First Fine Careless Raptors

Of course I am misquoting Browning, who was anyway speaking of a different bird, in a different month, but perhaps he deserves a mention as his is rather an overlooked centenary compared to that of Dickens.

This week, "Last of the Summer Wing" headed all the way down into darkest Kent in search of lapland bunting. Unfortunately we never did find the little chaps, possibly because we were looking in the wrong bit of the wide open fields behind Leydown or perhaps simply because they are small and there's lots of cover. The day provided ample compensations though and I had a joyful time of it.

It was certainly fill-yer-boots day as far as raptors were concerned which is always exciting for me. First though we looked seawards from where the car was parked and discovered that the beach was positively infested with turnstones, along with them were a number of sanderling, a couple of dunlin and a two ringed plover. My ornithology tutor also spotted great-crested grebes and later a common gull. There were plenty of the black-headed variety.

Turning inland for a bit of a yomp through the fields we saw a stock dove before spotting linnets and a number of other small birds, none of which carried a lapland passport. This is an area with several reminders of its past links with early aviation.

Best was yet to come however as, after passing the body of an unfortunate fox, we began to see the raptors. There were a couple of marsh harriers and wonderful views of a hen harrier slowly investigating the reeds for food while cruising low over them.

After a late lunch perched on some convenient concrete pipes we conceded that the laplanders had evaded us (although the linnets' calls had us excited for a while) and headed to the Capel Fleet raptor viewpoint where we saw more marsh harriers, kestrel, great black-backed gull, pheasant, grey partridge, stonechat and short-eared owls. In fact my companion at one point exclaimed "There are short-eared owls everywhere you look"

On our return to the car my day was made complete by a fly-past of my favourite birds: oystercatchers.

A wonderful day despite the elusive target.

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.

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.