Friday 14 September 2018

Spoonbills and Shelducks!

Dungeness - warm, dry and sunny, light airs - A couple of hours at the point this morning was notable for a distant flock of seven large, white birds flying in a line over towards ARC. I suspected they may have been Spoonbills, which indeed they were, as confirmed by the scope-wielding regulars scanning from the Moat. Everywhere I looked there appeared to be Sparrowhawks and Kestrels, plus singles of Peregrine and Merlin, while the early morning seawatchers confirmed that most of the first two species had just arrived off the sea. Plenty of Linnets and Mipit flocks were scattered around the old lighthouse along with a couple of grounded Tree Pipits, Wheatears and Stonechats, where earlier both Ortolan Bunting and Pied Flycatcher noted.
Littlestone - A low tide check of the sands from the old lifeboat station delivered a handful of Dunlins and Ringed Plovers amongst hundreds of Curlews and Oystercatchers. From the Varne boat club, however, a count of 67 Shelducks was a noteworthy record.

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