Dungeness - warm, dry and sunny, SE2 - 0500hrs - 0900hrs - It was a fine morning for an early circuit of the RSPB reserve where almost the first bird I saw in the ARC car park was a Barn Owl perched on an overhead wire! Boulderwall fields seemed alive with egrets, including nine Cattle, two Great Whites and three Little Egrets, along with several Grey Herons, Cuckoo, Hobby, Bittern, Marsh Harrier, Bearded Tit and the usual suite of warblers that all showed well around the trails. The hayfields held the regular breeding Lapwings and Redshanks, while there was still no sign of any terns on Burrowes. The Ring-necked Duck was again present in front of Hanson hide. Whilst on site news came through of an Icterine Warbler trapped at the Obs, which I managed to miss in the hand by 10 minutes; and despite searching the moat for an hour, where it was released, it could not be relocated. At Lade the only birds of note were a Cuckoo in the willow swamp and ten Swifts overhead.
After breakfast we walked the Hope Lane loop where several Painted Lady butterflies were on the wing in the warm sunshine. The sewers and ditches held plenty of chattering Reed Warblers and croaking Marsh Frogs. Talking to a couple of landowners en-route confirmed my suspicions that Swallow numbers are low this summer as both said that they only had a pair or two in their stables, whereas normally they would be far more numerous. Yesterday I checked out Littlestone where traditionally Swifts and House Martins have nested in the old sea-front buildings in previous summers; but I could find no sign of either species.
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