Rye Harbour and Dungeness

Thursday 18th August 2022

Martin and I with Mark and Elizabeth

Rye Harbour

First stop was Rye Harbour.  The fine sunny weather had brought out the tourists but this did not detract from the fine birding we experienced.

• Pick of the day were the wheatears which were a delight to see on the shingle by the main path from the car park out to the sea.  They were ubiquitous!

• There was also a good presence of wagtails including both grey and yellow varieties as well as the common pied.

Waders were there too!

• We had some lovely close views of a couple of knot and several greenshanks. as well as the usual ringed plovers 

Dungeness

We had lunch at Dungeness, in the main car park, before entering the reserve.  This was my first visit since ???? and my first chance to visit the ARC Hanson Hide since it reopened after the pandemic.  Alas it was not to be as the hide was closed due to essential work being carried out to build up the islands to ensure that they were not submerged in winter when the water levels were at their highest.  So we set off round the main reserve, now a shadow of it's former self with only 3 hides remaining - the rest having been replaced by the controversial lookouts.

We moved quickly from lookout to lookout until we reached Denge Marsh Hide where most of the action was. 

• We saw a fantastic 6 glossy ibis' on the far side of the water.  They were quite mobile but always visible.

• Not to be outdone, 5 great white egrets joined the show.  The picture below gives a good comparison with the little egret.

• Apart from a couple of waders that was all there was.
• Mark and Elizabeth saw a Marsh Harrier.
• With time running out, we headed back to the cars before the 5 o clock lockup, catching sight of a hobby, a kestrel and a sparrowhawk on the way.   
• Finally we drove round to the  power station  and walked to the hide, by the patch, to look for black redstarts.  Sadly there were none showing.

A really good day out with a variety of birds on show and, of course, some excellent company.

All pictures courtesy of Martin Jeffree

Year total - 204