Dartford Warblers at Dungeness

An early morning trip to Dungeness was the order of the day.

There had been reports recently of a Dartford Warbler seen in the scrub around the Britannia Pub. Arriving shortly after 7am and with the likely looking areas bordering the road, we decided to scan from the car. A period of driving, stopping and scanning followed. Eventually, I located a Stonechat in the gorse and thinking the Dartford Warbler may be feeding in their company we concentrated the search in this area. A pair of Stonechat popped up onto the top of the gorse and then Brian spotted the Dartford Warbler feeding low in a channel close to the roadside.

Stonechat

Dartford Warbler

A second Dartford Warbler had also been reported earlier in the week and it eventually appeared close to the bird we were watching, but it failed to show well enough to grab a photo of both birds together.

On the way home, we stopped at Elmley and tried to locate the reported six Jack Snipe. The report had said "At least six on the right after the last cattle grid towards the car park" But this area was clearly not suitable. We drove back down the track scanning more suitable areas,  but we failed to locate any of the birds. Several Buzzards were seen perched on various posts either side of the entrance track, and a Marsh Harrier and Merlin were also seen. At the entrance, a small covey of Red-legged partridge were seen feeding in a recently ploughed area of the field.