Sunny days

Dengemarsh - 0830hrs - warm, dry, sunny, e 2 - We finished off the Birdwatching Break in the Dengemarsh area in glorious spring sunshine with a light breeze. The gully was pretty quiet birdwise, apart from a Stonechat and the usual scrub warblers, but the floral display more than compensated with swathes of Sea Pinks in full flower. The old Myrtle Cottage site had a stunning display of Red-hot Poker plants, presumably remnants from the old cottage garden. Over by the switching station two juv Ravens were being dive-bombed by a Peregrine and a Med Gull flew over calling.

                                Red-hot Pokers, Penn Bars

                                Sea Pinks, Penn Bars

From Springfield Bridge there was quite a spectacle in progress over the main reedbed where a hundred or so Black-headed Gulls and Common Terns were hawking emerging insects, along with two Hobbies. A Marsh Harrier food pass was noted, plus a brief Bittern flight view, a flyover Buzzard and Bearded Tits along the reed margins. We wandered down to Hayfield 3, which still looks brilliant for waders, and had attracted seven Blackwits and a Greenshank amongst the usual Lapwings, Oystercatchers, Shelducks and Little Egrets.
A circuit of the range road delivered further Stonechats, Cuckoo, Whimbrel, Kestrel and a Raven feeding on a lamb carcass.
In all a very pleasant morning for a general natural history ramble, and over the course of the three days we rattled up 93 species of birds, so a pretty fair return.