Beach birds

Dungeness - 0800hrs - mild, dry, sunny, sw 2 - A superb morning for a walk along the beach. We started at the Patch where there was a couple of hundred commoner gulls over the boil, plus the same again on the foreshore towards Penn Bars, where heavy plant was moving shingle in front of B Station. Pied Wagtail, Mipit and Goldfinch noted along the power station wall and 5 Skylarks flew  overhead calling. Apart from the usual gulls and Turnstones the walk down to the fishing boats delivered brief views of a brown Merlin. A chat with the seawatchers confirmed that apart from a few Kittiwakes, Gannets, scoters and divers, all was quiet on the sea.

                                Turnstones, Dungeness

                               Great Black-back juv with damaged leg

Lade - The wind picked up this afternoon but that didn`t prevent the wintering Short-eared Owl putting on a late show over Mockmill.