Ross`s Gull past Dungeness!

Lade - mild, sunny, sw 3 - 0900hrs - In between toshing out the guest rooms today we worked the local patch. This morning the pits received the full treatment where south lake was full of wildfowl including 350 Gadwall, 150 Teal and three Goldeneye, but I couldn`t locate the Red-crested Pochard. A female Marsh Harrier was working the far side looking for any dodgy Coots and there were several hundred Black-headed Gulls on the water. As usual few passerines were noted.

                                Goldeneye, Lade

1430hrs - Checked out the beach this afternoon where six species of shorebirds were noted, plus a Merlin hacking along the tideline chasing a Pied Wagtail. Whilst scanning the gulls out on the mud MH called to say that a Ross`s Gull had just passed west off the concrete road at Dungeness within a passage of Black-headed Gulls; which got me thinking that it probably passed me by as I was walking along the foreshore, albeit a couple of miles out in the bay. However, a great find by the gull lord, David Walker, and just rewards for all the many hours spent seawatching over the years.
Brenzett - 2000hrs - Returning from Ashford this evening we had cracking views of a Barn Owl, in bright moonlight, that angled across the Rhee Wall road about a mile south of the roundabout.