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. 

04/08/2021

A couple of sea watches today enjoying the warm still conditions. 07.00-08.50 & 12.00-15.30

thanks to AJG, RW & JA for collating the numbers. 

Brent Goose: 13W

Shelduck: 5W   9E

Mallard: 30W    single flock of 28 the largest flock I've seen on a sea watch here

Common Scoter: 43W   7E

Fulmar: 3W  2E

Balearic Shearwater: 3W

Grey Heron: 2W

Gannet: 56W    4E

Cormorant: 13W

Oystercatcher: 11W

Whimbrel: 1W    1E

Kittiwake: 4W

Sandwich tern: 132W     6E

Commic tern: 19W

Sand Martin: 336 out to sea

Swallow: 10 out

Grey Seal: 2

Harbour Porpoise: 6

Thresher Shark: seen by JA 

Linnet at Bretts Marina

Very Quiet at Dungeness at the moment, with no wader habitat the highlights were the 2 Garganey still on the ARC today.

Juvenile Yellow Wagtail at Dengemarsh

The fist Jersey Tiger in the trap this year

1st & 2nd August 2021

A newly fledged Bearded Tit at Dengemarsh

Yesterdays walk around the reserve saw all the usual reed bed species and heard some Water Rail, the only waders were 2 Ruff on Burrowes and a few Lapwing and Oystercatchers.

From beside the screen at the ARC 2 Garganey could be seen along with a Green and Common Sandpiper. Apart from the 3 Balearic Shearwaters early morning the sea watching was abysmal.

There are still plenty of Sedge Warblers around the reserve

Cattle Egret in Hay Field 3 yesterday

Ruff at  Firth yesterday

 

Juvenile Little Egret picking insects off the Kale along the power station fence line today

Walking up the shingle to The Patch hide

Apart from the Little Egret and Black Redstart little was seen at The Patch and just a handful each of Gannets, Kittiwakes and Terns feeding off shore.

Behind the hide

Flying into A station

Meadow Pipit with bling in The Desert

The only notable sightings in The Desert and trapping area were 3 Wheatears and juvenile Marsh Harrier.

Greater White-fronted Goose at Scotney

A check of Scotney for the Caspian tern that made a fleeting visit to Dengemarsh found a summering Greater White-fronted Goose, 12 Common Sandpipers, 2 Green Sandpipers, 13, Dunlin, 5 Avocets,  a Culew and a few each of Yellow Wagtail and Corn Bunting.

Juvenile Wheatear at The Midrips

Avocets and Sandwich Terns at The Midrips

An evening visit to The Midrips saw c50 Sandwich Terns, 34 Avocet, 4 Whimbrel, 5 Dunlin, 2 Common Sandpipers, a couple of newly fledged Wheatears but no Carrot Bill.

Dunlin at The Midrips

31/07/2021

Very thin fare for this mornings early morning sea watch

06.00-07.30 from the sea watch hide with AJG who kindly collated the numbers

Common Scoter: 9E

Gannet: 39W       6E 

Cormorant: 5W

Oystercatcher: 1W

Whimbrel: 3W

Kittiwake: 24W

Mediterranean Gull: 1W  juvenile

Sandwich Tern: 13W

Common Tern: 2W

After the sea watch we walked down to The Patch where there was c100 each of Black-headed and Herring Gulls, 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and a single Common Tern.

Juvenile Common Whitethroats at the Red and White gates car park this morning

Common Blue

A walk around The Desert and Long Pits found 2 Black Restarts at West Beach,  a single Willow Warbler, a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a couple of Blackcap still singing, a tacking Lesser Whitethroat and more Common Whitethroats. A single Clouded Yellow and 2 Painted Ladies were seen otherwise it was very quiet.  

                                                                    Marbled White

1 of 2 Arctic Skuas past the fishing boats this afternoon

14.30-16.00 at the fishing boats

Fulmar: 1W

Gannet: 21W

Cormorant: 3W

Dunlin: 12W

Sanderling: 14W

Whimbrel: 3W

Kittiwake: 37W

Sandwich Tern: 29W

Common Tern: 21W

Arctic Skua: 2W

Auk sp: 1W

Sand Martin: 14 out

Grey seal: 2

Harbour Porpoise: 3+

A late afternoon visit to Scotney found 8 Green Sandpipers, 2 Common Sandpipers and a Whimbrel.

