Dungeness



Caspian Gull

In 45minutes sea watching near the fishing boats 647 Auks(mainly Guillemots) flew NE into Hythe Bay along with 107 Red Throated Divers, 200+ Great Crested Grebes, 70+Gannets, 50+Kittiwakes. 1 Red Breasted Merganser flew SW as did 14 Common Scoter.
The 1W Caspian Gull was again showing well on the beach as did the Glaucous Gull.
On the ARC 2 Great White Egrets, 3 Red head Smew at the SE end of the pit 12 Goldeneye, 2+ Marsh Harriers but unable to locate the Long Tailed Duck. The Leucstic Grey Heron was on New Diggings. c20 Tree Sparrows were at Boulderwall Farm.
Possibly a third Great White Egret was on Denge Marsh with a fly over Bittern and 2 Marsh harriers.
On Walland the local hunt was out, the Bewick Swans had increased to 29 only 2 of these were juveniles, 200+ Fieldfare were in the Hawthorn hedges and a Common Buzzard was perched in its usual bushes.
  

A Grey Morning at Dunge

Caspian Gull

This morning by the road to fishing boats the Caspian Gull posed unlike the Glaucous and Yellow Legged Gull which buried themselves in the middle of the roost.
Off shore 738 Great Crested Grebes and 284 Cormorants were impressive, 112 Red Throated Divers moved SW in an hour as did 48 Common Scoter, 2 Red Breasted Mergansers and 2 Eider also many Auks, while good numbers of Gannets and Kittiwakes were feeding off shore.
At the ARC 3 red head Smew were at the southern end from the causeway and from Hanson 1+ Great White Egret, 2+ Marsh Harriers several hundred Lapwings were on the diminishing islands, 1 Black Tailed Godwit, 10 Dunlin and much increased numbers of Wigeon and Teal.

Saunders Island 02/12/11 (part 2)

Although the King Penguins were the real stars this afternoon the tameness of the beautiful Dolphin Gulls takes some beating.

Dolphin Gull

The antics of the Rockhopper Penguins playing in the shallows was a sight to remember forever.

Rockhopper

 The beach was alive with birds Upland Geese, Steamer Ducks, Roackhoppers, Magellanic, King and the superb Gentoo Penguins.

Gentoo Penguin and Upland Geese

Falkland Island Steamer Duck

Gentoo Penguin

 The Gentoo's were coming and going from there fishing expeditions and feeding hungry babies.

Magellanic Penguin

Dungeness

1 Great White Egret and 3 Little Egrets on the Royal military Canal behind Wyevale Garden centre mid morning on my down to Dungeness. 

Great White Egret

Caspian Gull

 In the gull roost at Dungeness at least 1 Caspian gull but no Glaucous Gull today.
At sea 11.00-11.30  172 Auks sw, 27 Kittiwake sw, 53 Gannets sw, 3 Common Scoter sw, and 4 Red Throated Divers sw.

 As I walked the track to Hanson Hide a Hen Harrier was hunting in front of the screen hide and eventually flew across the pit and out towards Burrowes Pit.
From the hide 1 Great White Egret, 1 Kingfisher, 2 Marsh Harriers, the Long Tailed Duck and red head Smew could be seen distantly at the SE end of the pit also 15+ Goldeneye and the usual wild fowl.

Hen Harrier

Saunders Island 02/12/11 PM (part1)

After sailing from Carcass Island we anchored off Saunders Island, which looked like a Mediterranean island with its sandy beaches lapped by clear blue sea and clear blue skies. This was going to be the final landing of our brilliant trip and what a landing this was.    

We only had a few hours here. I could have spent a week just photographing and watching the King Penguins alone.

Sorry about the King Penguin overload but it was really tough sorting through these. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

King Penguins