Dungeness - mild, cloudy, showery, SW5 - Spent the day guiding for a group from Naturetrek. We started at the point in blustery, wet conditions working the bushes across the Desert searching for yesterdays juvenile Red-backed Shrike without success; in fact, there was little to see due to the weather apart from a few Kestrels, Stonechats, Wheatears, hirundines and a Whitethroat. At the fishing boats a seawatch produced a decent passage of Sandwich and Common Terns close to shore, plus parties of Gannets feeding further out; we also noted singles of Arctic Tern and Kittiwake, 10 Common Scoters and several Arctic Skuas chasing the terns, but the highlight was two west bound Balearic Shearwaters. Our next stop at Lade pits delivered two Black-necked Grebes with one bird coming reasonably close alongside a host of common wildfowl, grebes and feeding Sand Martins. We also checked the bay on the incoming tide logging hundreds of Oystercatchers and Curlews plus 12 Knots, 50 Sanderlings, 100 Dunlins, 20 Turnstones, ten Ringed Plovers, two Whimbrels and three Redshanks. It was then on to the RSPB reserve where three attempts during the afternoon to relocate a Red-backed Shrike in the Discovery Area drew a blank; a smart Whinchat being some compensation. Elsewhere, a Glossy Ibis was on Burrowes from Firth lookout where a juvenile Common Tern was still being fed by an adult, plus several Marsh Harriers, a Common Sandpiper, two Great White Egrets and a Dunlin; six Cattle Egrets were on the Boulderwall fields. We finished the afternoon from Hanson hide where 12 Redshank, a Knot, two Snipe, five Pintails and a Wigeon were added to the day list which topped out at 77 species, so not too shabby considering the lack of passerines on this wet and windy day.
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