Black Redstart

Dungeness - cold, sunny, w 3 - A morning session with the guests checking the gulls around the point for white-wingers drew another blank, although an Iceland Gull was seen earlier by TG and SO at the Patch. From the beach near the lifeboat station thousands of gulls could be seen across Lade bay feeding on bivalve molluscs and other crustaceans providing an impressive spectacle, and a Peregrine sat atop the power station structure basking in the sunshine. The foreshore opposite Jarman`s attracted several Meadow Pipits and a couple of pairs of Skylarks into song and we had good views of a male Black Redstart and four Stonechats in a private garden.

                               Black Redstart, Dungeness

  Moving onto Scotney and the roadside pits held the usual feral Barnacle Goose and Wigeon flock, plus a few Redshanks, two Shelducks, a distant Marsh Harrier and flocks of Golden Plovers and Lapwings. A couple of hours driving the lanes of Walland Marsh was a largely fruitless affair apart from 10 each of Kestrel and Buzzard, 200 Fieldfares at Midley and 10 Corn Buntings off Caldecote Lane.
  We finished the Birdwatching Break for Clare and Peter on 94 species birds.