White-fronted Goose

Dungeness - 0730hrs - cool, sunny, nw 3 - After emptying a disappointing moth trap at Plovers we headed down the point to check the Patch, more for a change of scene than anything else. Approaching the corner of the power station I noticed the incongruous sight of a single grey goose standing amongst the grass on the foreshore. On closer inspection it morphed into a White-fronted Goose, an immature bird that looked clapped out as it didn`t budge when we walked past it along the concrete road. Bit of a mystery where it had come from, but there was one knocking around the reserve a month or two back, so maybe from there, who knows...

                                Immature White-fronted Goose, DBO

  At the Patch two Med Gulls were amongst a couple of hundred mostly Herring and Black-headed Gulls on the beach and over the boil, but there was no sign of any terns. Black Redstart and Mipit were noted along the power station wall, and as we back tracked the goose had wandered off towards the old lookout tower grazing on the herbage.
  Called in at the Obs where the Red Data Book moth Small Ranunculus was in the fridge. This small noctuid was considered extinct for 50 years before making a come back in Kent and elsewhere across southern Britain.
Lade - An evening visit over the bay on a falling tide to check for waders found 110 Oystercatchers, 35 Curlews, eight Ringed Plovers, two Grey Plovers and a Barwit, plus 12 Sandwich Terns and two Med Gulls.