Dungeness - warm, dry and sunny - For once a superb day and a relief to be out in the field after the dull, dreary wet weather of late. We started at Lade to give Ted a bit of leg room out across the desert towards the water tower and back along Mockmill behind the `mirrors` where two Buzzards and a Kestrel were hunting the wet fields. There was no change to the duck numbers across both waters with five Goldeneyes and a drake Pintail still present. Moving onto Dungeness a 30 minute seawatch from the boats delivered plenty of auks, Kitts and Gannets moving offshore plus a party of five east-bound Pintails. Next stop the bird reserve where hundreds more wintering wildfowl were on ARC from Hanson hide including two more Pintails, four Shelducks and two Goldeneyes. The wet fields across the road at Boulderwall looked superb in the bright sunshine and perfect habitat for the wader passage this spring, for which I`ve got high hopes... However, today c500 Lapwings and a couple of Curlews were present along with a hundred or more feral geese and three cracking drake Pintails that dropped in on what was formerly Tanners Pool. Across the wetlands down to Dengemarsh at least six Great White Egrets were noted along with `pinging` Bearded Tits from the ramp, several Marsh Harriers, Buzzards, Kestrels and a Sparrowhawk, and a Water Pipit on the flood. We finished the day off checking the bay waders where eight species were logged. Bird of the day though was the Pintail, surely the smartest of ducks.
Elsewhere this past week the two wintering Whooper Swans are still around Walland, although mobile; this morning they were reported from Cockles Bridge. On Monday I saw seven distant Tundra/Pink-footed Geese and 42 Bewick`s at Midley, plus hundreds of Fieldfares and a few Redwings, Yammers and Tree Sparrows along the remaining hedgerows that have survived the ravages of the landowners. The small grey goose flock containing White-fronts, Tundra/Pink-footed Geese was also reported on Walland today from Beaconsfield fleet by SM.
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