Izzy Wheatear

Dengemarsh Gully - cold, sunny, N 3 - I decided on a return visit to the gully for today`s Ted walk as the light was good enough to try and improve on my record shots of last week`s Isabelline Wheatear. Also, now the bird was in its tenth day I assumed things might have quietened down a bit, but not so as there was still a steady trickle of visiting twitchers throughout the morning. Anyhow, the wheatear seems to have remained faithful to the area around the end of the gully and during the two hours we were on site it showed well enough, perching on fence posts and old lumps of dunnage out on the shingle. It regularly dropped into the gully bottom to feed around the concrete blocks and various sun-traps where invertebrates were active, and once was seen to sally forth and snap up a flying insect in the manner of a flycatcher. A Dartford Warbler showed briefly in the scrub while several Meadow Pipits, Robins and Blue Tits were also noted plus two each of Stonechat and Goldcrest, a Reed Bunting, a Cetti`s Warbler and a charm of 12 Goldfinches.

                                 Meadow Pipit & Isabelline Wheatear - Dengemarsh Gully

    Isabelline Wheatear - Dengemarsh Gully

I had less fortune on the photographic front at Lydd caravan park pit where the 1st winter Ring-necked Duck remained stubbornly in the far corner of the lake tucked up amongst the Pochards, Tufted Ducks and two Scaup. On the way home, passing Lydd golf club, at least eight Cattle Egrets were in the field opposite the entrance tracking a herd of cows, while at Hammonds Corner the regular Little Owl was enjoying the sunshine from its usual perch on a barn gutter.  

Bearded Tits

Dungeness RSPB - mild, overcast, drizzle, NE2 - A grim morning for my monthly guided walk around the circular trail for three guests. On Burrowes two Goosanders reported earlier could not be relocated and had already departed; for some reason they rarely tarry for long here. All the usual wetland birds were present including a Great White Egret and hundreds of Cormorants, Shovelers and Teal. At Dengemarsh we had good views of two Marsh Harriers, Kestrel and Buzzard, four Wigeon and 13 Shelducks, while a pair of Bearded Tits performed to order on the grit tray at Hookers reedbed where several Water Rails and Cetti`s warblers vocalised. A Dartford Warbler from the return trail showed briefly moving between patches of gorse scrub. Passing Cockles Bridge on the way home at least nine Cattle Egrets were feeding amongst the sheep flock.

                                  Bearded Tits - Hookers
 

                                  Great White Egrets - ARC

Elsewhere this week visits to ARC from Hanson hide produced 15 Great White Egrets and a Little Gull on Monday plus a Firecrest in the old lighthouse garden at Dungeness and a Black Redstart on the power station wall but little else of note. 

Black Redstarts

Dungeness  - cold, misty, light airs - A grim morning for our Ted walk around the peninsula, but at least the wind had abated. Goldfinch was the most numerous passerine passing overhead (probably in their hundreds) along with lesser numbers of Chaffinch and Skylark, many unseen due to the low cloud base. The few grounded migrants included 10 Blackbirds, four Black Redstarts (two by the Britannia, two on the power station wall) several Robins and Stonechats plus a Chiffchaff in the lighthouse garden. From the fishing boats a steady trickle of Brents flew down Channel along with hundreds of Cormorants and a few Red-throated Divers on the sea.  

                                  Black Redstarts - Dungeness

                                  Ted at the boats

Moving onto the ARC from Hanson hide where the mirror-calm lake was covered in wildfowl, gulls and Cormorants. A juvenile Little Gull flew in close to the hide and 14 Great White Egrets were scattered around the margins; I missed the five Bewick`s Swans by 10 minutes but they were reported later on from Burrowes. Finished the morning off at Lade where there was no change to the wildfowl since my last visit. Yesterday, at the third attempt, I caught up with the Ring-necked Duck on the caravan park pit at Lydd; the female Scaup was also still present. Both birds were reported today.

 

Scaup

Wednesday - Cold, cloudy, E6 - A blasting easterly wind made for a `challenging` day in the field for six Naturetrek guests. As usual we started at the point with a range of common seabirds including Brents, Gannets, Med Gulls, Red-throated Divers and several species of waders, while we had particularly good views of Common and Grey Seals. Despite the wind we had Goldcrest and Chiffchaff in the lighthouse garden. At Lydd caravan pit the female Scaup showed well but there was no sign of the Ring-necked Duck; which was probably lurking somewhere in the reedbed out of the gale, while Great White Egrets, Goldeneye, Raven and a host of common wildfowl were noted on the pit to the west. En-route to the RSPB reserve nine Cattle Egrets were at Cockles bridge. Moving onto the reserve where eight Great White Egrets and several Marsh Harriers were logged, plus two Pintails and Peregrines with prey at Burrowes and ARC. A difficult day`s birding for the guests although we still managed to record 63 species of birds.

