Swallows - at last!

 Dungeness - 0600 - 0815hrs - cloudy, mild, SE 2 - Joined the regulars in and around the seawatch hide first thing for what turned out to be a very profitable session indeed with a steady up-Channel stream of seabirds throughout. Bulk numbers were made up of Gannets, Sandwich and Common Terns in the low hundreds and just under a thousand Common Scoters. A Black-throated Diver went through with about 50 Red-throated Divers. A flock of nine Velvet Scoters, four Little Gulls, five Little Terns, 15 Arctic Skuas and three Whimbrels providing more quality, and a couple of year ticks; not that I`m that way inclined, of course... Also noted several Fulmars and Kittiwakes, 30 Brents, a few distant auks, three Mergansers, three Oystercatchers and a Mediterranean Gull. For full details of todays Dungeness seawatch check out the trektellen website later on.

                                 Brents on the move past Dungeness

An early afternoon wander around the spinney and dung heap at the bottom of Church Lane for summer migrants produced several each of singing Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps and, at long last my first three Swallows of spring over the sewage works. Resident breeders noted included Buzzard, Jay, Green Woodpecker, Song Thrush, Yellowhammer and Linnet. Elsewhere today a Black Tern joined the four Little Gulls at Scotney bend (JY) and six Crossbills flew over the Trapping Area earlier.