Drake Eider

Dungeness - mild, cloudy, sw 2 - Our first visit of the year to the Patch was enlivened by a cracking drake Eider swimming amongst a couple of hundred gulls in front of the boil. Eiders are normally noted down here on passage off the Point so it made a change to see one sat on the sea. A few Gannets and auks were fishing offshore while 100 Brents and two Mergansers passed up-Channel. All was quiet on the land with just a few Mipits and Pied Wagtails around the power station, a Kestrel and a 1st winter Caspian Gull by the Fish Hut.

                                Drake Eider, The Patch

  On the RSPB reserve two Long-eared Owls showed well at roost behind the Dipping Pond, while the Ring-necked Duck and Slavonian Grebe were on, ARC and New Diggings respectively. Elsewhere, the usual egrets, harriers and wildfowl were present around the reserve. As the afternoon wore on heavy rain set in making for a wet end to the day.

                                Long-eared Owls, Dipping Pond