01/11/2023

Some of the 3,000+ Gannets that moved west past Dungeness today

The sea watch hide was rocking a bit today in the gale force winds but was still intact at the end of today, 🤞for tonight and tomorrow. The table below shows the result of 7 hours sea watching today.

 

One of the Sooty Shearwaters

The juvenile Sabine's Gull spent some time off the fishing boats this afternoon

                                                               Juvenile Sabine's Gull

Juvenile Sabine's Gull

Common Tern at the fishing boats this afternoon

1w Caspian Gull (on the right) with a Herring Gull for comparison

The fishing boats late afternoon

Peregrine over the car park this morning

This mornings sea watch with RW, 

07.45-09.00

Brent Goose: 90W       10E

Common Scoter: 2W    5E

Velvet Scoter: 2W

Great-crested Grebe: 2 Present

Kittiwake:43W    

Little Gull: 22W 

Mediterranean Gull: 5W

Great Black-backed Gull: 88 present

Arctic Skua:  1 present

Razorbill: 107W      

Auk sp: 160W

Red-throated Diver: 4W     3E

Gannet: 158W 

Cormorant: 94 present

Harbour Porpoise: 2

Grey Seal: 1

A walk around the The Desert and trapping area produced 3 Swallow, a male Merlin, a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a handful each of Redpoll, Siskin, Skylark, Reed Bunting & c150 Goldfinch over of note.

This afternoon at the fishing boats a few Sandwich Terns were the pick of poor showing, but sods law not long after I left the juvenile Sabine's Gull showed up again. The Black-necked Grebe was again at Scotney viewed from the double bends per CT, on Burrowes 420 Golden Plover, 26 Dunlin, a Grey Plover, a Knot and 2 Goldeneye.

Sandwich Terns

Yesterday at the fishing boats this interesting Stercorarius Skua, interesting mainly due to its wing moult.

The now seemingly resident 3 amigos at Cooks Pool, Boulderwall enjoying the rain.

The 2 Whooper Swans at the southern end of the ARC

29/10/2023

This afternoons lovely juvenile Sabine's Gull as it came past the fishing boats

Another day spent mostly sea watching, by the look of this coming weeks forecast I will be spending a lot more time looking at the sea. On the reserve the Whoopers have gone back to the Southern end of the ARC, the 3 Glossy Ibis were still at Boulderwall along with up to 5 Cattle Egrets also Little and Great Egrets, a few waders were on Burrowes but nothing new, the usual wildfowl were on the ARC. Take care when going to the ARC car park as the track to the car park is completely flooded at the moment, hopefully it will subside tonight.

07.00-10.00 & 13.30-15.30 with RW, SO, DW, OL

Brent Goose: 9W

Common Scoter: 8W    14E

Great-crested Grebe: 2W      7 Present

Kittiwake: 25W 

Sabine's Gull: 1W Juvenile   

Little Gull: 28W 

Mediterranean Gull: 2W

Common Gull: 9W

Great Black-backed Gull: 135W

Sandwich Tern: 48W

Great skua: 1W

Arctic Skua: 1W

Skua sp: 1W 

Razorbill: 62W  

Guillemot: 28W     

Auk sp: 168W

Red-throated Diver: 1W     1 present 

Balearic Shearwater: 2W 

Shearwater sp: 1W

Gannet: 2,027W 

Starling: 200W 

Harbour Porpoise: 1

Juvenile Sabine's Gull

As we left the fishing boats late afternoon this Rock Pipit was foraging at the back of the beach, although not a rare bird, I very seldom see them on the ground at Dungeness.

28/10/2023

 

Brent Geese passing the Bouy

Sooty Shearwater over the stormy sea at Dungeness this morning

Sea watching is improving due to this stormy weather, the downside is the islands on Burrowes and the ARC are rapidly submerging.

08.15-11.00 with RW and OL

Brent Goose: 563W

Shelduck: 2W

Common Scoter: 26W

Turnstone: 2 on beach

Dunlin: 40W

Kittiwake: 98E    

Little Gull: 41W 

Black-headed Gull: 18W

Mediterranean Gull: 1W     2 present

Common Gull: 4W

Great Black-backed Gull: 64W

Sandwich Tern: 18W

Common Tern: 1W

Arctic Skua: 3W

Skua sp: 1W 

Razorbill: 833W  

Guillemot: 11W       1 present

Auk sp: 142W

Red-throated Diver: 5W  

Sooty Shearwater: 4W

Balearic Shearwater: 3W 

Gannet: 2,224W 

Cormorant: 86W 

Starling: 300W 

Harbour Porpoise: 2

Arctic Skua having a crack at at a Mediterranean Gull

Arctic skua from the fishing boats this afternoon

The 3 Glossy Ibis were still strutting around the Boulderwall fields this afternoon

27/10/2023

Goldfinches are abundant around the peninsular at the moment

Todays sea watch was surprisingly much better than of late, considering the constant heavy showers this morning.

