Spoonbills in Kent

With not much happening locally on the bird front, we decided to spend the morning in Kent and headed for Dungeness this morning.

Arriving shortly after 6.30 we started with a brief sea-watch. As expected it was very quiet. Gannets were regularly seen passing by. Sandwich and Common Terns were seen but only in small numbers and only a handful of Auks were seen.

We headed for the observatory and while Brian tucked himself away with the camera, I went off looking to add Black Redstart to the year list. I walked the power station perimeter fence scanning for any movement, but was a little hesitant when a police patrol car appeared inside the fence. It was probably just a routine patrol and didn't approach me at any point.

After returning to the car, I scanned the wires again and eventually found a single Black Redstart perched up on the barbed wire within the compound. On the drive back along the entrance track on the observatory another two birds were seen.

After a tip off that there had been a couple of Spoonbill present on pools near Scotney GP's, we headed in that direction hoping to connect and add another year tick.

Pulling into the farm entrance, we scanned the pools but only found Little Egrets present. Brian scanned the pits themselves and spotted a couple of likely looking targets. A quick scan with the scope and the presence of two Spoonbills are confirmed.

After driving further along the road, we managed to get a little closer to them, but they still remained distant. At first they were as is usual asleep, but they did wake briefly and I grabbed a few record shots.