Bonxies

Dungeness - cold and dull, e 4 - While not as windy as yesterday, down at Dunge it was still cold and necessary to take on the appearance of a polar explorer to stay warm, or maybe its just me feeling my age... Barney, however, is made of sterner stuff and loves the cold, dry weather, gambolling around like a puppy. At the Patch at least two Mediterranean Gulls amongst a blizzard of gulls over the boil with hundreds more on the beach. The immature Iceland Gull that`s been knocking around for a while put in a brief appearance as it flew west towards Penn Bars. Offshore hundreds of Gannets, Great Crested Grebes, Guillemots, Kittiwakes and Cormorants, plus a few Red-throated Divers, while a pair of Foxes scavenging along the tideline gave Barney cause for concern. Repair work to the shingle bank in order to save the Patch hide from tumbling onto the foreshore continues apace.

                                1st winter Caspian Gull from last week

                               Foxes keeping an eye on Barney

 At the fishing boats this afternoon we had an enjoyable one hour seawatch in company with MH amd RW. A steady stream of Gannets, Guillemots, Kittiwakes and Red-throated Divers moved up-Channel or fished offshore, plus several flocks of Brent Geese, four Common Scoters, a 2nd winter Med Gull and, best of all, four Bonxies, two of which cut in close to shore, while many more were logged earlier in the day. The 1st winter Caspian Gull was amongst the throng on the beach. 
Lade - The Dartford Warbler showed briefly in gorse scrub beside south lake while both the Slavonian Grebe and Long-tailed Duck were still on station.
  Tweet of the day went to a phenomenal count of 5,700 Cormorants on Burrowes this afternoon (DBO) which must be something of a record?