Thursday 25th January 2023: Dungeness

 It was good to be joined by Andy and John for a spot of birthday birdwatching around the Dungeness area, on a cold but dry day.

We had arranged to meet at the ARC hide. Tim and I arrived first, and set off down the track towards the hide. We failed to get a decent view of  a Water Rail which I flushed out of view with an ill-timed sneeze! A single Goldcrest was more obliging, and Tim managed to get a shot of this tiny bird as it fed amongst the brambles.

Goldcrest

 A lot of work has been done to improve the hide and surrounding area, making it much more open. We walked slowly along the boardwalk through wet woodland carr, encountering numerous Goldcrest and Wren, foraging amongst the low lying deadwood and brambles. Robins, Blue Tits and Dunnock were also present, and a Great Spotted Woodpecker which undulated away from us was my first for the year.

Andy and John arrived just as we got back to the hide, and together we scanned the lake and adjacent reedbeds and scrub. There was not much of note on the water, but we all managed some decent views of Cetti’s Warbler and Chiffchaff close to the hide and several Marsh Harriers passed overhead. We repeated a circuit of the boardwalk, hearing more Water Rail as we progressed, but again were frustratingly unable to locate a bird. As we reached the hide again, John spotted a pair of swans had landed on the lake, and a quick check with the bins revealed these to be Whooper Swans, a lifer for John, plus he was delighted to have spotted them himself.

Whooper Swan

Feeling pleased with our efforts we headed across to Boulderwall farm fields near the entrance to the main reserve. There were plenty of birds here with good numbers of Lapwing and scatted in their midst a substantial flock of Golden Plover. Plenty of ducks and geese were also seen here, but nothing out of the ordinary, so we set off again to check out the nearby horse paddocks where Cattle Egret had been reported.  These were easily found, a group of eight all stood hunched together in the field, yellow bills clearly visible. On the opposite side of the road we were pleased to spot three Glossy Ibis feeding in a large, muddy puddle - another lifer for John. A very productive few minutes for us all!

Feeling buoyed by our efforts, we drove down to the shingle beach of Dungeness nature reserve, hoping for a decent seawatch. Alas this was not to be. The sea was calm, the light poor and there was little movement other than Cormorants, which have become so dominant in this area over recent years. We did manage to locate a few Red-throated Diver sat on the water, but they were quite distant and the views were pretty unsatisfactory. We decided we were just losing time for little gain, so returned to the reserve for lunch and to consider our next steps. A pair of Goldeneye caused some amusement near to the viewing window, with us initially  thinking there was just one bird. I saw a male and John saw a female. ‘I’m sure that bird went down as a female then came back as a male’ he said, before the female popped up next to her partner!

After some debate we decided there was little to be gained from walking around the reserve, especially as Denge Marsh hide was closed for refurbishment work. The feeders at the car park added Greenfinch and Chaffinch to our increasing list and as we drove out of the reserve we spotted our missing target species, a tall, elegant Great White Egret. 

Next we headed out onto Romney Marsh hoping to increase our species list. Common gulls were found in good numbers around the fields and in a regular haunt for us we located a decent flock of Fieldfares with just a few Redwings among them. They were quite skittish and it was not easy to scan the mobile flock, but eventually John was satisfied to have identified both birds well enough for two new ticks. Continuing on, we soon encountered the flock of Bewick’s Swans roosting in the field, with youngsters showing a dark grey head in comparison to immature Mute Swans.

From here we drove over the Sussex border, encountering a single first winter Greater Scaup at Camber and the feral flock of Barnacle Geese at Scotney. Continuing on to a gloomy Pett level, Andy soon found the two Red-breasted Geese we had seen the previous day, plus some more Barnacle Geese, including one with a white label C13, from a flock that have been roaming Sussex in recent weeks.

The light was now fading rapidly, but we drove back to Greatstone hoping to catch the wader roost at dusk. On arrival, there were many gulls at the water’s edge but the tide, still seemingly high at Pett was already a long way out here. Even so, as our eyes adjusted we were able to make out  a cluster of Ringed Plovers on the wet sand, and a flock of Turnstones flew in to feed a short distance from us. Behind them a group of small waders busily running on the sand were eventually pinned down as definite Sanderling and not Dunlin. We had squeezed every last drop form the day, arriving back at Andy’s car in the dark, but it had been an enjoyable day in good company, with a decent tally and some rather special birds encountered.