08/03/2015 Dungeness with the Ashdown Bird Group

Sunday 8th March 2015
Dungeness
Ashdown Bird Group

Sue and I, together with friends Anne and Chris, made a rare appearance with our Ashdown Bird Group.  In bright sunshine but with a fair breeze, 10 of us ventured around Dungeness NR.

• The bird of the day for me was the lovely drake Goldeneye that we saw near the end of the trip from ARC Hanson Hide.  With it's exquisite iridescent green head and white circular patch in front of, and below, it's yellow eye it made a superb view.

• On the same line, the Kingfisher we saw from Scott Hide showed brilliantly in optimum lighting conditions.

• There were not many Marsh Harriers on view but we did get an exceptional view of one sitting on the banks of the New Excavations from the Christmas Dell Hide and at least one good sighting of the bird in flight over Denge Marsh.

• After a struggle we finally got sight of a Great White Egret just behind the reeds on Hookers Pits then lo and behold if another 2 appeared from nowhere and all 3 then flew away to the south west.

• We had excellent views of the female Smew but the male counterpart was not seen.

We were unable to see any Bitterns on this trip.   Even the Cattle Egrets let us down and were nowhere to be seen on Denge Marsh, despite being seen there earlier in the day.  A stop at Scotney on the way home proved fruitless with the winds getting very strong, there was no sign of the Grebes or the Scaup.  We looked hard for the Little Stint but couldn't find it so I was unable to confirm whether or not the bird I saw on Thursday was the correct one and for now I cannot tick this species as seen in 2015.


A nice leisurely trip to Dungeness, with friends, on a bright but breezy Sunday afternoon - it doesn't get much better than this!


Today's species list:
Barnacle Goose
Bearded Tit (h)
Black-headed Gull
Blackbird
Blue Tit
Carrion Crow
Cetti's Warbler (h)
Chaffinch
Chiffchaff
Coot
Cormorant
Curlew
Gadwall
Golden Plover
Goldeneye
Great Black-backed Gull
Great Crested Grebe
Great Tit
Great White Egret
Canada Goose
Greylag Goose
Herring Gull
Kestrel
Kingfisher
Lapwing
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Little Egret
Little Grebe
Magpie
Mallard
Marsh Harrier
Moorhen
Mute Swan
Oystercatcher
Pheasant
Pied Wagtail
Pochard
Redshank
Reed Bunting
Robin
Shelduck
Shoveler
Smew
Teal
Tree Sparrow
Tufted Duck
Wigeon
Woodpigeon
Wren (h)

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