Midrips - cool, cloudy, showers, SW 5 - It`s been a while since I`ve visited the Midrips and as there was no live firing today, together with Ted and the Apprentice we gave it go for the Dotterel; a bird that has probably been around Galloways and the Army ranges for a week or more now. However, despite it being difficult to stand upright due to the strong wind and hail whipping off the bay, we hunkered down behind the sea wall and soon had it in the scope; a pale-looking juvenile type sporting a broad, buff supercilium meeting on the nape and a pale breast-band. The only other birds on the shingle beach were a single Golden Plover, 10 Black-headed Gulls, a couple of Wheatears and a Yellow Wagtail. The lagoons further along held four Ringed Plovers. We checked Scotney front pits on the way back where hundreds of feral geese were on the sward along with a few Curlews and Redshanks and plenty of Sand Martins over the water.
Back at Dungeness, in squally weather conditions, a brief sea-watch (1100-1130hrs) from the hide produced two Balearic Shearwaters clipping the buoy, plus 10 Arctic Skuas and two Black Terns with hundreds more Gannets and terns much further out in the Channel.
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