Dunge

This week's birding trip with my mentor and his expert daughter was to the windswept shingle of Dungeness.







Although the weather hasn't been ideal of late, it was actually quite warm on the day (Thursday) and apart from a fairly strong breeze (always a feature of this open landscape anyway) it was a fine day to be out.

What little rain there was occured as we were about to duck into one of several hides about the reserve and by the end of the afternoon there was an outbreak of warm sunshine.





At the entrance we were joined by another couple of birders, friends of my mentor who I had met before in less happy circumstances when one of them plunged off a sea-wall and ended up in hospital. It was good to see them again and that he was in one piece and looking fit despite a souvenir scar very close to his eye.

  
At first glance the landscape here in the bottom corner of Kent, can seem rather barren and desolate, with the looming nuclear power station not helping the view to be any more picturesque. On closer inspection though this is a rich habitat with a variety of salt marsh flora, insects, arachnids and of course birds.

On this occasion, as far as I was concerned the quality made up for the quantity. Although there were not huge flocks of birds to be seen there were a number of "life-ticks" for myself which made the day very exciting and pleasurable.

The first bird we noticed on the drive in towards the well-equiped reception and shop, was a Cattle Egret. A very good start for me.

I bought an Avocet badge for my hat to join the rather fraudulent Puffin (I've yet to see one in the flesh), as the logo of the RSPB it seemed appropriate and anyway they have legs of my favourite colour: blue.

Tempting though it is to just watch the birds from the huge viewing windows in the RSPB building we set off from hide to hide slowly addding to our tally of birds for the day.

 

One of the hides was almost as fascinating for the fauna inside as through the window, since it seemed to be full of spiders.


At Christmas Dell we broke out the tea and sandwiches by which time we had added the third type of Egret (Little Egret being rather easier to find), Great White: Another first for me.









Before we finally set off home we paid a visit to the beach at the point for a period of sea watching.


Although we failed to see the Glaucous Gull which was the main object of the detour we did see a number of gulls and terns and several species which for me were good "ticks": Arctic Skua, Black Tern, Eider Duck and Guillemot.

I also enjoyed watching through one of the scopes as a Gannet which had been beating rather painfully into wind suddenly folded its wings and went into the species' characteristic spectacular high-speed plunge into the sea.



In addition to the new birds we also saw Stonechat, Linnet, Great Tit, Pochard, Teal, Wheatear, Sandwich and Common Tern, Greylag, Cormorant, Gadwall, Lapwing, Ruff, Common Gull, Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Marsh Harrier, Kestrel, Grey Heron, Sand Martin, Swallow, Great Crested Grebe, Black-headed and Black-backed Gulls.

As is often the case I was tormented by singing bushes immitating the loud song of Cetti's Warblers but where no bird was able to be seen even on very close examination.

My friends also saw a Bar-tailed Godwit and Goosander neither of which I managed to get the binoculars on.

As we returned to the cars we noticed what we thought at first was another Great White Egret but after getting the 'scopes on it we discovered that it looked more or less like a Grey Heron...except that it was the wrong colour.

The lady from the RSPB, back at the entrance, acknowledged that there was indeed a "pale heron" in residence but owing to some slight doubts as to its neck shape my friend's daughter decided it was a hybrid which she dubbed a "Heregret".

After a good run back there was just time to hit the fish and chip shop for the second night running (a sausage substituting for the fish in the interest of variety) before setting up for the visit of the game group.