Dungeness and Dragonflies

Yesterday I was kindly taken to Dungeness again by my birding mentor and his wife.

We arranged to meet a couple of other friends there, which was lucky as they had a spare pair of binoculars with them and I had spent half the journey feeling very fed up and angry with myself for forgetting to put my own in the bag.

There were one or two particular targets of interest for the day - Penduline Tits had been seen and Dotterels. In the end, despite two visits to the ARC pool and a great deal of vigilance we didn't see either of these but it was a beautiful, if slightly chilly, day and we saw many other species so we had a glorious day and went home very happy via some excellent fish and chips.

Among the species we did spot were Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Marsh Harrier above and Gadwall, Widgeon, Pintail, Tufted Duck, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Little Egret, Dunlin, Redshank and Little Stint on or near the water and Stonechat, Meadow Pipit, Green Woodpecker and Great Tit in the trees and shrubs.

Two of the more memorable images are that of a fox being "stalked" by a group of ducks and a Moorhen feeding off the ground on part of a bird feeder. The fox was at times very close to the ducks which would have made an amazing photograph. For some reason the fox did not seem interested in the group of ducks that swam slowly along beside her, nor did the ducks seem scared. At one point the fox trudged through some very shallow water incredibly close to the swimming ducks. Eventually foxy disappeared into some undergrowth but the image of the fox changing direction to walk back and all the ducks doing the same will stay with me.

There were also a lot of insects about, sadly mostly midges but including one or two Red Admirals and a large beautiful dragonfly who hovered around for some time. There were also a number of unidentified creatures on whose species opinion was divided my birding mentor offered Caddis Fly but others thought them moths. At any rate they were not shy and one is pictured sitting on a friendly hand.

It's a pity "Dunge" is such a lengthy drive from here because it is always a wonderful day out with lots to see.