Heading to Dungeness you never know whats in store. Arguably one of the best sites in the UK for birding, offering a combination of passerine and seawatching opportunities in a great setting.
Arriving at first light by the seawatching hide I quickly ingratiated myself with some hardcore birders from the observatory. My skua ID is not yet up to scratch so I hunkered down and shamelessly dovetailed the experts.
Within an hour we racked up RN grebe, RT Diver, Gannet, Eider, C Scoter, GC Grebe and a distant Arctic Skua. Nice going in good weather conditions, contrary to the foul, sodden experience Jonty and I had earlier in the year.
No hunkering down in a rancid shed for us, we were out and proud, sat atop the shingle hill for all to see. Quite quickly, PC Plod got onto us though. A couple of tough guys from the power station came over, fully tooled up with "some sort of machine gun". This created some birding comedy gold as Plod started quizzing us on bird knowledge to check we weren't terrorists.
"Oh yeah, what are you looking at this morning?"
"Is that rare?"
"How did you find out it was here?"
"How do you recognise them then?"
Total mirth. As if 10 guys in wax jackets with £5k optical equipment, bad facial hair, wild eyes and no social skills were capable of crimes against the nation..........on second thoughts, maybe Plod was onto something?
Back to the seawatching and a small skua bombed in from the East. The group elders quickly speculating Long-Tailed, which was soon confirmed when this little beauty started chasing terns alongside an Arctic, giving great size and colour comparisons. Nice - first lifer of the day.
Quite content, I quickly bashed around the observatory, finding a couple of Ouzels and bagging a nice Hobby overhead.
A quick bacon barm, a cup of rank coffee and it was off in search of Buff-Breasted Sandpiper. Reported the day before down the road I was pretty confident of bagging my second lifer.
I pulled over, jumped out and got straight onto these "mini-Ruffs". I quite enjoyed the thought of Jonty seeing these bad boys at the same time over in Mexico on the correct migration path.
Just as I set-up my camera, someone starting going hyper about a Barred Warbler "on the reserve". Unbelievable, a chance of a third lifer in the day!
Back in the car, a quick flapjack in the reserve shop and some clodding to the far side of the reserve. I joined the waiting pack of twitchers and before long the juvenile Barred popped out to eat some blackberries. Pretty unmistakeable next to Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps, this was a great bird to add to my list. With the rain starting to come down, fading light and plenty of twigs in the way I just managed to pap him before heading home in fine fettle.
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