Warm, dry and cloudy, SW3 - A most pleasant couple of days of weather, particularly yesterday with the sunshine elevating temperatures into the low teens. At Lade the Dabchicks were trilling across the wetlands along with soaring/displaying Buzzards and Marsh Harriers over the Desert, while the Boulderwall wetlands was full of activity from wildfowl, Lapwings, Curlews and egrets. Today was cloudier with a blustery wind for our circuit of Dungeness during which I noted at least 10 Stonechats holding territories, plus a few singing Meadow Pipits, Skylarks, Dunnocks and Pied Wagtails. The sea was relatively quiet with just a couple of skeins of Brents moving up-Channel and a scattering of Great Crested Grebes, Guillemots and Red-throated Divers on the sea. Cockles Bridge held a flock of egrets (15 Cattle and seven Little) on the sheep paddock and a pair of Whooper Swans in the cereal field opposite. The wintering Bewick`s Swan flock on Walland has now departed on its long and hazardous journey to their breeding grounds in northern Russia.
Sad to say that I`m from a generation of birders that has fond memories of the hey-days of the sewerage farm - Maple Cross, Perry Oaks, Reading and Wisbech spring to mind. Throughout the 1960`s most were upgraded, rendering many not so bird-rich; although I was fortunate enough to have Dunstable Sewage Works as my local patch for nearly 30 years which retained four tertiary treatment lagoons, plus additional ponds and scrapes when part of the site was designated a nature reserve.
However, I mention this while lamenting the demolition of the small treatment plant in A Station at Dungeness this morning; for those of you not so familiar with the layout, it was the section that could be viewed from behind the seawatch hide just beyond the wall. The circular sprinklers over clinker attracted insects which in turn lured the likes of Black Redstart, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit and Chiffchaff to feed, and where once I saw a Hoopoe!
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