Spotted Flycatcher

Dungeness - 0515 - 0900hrs - warm, dry and sunny, W 1-3 - A cracking still morning that got increasingly windier as the day progressed. I managed an hour in the seawatching hide first thing, but little was moving apart from a few Gannets, Sandwich Terns and Mediterranean Gulls. Around the old lighthouse, Stonechat, Black Redstart, Wheatear, Meadow Pipit, Whitethroat and Linnet were all noted in song. Moving onto the top end of Long Pits where it was just the usual scrub warblers and a migrant Spotted Flycatcher, my first of the year. Across Dengemarsh there was plenty of breeding activity from scrub and reed warblers, Oystercatcher, Redshank and Lapwing, Cuckoo, Marsh Harrier, Shelduck, Shoveler, Teal, Gadwall and Pochard. Also noted: a Hobby at Hookers, a Greenshank on hayfield 3 and several Yellow Wagtails, two Great White and a Cattle Egret and a Barn Owl at Boulderwall.

                                 Rear view of Spotted Flycatcher, Long Pits

                                 Yellow Wagtail, Hayfield 3

A midday check of Romney Warren delivered a singing Cuckoo, Blackcaps and Reed Warblers, while all was quiet in the spinney at Dunes Road. A check of the bay on a falling tide from Littlestone delivered the usual Oystercatchers and Curlews, plus two Sanderlings in summer plumage.