First Garganey

Dungeness  - 0800hrs -  warm, dry, sunny, w 2 - A cracking morning for walking the foreshore between the lifeboat station and the concrete road where the highlight was a fall of 15 Wheatears. Quite why the early birds nearly always seem to favour this section of the peninsula is something of a mystery. Also present were 25 Mipits, 10 Skylarks, 5 Linnets, 4 Pied Wagtails, a Black Redstart and a pair of Shelducks. Around the old light things were much quieter with singles of Black Redstart, Stonechat and Chiffchaff being the only migrants on offer. The 1st winter Glaucous Gull was patrolling the foreshore and a flock of 30 Brents moved up-Channel; DW had many more earlier, plus a small flock of Garganey.

                                Shelduck, Dungeness

                                Wheatear, Dungeness

RSPB - News from SB & PB concerning two Garganey on the bird reserve necessitated a visit to Burrowes where distant views were had from Makepiece hide of a pair within a duck flock, that also included several Pintail. Two Smew, eight Goldeneye and a Black-necked Grebe were also noted. The fields at Boulderwall delivered 50 Grey Lags, 10 each of Curlew and Stock Dove, Great White Egret, Marsh Harrier, Common Buzzard and a Pink-footed Goose. From Screen hide on ARC there was little to see apart from a few wildfowl and large numbers of Black-headed Gulls hawking emerging insects over the lake.