14/10/2023

One of the Sooty Shearwaters passing the bouy

One of the Arctic Skuas passing the bouy

An excellent day of sea watching at last!

Beautiful Little Gulls from the fishing boats

An Arctic Skua from the fishing boats

Todays sea watching was as expeditiously poor due to the brisk NW wind, 12 Little Gulls all very distant were the highlight. A walk around The Desert area produced my first Brambling of the year on the peninsula, many Siskins, Goldfinches Chaffinches flew over as well. 

From Hanson a couple of Great White Egrets, 3 Glossy Ibis and the returning colour ringed Lapwing were the highlights there, on Burrowes 2 Spoonbills, 3 Garganey, 3 Ruff and 5 Great White Egrets.

The ARC car parks regular Common Buzzard today

Welsh ringed Lapwing White FL from Hanson today

One of 2 Spoonbills that were on Burrowes Pit today

3 Garganey from the Firth Fence

11/10/2023

 Some of the many Razorbills passing today

The sea was quite busy this morning.

07.00-09.30 & 12.30-14.30 with RW, 

Brent Goose: 19W

Common Scoter: 3W   

Great-crested Grebe: 3W. 1 present

Turnstone: 2 present

Kittiwake: 660W 

Black-headed Gull: 45W

Little Gull: 21W 

Mediterranean Gull: 65W 

Common Gull: 9W 

Great Black Backed Gull: 14W  

Lesser Black-backed Gull: 3W

Sandwich Tern: 61W   

Arctic Skua: 11W  2 present

Guillemot: 9W    

Razorbill: 2,729W  

Auk sp: 148W

Red-throated Diver: 6W      2 present

Gannet: 1,084W 

Cormorant: 39W  

Peregrine: 1 present    

Meadow Pipit: 8W

Harbour Porpoise: 4

Grey Seal: 2

The little Gulls were all quite distant

Red-throated Diver

The 3 Glossy Ibis were in the pool in front of the Axell look out

2 Pintail the highlight from Hanson today

Golden Plover from Hanson Yesterday

The Black Stork that spent a few minutes circling high over Lydd yesterday

One of the 3 Ring Ouzels in The Desert yesterday

Black-necked Grebe at Scotney, viewed from the double bends

In general the peninsula has been very quiet, with just small numbers of Finches and Pipits migrating over,  most of the Hirundines appear to have departed. There is a distinct lack of Thrushes and Crests, as for scarce passerines there are none. At least the Pallid harrier is still around though difficult to predict its appearances.

A holly Blue in my garden, I rarely see them with their wings open

A magnificent Flame Brocade, a rare migrant from the continent was the star in m trap

08/10/2023

The Juvenile Pallid Harrier continues to be the star attraction at Dungeness, its appearances seem to be around 09.00 in the morning and seems quite reliable between 15.00-16.00 in the afternoon viewed from the Denge Marsh Chicken Sheds. This morning 100s of House Martins were feeding over Lydd Fields. Elsewhere on the reserve the 3 Glossy Ibis are still present along with the Egrets, Bitterns are only being seen occasionally and even Bearded Tits are few and far between, a few Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps can be found but the Thrushes still haven't reached here, hopefully in the next few days this will happen and the sea will hopefully be more productive. A Black-necked Grebe is still on Scotney viewed from the double bends.

I was stupidly on the wrong side of a bush as the juvenile Pallid Harrier came across the field and over

Ready to pounce

 

One of the local Kestrels

Grey Heron on telegraph pole

Common Buzzard over my garden while I was having lunch

Full house of Goldfinches on one of the feeders in my garden

06/10/2023

The sea watching is just about stuttering along with absolutely no surprises, Auk numbers are picking up, Red-throated Divers are now ever present in tiny numbers as yet, Gannets, Kittiwakes, Sandwich Terns, and Mediterranean Gulls make up the bulk of the birds, just a very small trickle of Brent Geese. On the land the superb Pallid Harrier continues to be difficult to catch up with, unless you are lucky or put a lot of time in, the 3 Glossy Ibis and 3 Egret species can still be found around the reserve along with the usual wildfowl, waders apart from Lapwing and a couple of Golden Plover are non existent at the moment. The reed beds are quiet now just the occasional Bearded Tit and Marsh Harriers quartering them. In the bushes Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps and Tit parties are all that's left, hopefully soon the Crests, Thrushes and Finches will arrive.

