12/11/2014 Dungeness and another birding bonanza!

Wednesday 12th November 2014
Dungeness
with Brian and Paul

The highlight of Brian's visit was always going to be a trip to Dungeness and despite a slow start it lived up to expectations. 

We left Uckfield at 06.30 to start our day with some seawatching from the fishing boats.  We joined Plodding Birder and 4 others in dry but blustery conditions.  Paul had high hopes after yesterday afternoon's report of a Leach's Petrel and 9 Pomarine Skuas.  Although we managed to spot a distant Pomarine Skua and a small group of Red-breasted Mergansers, things turned out to be very quiet.  We then went in search of a Black Redstart for Brian but the conditions were unfavourable and we didn't see any.

Around 10.00 we decided that it was time to pick up the tempo and see some interesting birds so we headed for the ARC Hanson Hide.  On the way we saw our first Great White Egret of the day. At the hide we quickly located the Slavonian Grebe

Slavonian Grebe
Library picture

and soon afterwards we found a second one.  There were several Goldeneye around including both sexes.  Our star item however was the female Smew seen at the far end of the water.  This lovely redhead had only been here a few days and we were a bit surprised to see it so early in the winter. 




Female Smew - a" Redhead"

Paul spotted the first Spotted Redshank of the day on one of the few islands remaining after the recent heavy rainfall. 

 

Spotted Redshank
Library picture

On the reserve we found another 2 Spotted Redshanks and 7 Greenshanks.  The next "big" event was our sighting of the Cattle Egret in the fields adjacent to the Denge Hide.  

Cattle Egret
Library picture

  Quite soon after we were afforded superb views of a Bittern flying across us.  Then a stunning female Merlin flew ahead of us, leaving us gobsmacked. 

Merlin (f)
Library picture

By this time we were joking of having seen Cattle Egrets and Great White Egrets but no Little Egrets; this was corrected on the way back to the centre when we saw up to 3 of them and a further 4 Great White's flying over the water before settling on the edge. 

We ended the day on Walland Marsh where the star species were the Marsh Harriers and the fleeting views we got of the Bearded Tits in the reeds in front of us.   


Today's species list:

Barnacle Goose

Bearded Tit

Bittern

Blackbird

Blackcap

Black-headed Gull

Blue Tit

Barnacle Goose Bearded Tit Bittern   (10) Blackbird Blackcap Black-headed Gull Blue Tit Brent Goose Buzzard Carrion Crow Cattle Egret Cetti's Warbler Chaffinch   (20) Chiffchaff Collared Dove Coot Cormorant Dunnock Fieldfare Gadwall Gannet Goldcrest Golden Plover   (30) Goldeneye Goldfinch Great Black-backed Gull Great Crested Grebe Great Tit Great White Egret Great-spotted Woodpecker Greenshank Grey Heron Herring Gull   (40) House Sparrow Kestrel Kingfisher Lapwing Little Egret Long-tailed Tit Magpie Mallard Marsh Harrier Meadow Pipit   (50) Merlin Mistle Thrush Moorhen Mute Swan Peregrine Pied Wagtail Pintail Pochard Pomarine Skua Raven   (60) Red-breasted Merganser Redwing Reed Bunting Robin Rook Shoveler Slavonian Grebe Smew Song Thrush Spotted Redshank   (70) Starling Teal Tree Sparrow Tufted Duck Water Rail Wigeon Woodpigeon Wren

Paul can't be with us for Brian's final day tomorrow so what a send off he arranged with some stunning birds including no fewer than 4 "lifers" for Brian.