Dungeness - warm, dry and sunny, SE 2 - At last the wind dropped making for much improved birding conditions. Our morning Ted walk across the Desert and Trapping Area from the Dungeness Road immediately produced a good bird in the shape of a male Whinchat by the wigwams; a first for the year. All the usual warblers, Linnets and Skylarks were in song and at the southern end of Long Pits a female Redstart showed briefly. We then spent an hour (0900-1000 hrs) in the seawatch hide with the regulars where there was a steady trickle of migrants heading up-Channel: a few Gannets, Brent Geese, Barwits, Sandwich Terns and Common Scoters plus three Black-throated Divers, two Pomarine and one Arctic Skuas. The days final count will no doubt be on trektellen later this evening. It looks set to be a busy weekend of seabirds, thanks to a southerly airflow at peak Pom time, and guaranteed to attract many visiting birders over the Bank Holiday period.
