Sand Martins and Manxie

Dungeness - cold, cloudy, showers, light airs - Following a night of heavy downpours the garden lawn was still covered in white hail stones in the freezing early morning air.
  A tidy seawatch from the hide (0900-1015hrs) over a flat, calm sea produced a close Manx Shearwater heading west and a distant Arctic Skua going east, both new for the year; plus 350 Brents, 80 Common Scoters, 30 Sandwich Terns, 20 Gannets, 25 Red-throated Divers, four Common Terns, Bonxie and a small grebe that was too distant to specifically identify. At least six Porpoises and a Grey Seal were offshore.
  Moving onto the bird reserve where a Black-necked Grebe and two pairs of Mediterranean Gulls were the highlight amongst good numbers of common wildfowl, 10 Ruff and two Ringed Plovers. A pair of Peregrines tussled high over the car park, two Ravens and a pair of Marsh Harriers flew over the hayfields, while we had distant views of the immature Crane on Boulderwall fields along with a cracking summer plum Black-tailed Godwit, a White Wagtail and exceptional views of a Cetti`s Warbler, for a change.
  We completed the Birdwatching Break for our guest with 97 species including a decent collection of migrant seabirds, waders, raptors, chats, warblers and a Crane.

                                Migrating Brents under glowering skies

Sand Martin - This tiny hirundine does not breed locally, but is a regular feature of the birding scene down here on its return migrations which can start as early as June, peaking in August and continue into October. Many hundreds of thousands pour south during that period and funnel onto the peninsula, feeding over the wetlands and roosting in reed beds before striking out across the Channel to France and beyond.
  However, during spring they can be surprisingly scarce as their northern migrations are undertaken across a broader front and being more dynamic than the autumn they rarely tarry awhile. During my time living here I`ve gone through several springs without seeing a single bird, but not so this year as the humble Sand Martin has been noted in unprecedented numbers. I must`ve clocked up a couple of hundred so far this spring; while around 500 pulsed over Dengemarsh this morning with hopefully many more to come throughout the month.