Snow Bunting

New Diggings/ARC/Tower Pits - 0900hrs - mild, cloudy, se 2 - Amid all the doom and gloom of declining farmland birds and summer migrants there are plenty of good news stories too. A case in point is the heron tribe with Dungeness RSPB reserve becoming egret central; within an hour I`d seen seven Great Whites, two Littles, five Grey Herons and a Bittern. A wander around the back of Tower pits delivered 30 Blackbirds and 10 Song Thrushes in the buckthorn patch and single figures elsewhere of Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Reed Bunting, Redwing, Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers, Cetti`s Warbler, calling Water Rail, three Snipe and a Jack Snipe.On the water all the usual wildfowl including ten Goldeneyes and two Goosanders. Over the road on Boulderwall fields just the expected feral geese. Lapwings, Goldies and Wigeons.

 

                                Snow Bunting, Greatstone Beach

Greatstone Beach - Following a call from PB who`d found a Snow Bunting on the beach between the car park and the Varne I headed that way this afternoon. A cracking male bird was all on its own feeding on the tideline and showing well between disturbance by dog-walkers.