Merlin v Mipit

Dungeness  - cold, dry, sunny, light airs - Perfect weather for wandering around the peninsula looking for that elusive first Wheatear - well, maybe tomorrow..., although looking at the weather forecast probably not. However, a Black Redstart on the beach and a Firecrest in the Trapping area was some compensation amongst the commoner passerines, which did include a not-so-common singing Song Thrush. Two Ravens, a Green Woodpecker and a Kestrel also noted during the walk.

                                Black Redstart, Dungeness

Lade - The main spectacle here was a life and death struggle between a brown Merlin and a Mipit which played out in the sky over the Desert, before eventually favouring the pipit as it dived for cover in a gorse thicket out near Mockmill. Around the pits the usual Cetti`s Warblers and Reed Buntings in song, two soaring Marsh Harriers and a Great White Egret on north lake. 
RSPB - From the causeway road on New Diggings two each of Slavonian and Black-necked Grebes plus 2 Smew on ARC. A drake Smew was also on Burrowes, but there was no sign of the owls by the pond.