Red-throated Diver past the fishing boats today

This angler reeled in several nice Bass, but he wasn't the only one catching them.

Grey seal with a Bass

Young Great Black-backed Gull keeping a respectful distance from those teeth.

Common Buzzard on a young Mute Swan carcas

Blackcap at Galloways

03/10/2023

Juvenile Sparrowhawk, this bird came in off the sea and landed on the beach in front the hide, it looks like it has a British ring on but I am unable to read it, it could even be a Dungeness bird that had been hunting tired migrants out at sea in the same way Merlins and Peregrines do.

This mornings sea watch was a vast improvement to the last few days, though I'm sure it will get better as month goes on.

8.00-09.15

Gadwall: 10E

Common Scoter: 11W    4E

Great-crested Grebe: 1W      1E

Kittiwake: 13W 

Little Gull: 3W 

Mediterranean Gull: 26W

Sandwich Tern: 25W   

Great Skua: 1W  

Arctic Skua: 5W   1E       1 present

Guillemot: 8W        1E

Razorbill: 41W

Auk sp: 309W

Red-throated Diver: 2W

Gannet: 222W       6E      

Cormorant: Present n/c

Merlin: 1 in off

Sparrowhawk 1 in off

Peregrine: 1 in off

Swallow: 11 out

Meadow Pipit: 8 out

Wheatear: 1 in front of hide

Juvenile Wheatear on the beach in front of the sea watch hide

Juvenile Pallid Harrier hunting over Lydd Fields

I'd just finished sorting through my moth traps after the sea watch when a message from Richard via the local WhatsApp that a Ring-tail Harrier was heading south over the ARC, moments later another message from James that the bird was over the top of the Long Pits, followed quickly by another message that it was heading back to the ARC, then another message from Richard that it was heading towards the airport, by this time I was already in my driveway frantically scanning the fields, then it came into view albeit very distantly hunting the fields opposite Cockles Bridge, even from this distant view I could tell that it was a Pallid/Montys Harrier, I put the news out, then drove to Cockles Bridge, in the couple of minutes it took me to get there the bird had disappeared. I then moved onto Boulderwall for a more panoramic view, in the mean time Owen, John, Richard and James had arrived at Cockles Bridge and saw it drop into a Kale field at the back of Hookers by the track to Lydd, we made our way there, after walking a short distance up the track the bird came out of the field, giving great views and photographic opportunities to clinch the ID as juvenile Pallid Harrier.

01/10/2023

A lovely warm morning, with the down side that the low autumn sun making sea watching in the morning quite difficult.

08.00-09.15 from the sea watch hide today

Brent Goose: 7W

Common Scoter: 12W    

Great-crested Grebe: 3 present

Kittiwake: 26W  

Mediterranean Gull: 12W

Sandwich Tern: 10W   

Great Skua: 1W  

Arctic Skua: 7W   1E

Guillemot: 1W

Razorbill: 23W

Auk sp: 34W

Gannet: 40E   34W      

Cormorant: Present n/c

Swallow: c300 out

Meadow Pipit: c100 out

Harbour Porpoise: 1

Grey Seal: 1

As has been the case for for seemingly forever the ARC and Boulderwall have been the most interesting, with Little Stints, Ruff, Common Snipe, Garganey, Glossy Ibis, the 3 species of Egrets, Hobby, etc. Though Burrowes has been hosting a Curlew Sandpiper from the Firth Fence, Apart from Great Black-backed Gulls and the odd Yellow-legged Gull few Gulls have been coming to Burrowes to roost.

A Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs can be found just about anywhere on the peninsular, a Dartford warbler has been residing in The Desert and decent numbers of Hirundines have been passing through but little of note.

2 Little Stints from Hanson Hide

Garganey from Hanson hide

Glossy Ibisfrom Hanson hide

29/09/2023

This Little Stint has now been present for week

The last few days have been rather poor avian wise considering the time of year, apart from large numbers of Hirundines moving South passerines and waders have been few and far between, even the sea has been quiet the few days and don't think it will improve this weekend looking at the weather forecast. The Glossy Ibis and Cattle Egrets and Great Egrets continue to show reasonably well, lets hope something else turns up this weekend.

Curlew Sandpiper from the Firth Fence

Great White Egret from Dennis's