Leisurely birding the Dungeness area

An unexpected message from Brian this morning had us heading for Dungeness. We headed for the beach for a casual seawatch with no real targets in mind. The sea was tranquil as was expected, and the only birds seen in any numbers were Gannets and Sandwich Terns. Brian managed to pick out an Arctic Skua a long way out and I picked it out as it passed in front of one of the ships on the horizon. With the sea so quiet we turned our attention to the power station compound. Movement on the compound wall alerted us to two Wheatear and a Whinchat. A Raven was found resting on the top of one of the buildings and a Sparrowhawk was seen flying through the compound, where it must have caught something as it was seen struggling with its prey on the other side of the fence. As we resumed the seawatch a flock of more than a hundred Sand Martins came past the hide and headed towards the power station. We scanned the "patch" and picked out a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull among the numerous Herring and Black-headed.

When there are no locals present, you know it's going to be slow-going

Old and New Lighthouses

A brief stop at Boulderwell Farm added five cattle Egrets to the growing day list. We then drove to Scotney GPs and walked to the "The Sandpit" an area we had not visited before. A Pectoral Sandpiper had been reported the previous day but there had been no reports today. Four birders were already present and we were told the Pec Sandpiper was still present but had flown behind the largest sand banks and lost to view. It would take us almost two hours before we re-located it, that was when a Marsh Harrier came through flushing everything present. During the two hours of searching for the Pec, we added three more species of Sandpiper, with counts of Two Wood, three Common, and nine Green Sandpipers. Ringed Plovers were present in good numbers and a single Little Stint was seen among them. Avocets, Blackwits, Dunlin, Greenshank, and Redshank were also present. A Peregrine dropped in to bathe in one of the pools and a Hobby and a Sparrowhawk flew across the pit.

The Sandpit

We drove back towards the reserve and scanned ARC Pit. Water levels were good and several shingle islands were exposed for the birds  We were told there had been a Glossy Ibis present earlier and Brian found it feeding at the water's edge. A juvenile Black Tern was picked out as it flew across the distant island and seven Garganey were present. 

Garganey

We finished the morning's birding on 93 species.