A Kentish Jaunt 12th September 2017
I may spend most of life back in my home county of Essex at
my beloved RSPB Rainham Marshes but the county in which I reside, Kent,
probably accounts for a fair amount of my non-work related birding nowadays and
this today we headed south to RSPB Dungeness in the hope of a grand autumnal
day out.
The day did not start in a too auspicious way with Pat
missing the A2 entirely resulting in a 20 minute delay in collecting me that
cost us a visit to the Golden Arches for pre-birding calorie intake. The
journey was not without recompense with a fine male Peregrine over the Medway
bridge and several Buzzards perched along the roadsides.
We arrived back on time at 0730 at the ARC car park to be
greeted by not only the rest of the posse for the day but a steady passage of
House and then Sand Martins heading towards the coast and a winter in more
African climes. Chaffinches and
Greenfinches were also moving and several Meadow Pipits and Yellow Wagtails
headed over. The day felt birdy...
Down at the Hanson Hide the view was the best in many years
with islands and spits but alas there was nothing among the Lapwings. A scan of
the duck revealed mostly Shoveler with a few Gadwall, Mallard, Teal, a solitary
Pintail and a fine Garganey that actually paddled towards us until it was the
closest duck.
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| Greylags coming in |
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| Garganey |
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| Garganey |
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| Polish cygnet with regular sibling and Dad... |
The amble back produced a few more hirundines and a small
party of Tree Sparrows while the long willow hedge was chock full of warblers
and we spent an enjoyable forty minutes getting close views of at least 15
Willow Warblers and ten Chiffchaffs flycatching and gleaning from the sheltered
sunny frontage. Both species were
singing well. Lesser Whitethroat, Blackcap and Reed Warblers were also present
along with a good number of Long-tailed, Blue and Great Tits.
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| Willow Warbler |
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| Chiffchaff |
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Lesser Whitethroat - Denis Tuck
|
A Green Woodpecker was glued to the telegraph pole and a
female Sparrowhawk was the first of several migrant hunters seen during the
day.
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| Large Flowered Evening primrose |
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| Tasty Sea Buckthorn - packed with vit c |
It felt like there would be a heap more migrants down at the
Obs so we headed that way – passing four Great White Egrets on the ARC for good
measure. The lighthouse garden only held one Chiffchaff and a couple of Meadow
Pipits in the surrounding area as we headed to the sea. The tide was right out
and the view sparsely populated with birds. A few Common and a single Arctic
Tern were on the Patch along with a delightful juvenile Little Gull and 1st
winter Yellow-legged, Med and Common Gulls added interest. Sandwich Terns and a
few Gannets were passing out to sea but it was otherwise disappointing so we
retraced our steps towards the Obs.
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| The Patch looking west towards Fairlight |
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| The Obs |
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| Sparrowhawk - Denis Tuck |
Again the bushes were very quiet with one Goldcrest for our
troubles but there was a profusion of butterflies including Small Coppers,
Brown Argus, Painted Ladies and non-stop Clouded Yellows. Two Hummingbird
Hawkmoths kept us similarly photographically challenged.
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| Painted Lady |
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| Small Tortoiseshell |
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| Small Copper |
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| Brown Argus (I reckon) & Small Copper |
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| Hummingbird
Hawkmoth |
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| Wheatear |
Another female Sparrowhawk erupted from cover and terrified
the Moat leaving us with a few Mipits and four Wheatear so we cut across
towards the Desert in the hope of finding the Wryneck. Bumping into Lee Gregory
added negative news for the day but we pushed on and were delighted when the
rest of the Obs team refound it grovelling at the base of some sheltered
brambles when we were only fifty yards away.
The next half hour was pure Wryneck magic with a superlative
views as it fed completely unphased by our presence, lapping up ants with that
sticky pink tongue. Gill was particularly pleased as it was a lifer for here
and I think the others had only seen one or two a piece.
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| Wryneck |
Walk away views of the highest order and we left it hovering
and ambled back towards the cars. It was now back to the reserve and hopefully
the Cattle Egrets. Pulling up at Boulderwall revealed no close live stock and I
was just scanning around when I picked up the Osprey way off over towards the
Denge Marsh Pits. I was just trying to give directions when the two Cattle
Egrets flew through my front vision resulting in a change of focus. They landed out of sight but by walking back down the road
great views were had as they fed, more Little Egret like, along the margins of
the fleet. I never did see the Osprey again!
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| One of these with the orange bill is a Cattle Egret |
An early lunch in the now warm sunshine with several Migrant
Hawkers for company and then off on the circuit that began with an amazing
Common Wasp nest in a disused Fox burrow by the Dennis Hide. Small Heath was added to the butterfly list
and a large Rove beetle that I think is one of the Platydracus species.
