Dungeness. A few birds and a few drama's!

A late "local" trip instead turned into a 180 mile round trip to Dungeness!

Leaving home at 11am we set off hoping to connect with the Glaucous Gull which had been present for a few days. Rain fell for most of the journey and as we neared Dungeness the first drama was lack of Diesel in the car. Luckily there was a garage within site and between the car stalling and restarting across several sets of traffic lights we managed to crawl into the petrol station!

On arrival at Dungeness beach we scanned the sea and picked out several Kittiwakes for a year tick. There were continuous groups of a Guillemots moving through and among them were a few Razorbills for another year tick.

We made our way towards the Observatory checking all the wire fences and buildings for any Black Redstarts and were rewarded with a single bird perched up on the barb wire within the power station.

We returned to the gull roosts near the fishing boats and scanned each bird hoping the Glauc would be among them. There was no sign of the Glauc, but the Caspian Gull duly appeared.

Then more drama as the car failed to start and after several attempts to start it the AA had to be called out. An hour or so later and with the light almost now gone there was still no sign of the Glaucous Gull among the pre-roost. Luckily the AA had by now turned up and it wasn't long before we were up and running again. Just to end the day a guy decided to walk through the roosting gulls and flush the lot. Ending the last hope of locating the white winger among them.

Caspian Gull (from earlier trip)

Year list stands at 143 at the end of the first month.