03/12/2024

Purple Sandpiper at the fishing boats briefly this morning, only just about annual here these days

A better sea watch from the fishing boats this morning, with a Purple Sandpiper being the highlight, rare bird at Dungeness these days, also a minimum of 3 Merlins present on the beach and hunting out at sea.

08.00-09.30 from the Boats with OL

Brent Goose: 7W         8E

Shoveler: 5E

Wigeon: 2W

Teal: 6W

Common Scoter: 4E

Great-crested Grebe: 16E    7 present

Oystercatcher: 17E

Turnstone: 1 present

Sanderling: 1W   16E

Purple Sandpiper: 1E

Sandwich Tern: 2E

Kittiwake: 10W

Black-headed Gull:  present 

Mediterranean Gull: 2W

Common Gull:  present

Herring Gull: present

Great Black-backed Gull: present    

Guillemot: 6E     

Auk: 73W    12E

Red-throated Diver: 153E       26W      

Gannet: 80E   

Cormorant: present n/c

Merlin: 3 present

Grey Seal: 2

Common Seal: 2

A look around the beaches at Dengemarsh Gully and Galloways found 100s of large Gulls but alas I couldn't pick out a Glaucous among them. Yet another Merlin was hunting the beach at Galloways.

I didn't visit the reserve today and I didn't hear of any news from there.

2 of the 3 Merlins present at the fishing boats today, the wire fence is a regular perch for them.

The very active Hume's Warbler showed well occasionally

A local Long-eared Owl was a little shy today

02/12/2024

Another very poor sea watch this morning!

08.00-10.00 from the Boats

Common Scoter: 2E

Great-crested Grebe: 1E    6 present

Oystercatcher: 9E

Turnstone: 2 present

Kittiwake: 27W

Black-headed Gull:  present 

Mediterranean Gull: 4E

Common Gull:  present

Herring Gull: present

Great Black-backed Gull: present  

Lesser Black-backed Gull: 2 present   

Guillemot: 4W      2 on

Auk: 15W    3E

Red-throated Diver: 27E       14W        2 on

Gannet: 85W   

Cormorant: present n/c

Merlin: 1 present

Redpoll: 2 in off

Grey Seal: 2

Common Seal: 1

Things improved with the discovery that the yesterdays Hume's Warbler was still present around the observatory. Although I saw it a number of times in the bushes I failed miserably to get any images and eventually the bird seemed to disappear. I scoured The Moat for it and was just looking into the Heligoland Trap when I heard it call, I eventually located its position in the trap, typically there was no phone signal so quickly went back into the observatory to get David. Thankfully it was still in the Heligoland when we got back and was quickly ushered into the catching box, then processed and released wearing a shiny new ring.

Hume's Warbler

Therefore at least 3 Black Redstarts fly catching from the perimeter wall this afternoon

Black Redstarts

 

01/12/2024

A miserable day on the peninsula started rather well due to a message from David Walker, saying he had heard and seen a Hume's Warbler in the Dungeness Observatory garden. I was already on my way to The Point when I got the message, so just a few minutes later I was at the Observatory where the Hume's Warbler showed and called immediately but briefly, which it did on several occasions, the views being to brief for either of us to get an image of it, fortunately David had deployed his Nocmig and recorded several calls. DG joined us and saw the warbler, soon after it flew to the back garden and disappeared, though it must surely still be nearby. 

The only other news was that the Glaucous Gull was again present at the fishing boats per N Burt & J Burt.

In a relatively poor sea watch a notable 268 Brent Geese in 17 Small flocks flew East in just over an hour and half this morning, surely not the start of the return migration?

Brent Geese from the sea watch hide this morning

08.50-10.30 from the Hide joined by NB & JB

Brent Goose: 268E   (17 small flocks)  

Shelduck: 1E  

Common Scoter: 3E

Great-crested Grebe: 3E    1 present

Kittiwake: 19E        3W

Black-headed Gull:  present 

Mediterranean Gull: 3W

Common Gull:  17E

Herring Gull: present

Great Black-backed Gull:present     

Guillemot: 14W       3E

Auk: 315W    16E

Red-throated Diver: 5W   2E      2 on

Gannet: 206W    117E

Cormorant: present n/c

Grey Seal: 2

Gannets from the hide

More Brent Geese from the hide