08.15-10.00 from the sea watch hide.

Brent Goose: 100W

Wigeon: 8W

Common Scoter: 16W   4E

Great-crested Grebe: 2  present

Sanderling: 6W

Dunlin: 46W

Knot: 1W  

Kittiwake: 25E    

Little Gull: 26W 

Black-headed Gull: 29W

Mediterranean Gull: 24W

Common Gull: 21W

Great Black-backed Gull: 48W

Lesser Black-backed Gull: 6W

Sandwich Tern: 1W

Arctic Skua: 1W 

Razorbill: 1,620W  

Guillemot: 14W 

Auk sp: 146W

Red-throated Diver: 1W   

Gannet: 207W   

Harbour Porpoise: 2

A sound recording of a Siberian Chiffchaff along the track to Hanson this afternoon

The 2 Whooper Swans were back at the ARC today with all the usual Egrets and wildfowl, at Burrowes 200+ Golden Plover, 8 Grey Plover, 16 Dunlin, a Ruff and a Yellow-legged Gull of note

Black-necked Grebe at Scotney this afternoon viewed from the double bends. The sward was covered in 100s of Greylag, Canada and Egyptian Geese also 3 Barnacle Geese and a single Brent Goose.

At Boulderwall the 3 Glossy Ibis were still strutting there stuff along with at least 3 Cattle Egrets

26/10/2023

This Sanderling briefly alighted on the beach at the fishing boats this afternoon

I have been a a little lax with my posts lately, in my defence as you can see below the sea hasn't been very productive despite some excellent conditions for sea migration.

08.00-09.00  Wind SE 5 with showers

Brent Goose: 195W

Wigeon: 9W

Common Scoter: 3W   

Kittiwake: 9E     

Mediterranean Gull: 20 present

Sandwich Tern: 4W

Great Skua: 1E 

Razorbill: 283W   

Auk sp: 114W      27E

Gannet: 32W   103E

In the lighthouse garden this morning there were 2 Chiffchaffs and 4 Goldcrests.

Goldcrest in the lighthouse garden

Walking around The Desert and Trapping Area this week I've heard a lot more Siskins, Redpolls, Brambling, Chaffinches, Skylarks, Reed Buntings and Meadow Pipits etc than I've seen, Thrushes have and are still as good as absent, hopefully some will arrive in the coming days, one of the highlights for me was my first Short-eared Owl of the autumn over the TA. Starlings also have not arrived.

A flyover Woodlark from the weekend

A Golden Plover over The Desert earlier this week

Just a trickle of Swallows and House Martins moving south over the peninsula this week

The 2 Whooper Swans can usually be found on the ARC though today they did visit Denge Marsh, this image was taken when they were feeding in front of Hanson Hide.

My highest count so far this autumn of Golden Plovers was 265 on Burrowes, usually a Ruff can be found with them.

The 3 Amigos are often to be found strutting there stuff by Cooks Pool like today

There are usually 3+ Cattle Egrets around Boulderwall

This Spotted Redshank was a surprise at the ARC a couple of days ago

20/10/2023

Unsurprisingly this mornings sea watch with Richard was very poor and abandoned after a fruitless hour. A wander around the trapping area was just as fruitless, apart from Siskins and Redpoll flocks, a Yellow-browed Warbler briefly at the old lighthouse garden found by SM, had disappeared by the time I arrived.

A check of the southern end of the ARC on my way home for breakfast saw the 2 Whooper Swans.

The Whooper Swans have now relocated to the southern end of the ARC where they spent most of last winter.
 

An aberrant Golden Plover at Burrowes

 The 3 Glossy Ibis were at Boulderwall. At Burrowes all 3 Egret Species, a Polish ringed 1w Caspian Gull, an adult Yellow-legged Gull, Golden Plovers, a Ruff and the usual wildfowl.

At the fishing boats this afternoon a confiding Red-throated Diver and c50 Mediterranean Gulls but little else of note.

Some of the 60+ Goldfinches currently coming in to my garden to feed.

19/10/2023

As a blustery force 6-7 southerly wind was blowing this morning I felt sure we would be in for a good sea watch, sadly again this was not the case. 600+ Gannets were seen but I was expecting many more, not a single Shearwater and only a one Arctic Skua, this afternoon from the fishing boats was even poorer.

Common Tern

One of several Red-throated Divers seen today

On the reserve at Burrowes, a single Spoonbill, a Goldeneye, 10 Grey Plover, c150 Golden Plover, 21 Dunlin, 2 Knot, a Redshank, a Ruff and fly through juvenile Little Gull were the highlights.

Spoonbill at Burrowes today

Grey Plover, Knot and Dunlin

A fly through juvenile Little Gull this afternoon at Burrowes