing boats this afternoon
A Glossy Ibis flew over Burrowes late morning per PT 
The ARC was carpeted with Sand Martins today and the 2 Garganey are still present among the 100s of eclipse duck there, though they are very difficult to see without any meaningful shelter especially in todays strong winds, as the back of screen hide has now been completely removed making it virtually useless in anything other than mere zephyr of a breeze. Burrowes is just as bad with Makepiece and Firth hide still closed and only Dennis's hide in use, the viewpoints at Firth and Scott are just window dressing providing absolutely zero shelter, any birds that maybe in front of them flush as soon as you are spotted no matter how stealthily you move onto the viewpoints. The ramp from Dengemarsh Hide was removed a couple of weeks ago but no attempt has been made to replace it yet, I'm sure a temporary repair could have been done, after all it only took a couple of hours for the screen hide to barricaded  at that the start of Covid.
The RSPB has a corporate structure and one assumes a health and safety policy, which I'm sure would state that all hides should be checked at least weekly if not daily, if that is the case what happened during the 18 months the hides were all closed due to the pandemic? I'm sure that the problems with the hides did not all occur in the week prior to the 19th July! In fact with all the hides shut it should have been a very straightforward task to keep them all up to scratch. Dungeness was once a flagship reserve but is now a pale shadow of what it once was, little wonder so few people now visit the reserve.