An Osprey and an owl!

Dungeness - misty, mild, cloudy, light airs - Went down for an early morning seawatch but the fog persisted, so all that was seen were a few Common and Sandwich Terns, a Red-throated diver and a flock of 10 Whimbrels which were our first of the year. A brief scout around the land revealed a Song Thrush and Chiffchaff in the lighthouse garden and a Fieldfare and Brambling over in the murk.

                                Fen habitat, ideal for Cetti`s Warbler

                               Tree Sparrows near New Diggings


New Diggings/Oppen Pits - Continuing on with the Cetti`s Warbler survey for RSPB we went off-piste this morning tramping across the shingle plotting more singing males of which there was at least eight. This isn't an area I often visit and being under watched it was no surprise that it turned up some good birds, including a number of firsts for the year; not that I`m much of a year lister... Singing Nightingale, Reed Warbler and Common Whitethroat were such, plus a Short-eared Owl quartering the Desert behind the Oppen pits, presumably the bird that had been seen earlier at the Point. Biggest surprise of all though was a `black and white blob` sat on a distant shingle ridge that morphed into a grounded Osprey that quickly soared up over Long Pits and out in the murk, making it my first spring bird for some time. Also noted in the general area, four Snipe, Tree Sparrow, Sedge Warbler, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Swallow, Marsh Harrier, Sparrowhawk and four `boxing` Brown Hares.
  After a breather in the VC the walk back down the track to Boulderwall delivered half a dozen flyover Mediterranean Gulls, a Great White Egret on one of the small Christmas Dell pools and a Cuckoo by the bee hives.