Weekly summary

Lade/Dungeness - warm, dry and sunny - Superb day to be out and about in the field with light winds and no rain. At 0700hrs whilst still dark a steady stream of Redwings could be heard passing over the cottage and heading inland. We started off on the local patch where a Dartford Warbler showed briefly along the main track. Great White Egret, Marsh Harrier, Kingfisher, Cetti`s Warbler and Chiffchaff also noted around the willow swamp while Goldeneye were up to six in number across both lakes along with four Shelducks.
   More Goldeneyes, Marsh Harriers and Great White Egrets were seen around the bird reserve, plus a single Cattle Egret on the Boulderwall fields amongst the stock. The walk down to the pines and out the back of Tower pits delivered more Redwings along with several Song Thrushes and Blackbirds, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Sparrowhawk, Long-tailed Tit, Goldcrest and Chiffchaff.
  Elsewhere this week a few White-fronted and Pink-footed Geese have attached themselves to a grey goose flock along with a single Tundra Bean Goose. The flock has been on the fields between Cockles Bridge and Lydd but the farmer tends to moves them on, where bye they decamp to Scotney along with hundreds of feral geese. A handful of Bewick`s Swans are also in the general area, often associating with Mute Swans on the rape-seed fields. Caspian and Yellow-legged Gulls have been located at the point, and roosting on Burrowes, while the sea has the usual wintering birds including the occasional passing Velvet Scoter, Eider and Merganser. Egret numbers have thinned out with just a single Cattle and several Great Whites present.
  The settled weather saw plenty of birders out around the peninsula today enjoying the sunshine, although the forecast is for more rain over the weekend.

Storm Diana

Dungeness - mild, cloudy, SW 6 - A wander down to the fishing boats this morning in windy conditions with the rain clearing delivered a steady westward movement of Gannets, Cormorants, auks, Kittiwakes and Red-throated Divers, plus one flock of six Common Scoters. A 1st winter Caspian Gull flew from the puddles by the fishing boats towards the lighthouse.
  On the bird reserve a Cattle Egret was on the Boulderwall fields, a Great White Egret on a windswept Burrowes and five White-fronts flew over within a grey goose flock towards Cockles Bridge from the access road. There was no change on Lade pits, while the beach was almost impossible to check due to the near gale force wind.

Winter closes in

Lade - wet and windy - Yesterday it was fog, today a warm, rain-bearing wind from the south in Mordor-like light. This really is a grim time of year, made worse by the run in to the dreaded Christmas feeding frenzy of rampant consumerism and excesses which the besieged planet can more than do without. "Black Friday or Buy now and have the lot before Christmas," the adverts scream - everywhere you look, read or listen in the media its the same message, have more, load up that credit card and get into debt with crap you don't really need, its inescapable. 
  Day and night vast container ships akin to floating blocks of flats pass Dungeness heading for the ports of Felixstowe and Rotterdam to unload cargoes of those `essentials` for the festive season; plastic Santa's, fairy lights and the like at goodness knows what cost to the environment in China and south-east Asia. I can see why some folk bugger off abroad for a month or two to get away from it all, its just so depressing. Still, there`s always the Brexit vote to look forward to next month...
  Anyhow, that's enough ranting for now. Meanwhile on the local patch there is a sense of the natural world settling into winter mode with the arrival of Goldeneyes on the lakes and waders on the bay. Dartford Warblers also appear to have established winter territories in the gorse scrub while Bittern, Bearded Tit and Water Rail are also present in the reedbeds and willow swamp.
  An hour at the fishing boats this morning in the company of MC provided a steady flow of typical winter seabirds offshore in the form of Gannet, Kittiwake, Great Crested Grebe, Red-throated Diver, Guillemot and at least one Razorbill. Before I arrived Eider and Velvet Scoter were also noted. 

Grey geese

Lade - grey and overcast - Another gloomy day throughout, although a brief glimpse of a Dartford Warbler by south lake track brightened up a circuit of the local patch where six Goldeneyes, Great White Egret and a Marsh Harrier noted.

