Friday 26th January 2023: Back to Rye Harbour

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 Our last day in the Kent and East Sussex area started with another attempted seawatch at Dungeness Point. We had slightly better views of Red-throated divers in flight and passing auks, but overall this was another disappointment in comparison with previous years.

Before long we gave up and set off for Rye Harbour. Our target bird was Slavonian Grebe which we had failed to locate on Tuesday. It was a long walk to Long Pit where the birds had been reported by the Harbour barns.  Nothing was visible here, so following a tip off from another birder, we trudged along to the very bottom of the lake where it was possible to look all the way up the water, with no vegetation to interrupt our views. It wasn’t long till we spotted two small black and white grebes ducking and diving on the far side of the lake. Success at last!

We returned to the cafe for tea and cake, picking up a pair  of Mistle Thrush hopping on the lawn as we returned to the car. Our next destination required another long and muddy walk round the back of the reserve to Castle Water. Keeping with the Grebe family, our target here was Black-necked Grebe and before long I managed to spot this in a similar spot to where we had found it last year, close to the reeds on the far side of the water in front of the hide. I was very relieved, as I don’t think I’d have been popular if we had failed to find the bird after such a long walk (18,000 steps with a scope on my back!)

Our final stop was the Reed bed look out viewing platform, where I was astonished to find a Bittern fly across the reeds before dropping down out of sight. A superb finale to our traditional birthday birding trip.



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