Sea watching is still poor at Dungeness but I feel it will pick up noticeably very soon. Good numbers of Willow Warblers have been making up the bulk of the birds birds being trapped and ringed, with smaller numbers of Common and Lesser Whitethroats, Blackcaps, Garden Warblers, Reed and Sedge Warblers. Several Pied flycatchers, a Spotted Flycatcher and a Redstart have also been caught. There have been several Wheatears present and a couple of Whinchats, a Black redstart was singing from the power station fence today. Sand martins and swallows with a fewer House Martins are continuing to dribble through, a Ring Tail Hen Harrier flew put to sea yesterday.
I went all around the reserve this morning, I saw very little on Burrowes, I can't understand why the waders are not coming there, the islands are looking good and I honestly don't believe the issue with the hides is the reason the waders are not coming to Burrowes. While I was at Makepiece Jacob called to say a Honey Buzzard was over the trapping area, from my position I had a great view of the area in good light, but after several minutes of constant scanning I was unable to spot it.
The hay fields are unsurprisingly bone dry so there was no real avian interesting them apart from a flock of c20 Yellow wagtails among the cattle.
Dengemarsh now has some nice islands and muddy margins, there I saw 2 Wood Sandpipers, 3 Green Sandpipers, 5 Common Sandpipers, 4 Greenshank, several Common Snipe, 4 Glossy Ibis and 4 Great White Egrets of note.
The ARC Pit viewed from Hanson Hide has undoubtedly been the best place to see birds on the peninsula, with 17 species of wader noted in the last 2 days including Little Stint and Spotted Redshank, also 6 species of Heron including Glossy Ibis. The views of some of the birds have quite superb with many visitors enjoying the views.
The Glossy Ibis have been superbly confiding in front of Hanson
Little Egrets enjoying the mud in front of Hanson
The Snipe have also been confiding showing there wonderfully cryptic plumage
Flocks of 4 and 5 Spoonbills were short staying visitors
Green Sandpipers have been frequent visitors to Hanson
Common Sandpipers have been quite numerous at times
The Black-tailed Godwits have been very entertaining with their constant chattering
At Least 2 Ruff are usually present from Hanson
4 Greenshanks did a tour of the reserve today
! of the 8 Cattle Egrets that are usually at Boulderwall but drop into the ARC to roost
