An Excellent Day at Dungeness!

A thoroughly dull bitingly cold day turned out to be a brilliant birding day at Dungeness. It was well worth braving the the cold at fishing boats this morning to witness the best sea watch of the year so far.

 1 of 10 Great Skua's that passed the fishing boats this morning

08-10-11.10 in the company of RW & DW.
Brent Goose: 88 up.    4 down
Shelduck: 2 up
Gadwall: 2 up
Pintail: 5 up
Wigeon: 63 up
Teal: 18 up
Common Scoter: 13 up.  5 down
Velvet Scoter: 1 up
Red-throated Diver: 234 up
Great-crested Grebe: 447 up
Fulmar: 5 up
Gannet: 156 up
Dunlin: 2 up
Great Skua: 10 up
Mediterranean Gull: 9 up
Caspian Gull: regular 1w bird
Kittiwake: 289 up
Guillemot: 2,755 up
Razorbill: 1,181 up
Grey Seal: 1 around
Common Seal: 2 around

Late morning/early afternoon while I was at The Patch looking for white wingers and colour rings, I was joined by 2 Foxes which sat just a few feet from me on top the newly dumped shingle, then proceeded to have a fight and run amok on the beach scattering the 1,000s of assembled Gulls Grrrrrr! 

Although I didn't find any northern white wingers I did see 3 Mediterranean Gulls, a 1w Caspian Gull, another Great Skua and many more Red-throated divers, Great-crested Grebes and Auks.

An early afternoon drive down Dengemarsh lane I managed to find 6 White-fronted Geese  reported by RW among the Greylag flock. On the fields opposite Herons Park c300 Lapwing with c100 Stock Doves.
From the reserve entrance track of note c400 Golden Plover, 14 Curlew, a Great white Egret and a little Egret.
Late afternoon on the reserve the islands on Burrowes were black with Cormorants, David Walker made the sacrifice and counted them getting an astonishing total of 5,700!!!  A 1w Glaucous Gull, a 1w Caspian Gull and a Mediterranean Gull were also on Burrowes among 100s of Herring, Black Headed and Great Black-backed Gulls, along with 10 Goosander and at least 4 Goldeneye and the usual wildfowl.

Shooting lures at Dengmarsh yesterday