                                Bewick`s Swans on the move

St Mary`s Bay - A walk along the foreshore at high tide searching for buntings drew a blank.
Cockles Bridge - An early afternoon call from Martin tipped us off to a large flock of Greylags grazing a distant rape-seed field along with a decent variety of interlopers including five White-fronts and two Pink-footed Geese. A Tundra Bean Goose was also present but just out of view. Whilst there four Bewick`s Swans flew in to join the Mutes.
  A second visit later in the afternoon to check for the Bean Goose drew a blank as the grey goose flock had been flushed off the fields by the farmer.

Dunlins on the beach

Saturday - A day trip to Boulogne with the family yesterday while not a birding trip did deliver a few bits and pieces on the drive down the coast road from Calais. Several Buzzards, a covey of six Grey Partridges, hundreds of Lapwings and a field full of mostly Mediterranean Gulls were noted along the way. Around Boulogne harbour there were plenty more gulls including Yellow-legged and at least one Caspian Gull, several Little Egrets and a Black Redstart. At the Calais Channel tunnel terminal on the way home hundreds of Jackdaws roosted on the overhead gantries

                               Dunlins and Barney on the beach

Lade - grey and overcast, E2 - Another grim day with low light and the threat of rain. A circuit of the local patch coincided with an incoming tide where 200 Dunlin were counted on the bay sands along with 200 Curlews, 100 Sanderling and 350 Oystercatchers, plus lesser numbers of Grey and Ringed Plovers and five Shelducks.
  On the lakes two drake Goldeneyes were amongst five redheads, otherwise there was no change in the wildfowl from last week.

Winter`s coming...

Dungeness - mild and overcast - A drab sort of day with light airs that got steadily brighter into the afternoon. A walk along the foreshore at the point first thing was almost birdless apart from a few Mipits and Goldfinches overhead. Offshore the usual Gannets, Kittiwakes and auks.

                                Bewick`s Swans, ARC

  There was much more to see on the bird reserve where the two Bewick`s Swans showed well from Hanson hide having just flown in from Cockles Bridge. The islands were packed out with several hundred Lapwing, Shoveler, Teal, Shelduck, Pintail, plus 10 Black-tailed Godwit and two Dunlin. A Bittern broke cover from the far reedbed along with several Bearded Tits and two Marsh Harriers and a Sparrowhawk kept the ducks on the move. Also noted Great White Egret, Goldeneye, Water Rail, Chiffchaff, Kestrel, Long-tailed Tit and Reed Bunting. The bushes down towards the pines attracted several each of Blackbird, Redwing, Fieldfare and Goldcrest.

                                Kestrel
 
  The islands on Burrowes were covered in hundreds of black-backed gulls, Cormorants and Lapwings. In amongst the throng were at least two adult Yellow-legged Gulls, a handful of Golden Plovers, two Great White Egrets around the margins and five Goldeneyes on the water. All we needed was a Smew to make it really feel like winter had arrived.
  There was no change at Lade with a Dartford Warbler still present in the gorse scrub beside the main track on south lake.
 

Bewick`s Swans

Lade - cold and grey - Winter seems to have crept in over the past few days with Goldeneyes on both lakes, Water Rails wailing from the willow swamp and a flyover Bittern in front of the wall `mirror`. A skulking Dartford Warbler showed briefly in the footpath gorse and a couple of Goldcrests and a Chiffchaff had attached themselves to a tit flock by the ponds.
Dungeness - Eventually tracked down the two Bewick`s Swans amongst a flock of Mutes in the oil-seed rape field near Cockles Bridge; up to five have been roosting this week on ARC. From Hanson hide five Goldeneyes, six Pintails, four Shelducks and 250 Shovelers amongst the usual suspects. A cracking adult female Marsh Harrier flew over flushing everything, while a Water Rail fed in front of the hide. Also noted Great and Little Egrets, Snipe and Goldcrest.