Great Northern Diver

Dungeness - 0845hrs - dull, calm, drizzle, mild, breezy later, sw 4 - A day out with Wendy and Doug commenced with a three hour seawatch in dreary weather with at times poor visibility. We started off at the concrete road where virtually the first bird of note was an adult Pomarine Skua powering west! A decent start, but to be fair there wasn't much genuine movement throughout the morning apart from several pulses of Gannets, Kittiwakes and Black-headed Gulls. We then decided on a move to the seawatch hide until a call from DW informed us that a Great Northern Diver (a scarce bird at Dunge) had settled on the sea off the boats, so it was back to where we started to connect with this monster diver and enjoy good scope views before it eventually flew off west. 20 Little Gulls went one way then another, as did 5 Med Gulls. Also noted 10 Sandwich Terns, 2 Bonxies, 1 Arctic Skua, 1 diver sp, 20 Brents, 3 Sanderlings, 2 Porpoises and a Grey Seal. On the foreshore 30 Turnstones and a Purple Sandpiper. There were hundreds of gulls on the shingle, mostly Great-blacks and Herring Gulls.
RSPB - On New Diggings a Great White Egret. From the VC all the usual wildfowl on Burrowes plus a Black-necked Grebe, Raven, Dunlin and several Marsh Harriers over the Oppen Pits.
Nothing much on Dengemarsh apart from a couple of Marsh Harriers.
Scotney - All the usual feral geese, Wigeon, Lapwings, 20 Goldies, 2 Redshanks and 20 Brents at the farm end.
ARC - Finished off at Hanson hide where 3 Goldeneyes over the far side plus all the usual dabblers and 4 Little Egrets on what remains of the islands.