Lade/Dungeness - mild, cloudy, showery, SW3 - We started our morning Ted walk from the bridge at Lade where a viz mig produced a light south-bound, overhead passage of mostly Meadow Pipits, Skylarks, Goldfinches and Chaffinches, plus a few Reed Buntings, Redpolls and Siskins during half an hour (0815-0845hrs). There was no change to the small numbers of wildfowl on the waters, while the drake Goldeneye from last Friday was still present on north lake. Moving onto the point where a wander around the land delivered more overhead migrants of the type logged at Lade, plus four Swallows and a Brambling. Grounded migrants were minimal with Robins the most numerous, but did include two nervy Ring Ouzels in the gorse at the southern end of the Trapping Area. After calling in at the Obs for a natter we wandered down to the Patch, more in hope than expectation, with a shingle lorry thundering up and down and a heavy shower forcing sanctuary in the hide. However, as I opened a flap, sat down and scanned along the foreshore I couldn`t believe my luck; a juvenile Sabine`s Gull flew slowly by close to shore picking up food from the breakers and pausing awhile on the sea, before drifting off west towards Penn Bars. And it seems as though we may well dip in with a few more pelagic seabirds later in the week as a deep area of low pressure is forecast to sweep in from the Atlantic and the Western Approaches bringing damaging winds and heavy rain along the Channel coastline, courtesy of named Storm Ciaran.
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