Kittiwakes passing this afternoon

 

30/07/2021

Juvenile Mediterranean Gull

05.30-10.45 with AJG & CP who assisted in collating the numbers,  joined by OL & PT,

Common Scoter: 20W    48E

Fulmar: 4E       1W

Balearic Shearwater: 17W

Gannet: 411W       120E

Cormorant: 13W

Oystercatcher: 2W    6E

Whimbrel: 13W

Curlew: 8W

Dunlin: 2W

Kittiwake: 15W

Mediterranean Gull: 1W      5E

Sandwich tern: 23W    2E

Common Tern: 19W

Arctic Skua: 3W

Swift: 2 out

Sand Martin: 9 out

Porpoise: 4

Kittiwake

some of the 100s of Pochard summering on the ARC

 Late morning early afternoon c500 Swifts moved West also a Black-tailed Godwit also a single Black-tailed Godwit. At the same time several 1,000 Swifts moved west across the Peninsula.

PT did a circuit of the reserve and reported no waders or Terns on Burrowes, just a Cattle Egret on the Boulderwall Fields.

Terrible image of a Balearic Shearwater in mountainous seas off the fishing boats this afternoon

The only way to capture an image was to scattergun the camera along the horizon and hope the Shearwater comes out of trough while you're holding the trigger down.

13.15-16.15 from the fishing boats joined by DS, JTM & OL,

Common Scoter: 2E          35W

Great-crested Grebe: 1 present

Fulmar: 4W

Balearic Shearwater: 2E     2W

Gannet: 22E    72W

Cormorant: 3W

Kittiwake: 3E    8W

Yellow-legged Gull: 4 present all juveniles

Sandwich Tern: 8W

Little Tern: 2 present

Common Tern: 13W

Swift: 108 out

Wheatear: 1 present

Harbour Porpoise: 4+

Grey Seal: 1

At least 4 juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls came to the fishing boats this afternoon

A Dark Sword-grass an uncommon visitor to my trap

 

28/07/2021

The heavy showers this morning meant sea watching from the comfort of the hide was the only option, as expected it wasn't a brilliant watch, but if you're not looking you're not going to see.

05.30-09.15 Thanks to AJG for collating the numbers.

Common Scoter: 10E     17W

Gannet: 18E      159W

Cormorant: 6W

Kittiwake: 9W

Mediterranean Gull: 3E

Sandwich Tern: 26W        4E

Common Tern: 3W

Sand Martin: 34W

Grey Seal: 1

Harbour Porpoise: 1

Juvenile Yellow-legged Gull at the fishing boats this afternoon

14.00-16.00 from the fishing boats joined by CP, OL, JTM

Common Scoter: 4E

Gannet: 3W  

Cormorant: 4E

Sanderling: 29W

Dunlin: 5W

Kittiwake: 1W

Yellow-legged Gull: 2 juveniles

Sandwich Tern: 12 feeding off shore

Common Tern: 9W including my first juvenile of the year.

Swift: 67 out

Sand Martin: 2 out

Swallow: 2 out

Grey Seal; 1

Harbour Porpoise: 2

Sanderling and Dunlin at the fishing boats

 

27/07/2021

 AJG did several sea watches today, the undoubted highlight was a party of 22 Brent Geese moving West, a very early date for returning birds, I'm guessing they are failed breeders, hopefully they are not a portent to the rest of the population. Wheatear by the Polish War memorial 

A wander down to The Patch saw 1 juvenile Black Redstart fly catching from the wall with several Pied Wagtails. I checked the boil and roost for juvenile Yellow-legged Gull but no luck, its certainly unusual not to have seen one by now.

A wander around the trapping area was predictably quiet, just a Wheatear of any note. DW trapped a Willow Warbler in The Moat and DB had 2 in his garden first thing, a few Sand Martins trickled through.

Normally this time of year where this Great White Egret is feeding would be an island, which gives some idea of how high water levels are at the moment. A walk around the reserve saw the usual Marsh Harriers and Egrets but little else. No change at the ARC.

On the wall by the MV this Beautiful Hook-tip is a scarce visitor to my trap, unlike the Ethmia bipunctella next to it which is very common here.