Winter`s coming...

Dungeness - mild and overcast - A drab sort of day with light airs that got steadily brighter into the afternoon. A walk along the foreshore at the point first thing was almost birdless apart from a few Mipits and Goldfinches overhead. Offshore the usual Gannets, Kittiwakes and auks.

                                Bewick`s Swans, ARC

  There was much more to see on the bird reserve where the two Bewick`s Swans showed well from Hanson hide having just flown in from Cockles Bridge. The islands were packed out with several hundred Lapwing, Shoveler, Teal, Shelduck, Pintail, plus 10 Black-tailed Godwit and two Dunlin. A Bittern broke cover from the far reedbed along with several Bearded Tits and two Marsh Harriers and a Sparrowhawk kept the ducks on the move. Also noted Great White Egret, Goldeneye, Water Rail, Chiffchaff, Kestrel, Long-tailed Tit and Reed Bunting. The bushes down towards the pines attracted several each of Blackbird, Redwing, Fieldfare and Goldcrest.

                                Kestrel
 
  The islands on Burrowes were covered in hundreds of black-backed gulls, Cormorants and Lapwings. In amongst the throng were at least two adult Yellow-legged Gulls, a handful of Golden Plovers, two Great White Egrets around the margins and five Goldeneyes on the water. All we needed was a Smew to make it really feel like winter had arrived.
  There was no change at Lade with a Dartford Warbler still present in the gorse scrub beside the main track on south lake.