30/05/2018 Dungeness for a Double!

Wednesday 30th May 2018
Dungeness, Kent

After a fruitless search for Honey Buzzards on the Ashdown Forest in the morning, I picked up an alert re a Great Reed Warbler seen at the ARC Hanson hide at Dungeness.  I was in two minds about going as I had still to walk the dogs and I also had to prepare for the RSPB May meeting in the evening.

As the warbler would be a first for me in the UK, I decided to dash down there - a decision that paid huge dividends.

• Thankfully it was still there and showing well at the top of the reeds just 30 metres to the left of the hide.  It was pointed out to me by no less a person than Plodding Birder - sporting his brand new Swarovski BTX Binocular Telescope!  As he said though, there was really no need for any optical aids at all as the bird was so close you could see it with the naked eye.  This is a bird you also want to hear singing and sure enough it duly obliged.

Great Reed Warbler at Dungeness

courtesy of Terry Laws and Twitter

• The great reed warbler breeds in Europe and westernmost temperate Asia. It does not breed in Great Britain, but is a regular visitor. 
• Its population has in recent decades increased around the eastern Baltic Sea, while it has become rarer at the western end of its range. 
• It is a migratory bird, wintering in tropical Africa. This bird migrates north at a rather late date, and some birds remain in their winter quarters until the end of April.

Plodding Birder and his friends then gave me up-to-date information about the whereabouts of the Rose-coloured Starling that had also been seen again.  It was near the entrance to the reserve, close to the house on the Kerton Road side.  When I arrived the starling had just dropped down behind some bushes and was in a gulley, temporarily out of sight.

• After waiting for 30 minutes or so I rang home to find that Sue was handling the situation with the dogs so I decided to stay longer.  Soon the bird reappeared and we enjoyed cracking views.  This made up for the failure I experienced on the Pevensey Levels a few days earlier. 

Rose-coloured Starling at Dungeness

courtesy of Dungeness Bird Observatory

A bit of a dash but well worth it - and I still got back in good time to make the evening meeting!