Monday 15 April 2019

Puffin at last!

                        

Dungeness - cold, sunny, ESE 4 - 0615-0845hrs - A terrific seawatch from the hide this morning resulted in a Dunge tick in the shape of two Puffins attached to a down-Channel flock of Guillemots, thanks to a call out from MC. Seabirds streamed by throughout the watch with over a thousand auks and Common Scoters and hundreds of Gannets and Sandwich Terns, plus lesser numbers of Red-throated Divers, Common Terns, at least 10 Fulmars, 10 Arctic Terns, five Little Gulls, a Manx Shearwater, nine Arctic Skuas, a drake Scaup and four Velvet Scoters. Other wildfowl included 10 Brents, 20 Shovelers, 20 Teal, 10 Gadwall, six Shelducks and four Mergansers along with single figures of Barwit, Curlew, Whimbrel, Sanderling and Ringed Plover. Superb stuff.
NB: Dungeness seabird passage details are now available to view on: www.trektellen.nl


                                   A few of the many Gannets this morning


Scotney - Spent the afternoon guiding for Alan and Caroline from Hampshire. We started at the farm where at least 20 Yellow Wagtails were active outback, also Corn Bunting, Tree Sparrow and Skylark, while on the wetlands two Greenshanks were new for the year. Also noted 20 Egyptian Geese, 12 Avocets, two Buzzards, Little Ringed Plover, Peregrine and two Mediterranean Gulls.
  We then moved to Dengemarsh where the Common Crane was feeding in a distant field, and onto ARC for common wildfowl, Swallow, Sand Martin, Sedge Warblers and two Marsh Harriers. We finished the afternoon at the fishing boats, but little was happening with just a few distant Gannets and Sandwich Terns and a Wheatear on the concrete road.

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