Cattle Egrets

Dungeness - cool, cloudy start, warm and sunny later, wnw2 - A steady days birding commenced with a couple of hours seawatching from the fishing boats and then the hide. Over 200 Mediterranean Gulls were still loitering offshore along with 50 Kittiwakes and a trickle of Gannets, Common Scoters, auks and Sandwich Terns, plus 25 Brents, four Shelducks, two Wigeon and a Red-throated Diver. Harbour Porpoise and Grey Seal also noted. There was very little on the land apart from a few finches and Mipits.

                                Cattle Egrets, Hayfield 3

  Moving onto a busy bird reserve the circular walk delivered seven Cattle Egrets in Hayfield 3, and for once they were nice and close to the path amongst the suckling herd so showed well. Also noted on Dengemarsh: several Marsh Harriers, Buzzards, Great White Egrets, Ruff, Snipe and a Merlin. On ARC much as yesterday on the wader and wildfowl front with the highlight being a dramatic Sparrowhawk attack on a Lapwing, which looked as though it might be successful until a crow came to the rescue and chased the hawk away. Another Merlin was noted along with good views of Tree Sparrows on the Boulderwall feeders.

                                Tree Sparrow and Kestrel, Boulderwall

                                Little Owl sunbathing

  A Little Owl was seen by the watch towers at Lydd camp while a couple of White-fronts were hiding amongst the many feral geese at Scotney; sadly, quite a few were showing signs of gunshot injury.
  We ended the day on Walland Marsh where at least ten each of Buzzard and Marsh Harrier noted, plus 20 Skylarks and two Corn Buntings.