Great Tits

Dungeness - mild, cloudy, wsw 2 - Joined OL and RW in the seawatch hide first thing for a short watch with nothing much happening apart from one flock of 50 Brent Geese, plus a trickle of Red-throated Divers and Kittiwakes up-Channel, although the first Common Tern of spring had been reported earlier.

    Brents on the move up-Channel

  A wander around the bushes delivered a noticeable increase in Great Tits and by the time I arrived at the Obs DW confirmed that at least some may have been of continental origin as a party of high flying birds were seen to drop into the moat. In the field the British race Parus major newtoni is indistinguishable from the continental race P. m. major, but a bird in the hand confirmed the latter by  biometrics (a short, slender bill), greyish upperparts and a thick layer of body fat.
  Meadow Pipit, Skylark and Linnet were all in song across the peninsula with a Wheatear on the foreshore near the lifeboat station. Also noted several Goldfinches, two Redwings, two Chiffchaffs and a Peregrine over the power station.

                                Continental Great Tit, DBO

  A guided walk for six birders around the circular route this morning was less than inspiring with 10 Ruff and four Avocets on Burrowes, Snipe and Black-necked Grebe on Christmas Dell the highlights.
Also noted plenty of Reed Buntings and Great Tits, several singing Chiffchaffs and Cetti`s Warblers, two Marsh Harriers, Curlew, Egyptian Goose and Little Egret.

                                Cook`s Pool, Boulderwall