Mopping up

Dungeness - cold, sunny, light airs - A stunning morning with bright sunshine, perfect for mopping up a few species for the guests that we missed earlier in the week. At the Patch the 1st winter Glaucous Gull eventually showed up close to the hide despite the shingle lorries passing close by. Offshore a few Gannets, auks and divers through.

                                Glaucous Gull, Patch

  A brief stop at the Kerton Road yielded a pair of Stonechats with a Dartford Warbler in tow. Moving onto Scotney and our luck was in with the two Tundra Bean Geese tucked in on the edge of the Greylag flock on the far side of the lake from the double bends. At Lydd Army camp we noted a Little Owl enjoying the sunshine, before finishing at Hanson hide where a pair of Chiffchaffs put on a great show in front of the hide snapping up insects rising off the reedbed. On the water hundreds of ducks, Lapwings, Cormorants and a Great White Egret.

                                Chiffchaff, ARC

                                Little Owl, Lydd

  And so ended a superb week of winter birding for our guests from Dorset during which time we rattled up a respectable 97 species. The highlights being the Hawfinches at Godmersham; Smew, Slavonian Grebe, Black-throated Diver, Tree Sparrow and Merlin on the bird reserve; Long-tailed Duck, Lade;Tundra Geese, Scotney; and for the sheer spectacle of it, 17 Marsh Harriers coming to roost at a reedbed site on Walland.