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| Migrant
Hawker |
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| Fox hole with new occupants |
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| Such an amazing piece of artistry... |
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| Platydracus sp - I think |
The new Burrows Pit islands area features are looking superb
and Angela showed my some of the cool Black-headed Gull decoys that will be put
out to attract them down to breed. A
couple of Little Egrets and a Common Sandpiper were seen along with a grumpy
looking Great White. Three more GWE’s were on the adjacent Christmas Dell pits
and yet another flew over so we reckon that we had at least six on the site and
we had not seen a Grey Heron at that stage!
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| GWE - it had to be done |
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| Thankfully the sticks prevented me getting a reasonable picture |
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| Damn... an in focus, close-ish, not burnt out picture of a Great White |
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| Burrows... |
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| Actually Black-headed Black-headed Gulls |
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| Yellow Horned Poppy |
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| Century |
The leeward side of the brambles and willows were alive with
Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters and Comma, Peacock and Red Admiral were all
coming down to the late fruit. Eristalis
tenax was the only hoverfly seen and a smart tachinid – Norwikia ferox eluded my camera once again.
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| Red Admiral |
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| Comma |
The wind was strengthening and by the time we reached Denge
Marsh it was really picking up and the temperature was dropping. Two Ruff and a
Golden Plover were with the Lapwing and Grey Heron finally fell. A male Marsh
Harrier spooked the Coots with his persistent quartering.
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| Marsh
Harrier |
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| I think that this little critter is a Water Shrew - not overly black above but much bigger than your average shrew... Denis Tuck |
Down at Hookers we encountered the rare sight of four
sub-species of RSPB volunteer harmoniously working alongside each other. It was
possible to tell the length of service of this ever evolving species by the
colour of their upperpart plumage... They were doing a sterling job of clearing
and burning the reedbed below the viewpoint while the fully fledged RSPB Staff
member was identified by his brushcutter and brightly coloured helmet...
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| Communal behaviour with a mixed flock of RSPB Volunteers |
The rest of the walk back added a couple of late Meadow
Browns while Meadow and Mottled Grasshoppers were seen and Grey Bush Crickets
heard.
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| Meadow
Brown |
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| Mottled Grasshopper |
Oare Marshes was calling so the convoy moved north reaching
the site just before high tide which is not normally the case with my generally
unplanned visits! It was perfect and the next few hours were spent soaking up
the atmosphere and soundscape of a wader roost.
There were great splodges of Black-tailed Godwits and
Redshank with similar patches of ‘doodling’ Golden Plovers and piebald Avocets.
The Long-billed Dowitcher was quickly picked up (thanks Dom) and as hoped even
came closer and performed in its usual corner.
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| LBD sneaking in with the Lapwings - i did not actually realise he was in shot! |
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| LBD showing the long plain tertials and barred tail |
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| LBD - Denis Tuck |
Ringed Plover and Dunlin formed
another amorphous mass with Turnstone and 12 peach fronted juvenile Curlew
Sandpipers keeping us on our toes. As is usual there were a few of each species
not resting up and some were active and under our noses.
Snipe probed the edges and two calling Greenshank eventually gave themselves up
while there was a smattering of Bar-tailed Godwits and Knot amongst the
Blackwits and Redshank. Both cold and frosty adults and cinnamon juvenile Ruff
were dotted around and one juvenile Little Ringed Plover was still at the muddy
end.
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| Golden Plovers |
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| juvenile Curlew Sandpiper |
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| Bar-tailed Godwit - Denis Tuck |
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| Blackwits, Greenshank, Redshank, Dunlin, Black-headed & Common Gull |
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| Dunlin & Ringed Plovers |
This place is wader lover’s dream and an autumn afternoon is
probably the best time and place in the country to come and stand in the fresh
air with the sky all around and experience the sight and sound of Oare at its
best.
Despite the tide being right in we still managed to add
Curlew, Grey Plover and high flying lost Whimbrel to the wader list while 13
Buzzards drifted around Harty Hill with Kestrel, Peregrine and Hobby for
company. There was no sign of the Osprey but Marsh Harriers were hunting the
far bank and a beautiful adult female Hen Harrier snuck across the Swale and
dallied with the waders on the East Flood before continuing on her way.
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| Mirosa |
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| Decamping from the Mirosa with the seriously cross legged dog |
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| Looking across to Harty Hill & Ferry Inn |
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| High Whimbrel |
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| Avocets against the changing weather |
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| Hen Harrier about to spook everything... |
With that we decided that ten hours in the field birding was
probably enough for one day and so after filling up our water bottles at the
spring we bid our farewells and left the still heaving mass of restless waders
behind...