 

                                  Scaup - Lydd (by Alexis Bodycomb)

                                  Pintail - ARC (by Alexis Bodycomb)

Isabelline Wheatear

Dengemarsh Gully - cold, cloudy, showers, NE 4 - With a scudding wind coming off the North Sea delivering a rash of short, sharp, showers weather conditions were far from ideal for our morning Ted walk; not that he was particularly bothered, originating as he does from the Carpathian mountains of Romania where winters can be brutal. The gully is one of those sites that looks good for a rarity or two and to be fair it has got form even in my time: Pallas`s, Melodious and Yellow-browed Warblers, Red-flanked Bluetail, Bluethroats and Wryneck, to name but a few. However, most of the time it`s as dull as ditch water and initially today was no different: a ticking Robin, two singing Cetti`s Warblers and three flyover Goldfinches was about it; still, the best stuff is almost always at the bottom of the gully... We crossed the sewer by the dam and wandered up the slope where Ted disturbed a passerine from the edge of the gorse scrub. I called him in and put him on the lead and then noticed that the bird was perched on the ruins of Myrtle Cottage about 20 yards away, so after a quick look through the bins, thinking it looked interesting, fired off a few shots with the bridge camera. It was a very erect and sandy-brown looking wheatear giving a first impression of perhaps a Greenland type, although the tail appeared to be quite black as it flew out over Penn Bars. 

Back at the car, and out of the wind and rain, I had a good look at the pics and the first thing I noticed was a broad white eye-brow, mostly in front of the eye and dark lores, plus a prominent black alula contrasting with the pale-fringed wing coverts denoting a 1st autumn bird. The tail appeared to be shorter and certainly blacker than Northern Wheatear - so it had to be an Isabelline Wheatear! Having not seen one for a while (Scilly in the 90`s) I contacted Owen for a second opinion who met me on site and confirmed the identification from my pics, as did Jacob via WhatsApp (thanks to you both). Thankfully the bird remained in the same area around Myrtle Cottage and out on Penn Bars throughout the afternoon enabling a number of local birders to connect with this rarity from the steppes of central Asia - and apparently it is the first record of Isabelline Wheatear for the Dungeness area. 

    Isabelline Wheatear - Dengemarsh Gully

Whooper Swans

Warm, dry and sunny, NE 2 - Spent the morning on the peninsula seeing very little on the migration front apart from an overhead trickle of Goldfinches, Skylarks, Meadow Pipits, Chaffinches, Stock Doves and corvids plus a single Yellowhammer which is quite scarce down here on the shingle. Grounded migrants included five Robins by the sea containers and a few Chiffchaffs, Stonechats and Goldcrests elsewhere. On Wednesday we did the long walk around the power station to Penn Bars and back to the Obs which delivered four Black Redstarts on the station fencing, three flyover Woodlarks and two Swallows from the moat. Thursday morning we started at Lade where the highlights were a Ring Ouzel on the Desert and seven Grey Plovers on south lake and at ARC where three Whooper Swans and a Glossy Ibis were of note. Monday was very windy as last weekend`s gales passed up-Channel and only suitable for seawatching. From the fishing boats several Sooty Shearwater, a Grey Phalarope and a Bonxie were seen amongst numerous Gannets, Little Gulls and auks plus a few Red-throated Divers, Sandwich Terns and Arctic Skuas.

                                 Whooper Swans - ARC

Little Gulls

Lade - dry, sunny, W5 - Following on from the deluge delivered by named Storm Boelo yesterday, this morning dawned with blue skies and a keen westerly. Passerines were few and far between due to the strong wind while most of the ducks were hunkered down in sheltered spots around both lakes. However, of note were five Little Gulls over south lake, and when I called in at Hanson hide late morning more were coming and going over ARC. I counted a minimum of 22 birds, some close to the hide, and many more were logged by local birders elsewhere today: 128 on Burrowes, 23 at the old Scotney sand pit and several passing the fishing boats. Little Gulls can occur at Dungeness just about any time of year but this batch were no doubt associated with the recent double-barrelled storms displacing birds passing along the Atlantic seaboard.  

                                  Little Gulls - ARC