The Divers of Dungeness!!

 I have had a reasonable start to 2024, bit of local birding has gotten my list up to 66, but felt a proper birding trip was required, with talk of Divers, wild Swans and Geese in the Dunge area, I decided to give it a go. With freezing temperatures and the probability (%100) of standing on a beach looking out to sea for hours on end Margie decided  to stay at home😲😱!!I don't like to use the word lightweight but...........!!😁😂

I set off in the dark timing my arrival to first light at Scotney Pits, where there had been a Dotterel reported in with a large flock of Golden Plover. Needless to say I couldn't even find the flock of Plovers let alone the Dotterel, not a good start😢!! Although the reports were a couple of days previous so not that down hearted. I never seem to see anything at Scotney, I never know where to park and the viewing is distant, today was particularly poor with just the usual Wildfowl on offer!! 

I decided to head to the point for a Seawatch  as I drove along the road past the RSPB reserve two Great White Egrets flew parallel to the car for a while, things were improving! On arrival at the point things improved further, whilst layering up (thermal everything and melt yer head hat) a pair of Peregrines buzzed around, quite a dilemma trying to set up the camera whilst putting me boot back on, needless to say I missed the best of it, couple of pics below!! 

Peregrine

 Disclaimer: At this point I would like to say, that the quality of the pics today, especially on the sea-watching ones is fairly low, although later they do improve, back to my usual level of mediocrity so stick with it!! The light was very poor and the birds fast moving and far away!! 

So I made it to the point, set up the scope, a couple of other guys arrived and opened up the hide, I decided to stay outside, with little wind I find you get a much better all around view from outside. So I watched from 8.00 Am until 9.30 Am. The main stars of the show were the the Red-throated Divers in the time I was there 552 went past!😲 Now I know what you are all thinking, what dedication to tick off all those birds!! Obviously not!! I was too busy mucking around trying to get pics to count accurately.😂 When I was leaving I asked the guys in the hide, one of whom had a clicker on his scope, proper birders!!!😀

Whilst numbers were high variety was quite low, 100s of Cormorants, lots of Great Crested Grebes (50+) mostly on the sea, Auks going through, distant and from what I could tell mainly Guillemots though picked out a couple of likely Razorbills. A big flock of Gannets were feeding offshore, always fun to see them diving into the sea, but they were a long way out, in fact most of the action was far out to sea, invisible to the naked eye and even difficult with Bins!! A few pics below, one of which shows the importance of checking photos carefully!!

Red-throated Diver

A flock of what I think are Teal

A pic showing the general carnage Divers, going through, a flock of Gannets etc

Grebes on the Sea and flying through

Did you spot it above!! I didn't until I looked at the pics Great Crested Grebe at the front Red-necked Grebe to the rear!! In my defence, through the viewfinder these were just two blobs racing through had I got them in the scope I would probably have spotted it!! Noticed it straight away when looking at the pics, confirmed on FB, not sure if the guys in the hide had it, never said if they did anyway!!!

Another pic showing the different wing pattern, the GCG is also longer and thinner than the stockier RNG. Armchair year tick for me!! Hurrah😂

Gannets, sadly about the closest they came!!

Was distracted from the sea by this Black-headed Gull, which is in almost full breeding plumage, gone a bit early there fella!!😂

Was also distracted by the Peregrine making another sortie from the Power Station, would of missed this had I been in the hide!

Back to the sea, three Common Scoter, I think!!

Red-throated Diver, classic head down profile

Six RT Divers, came through in loose groups of up to 30 birds!!

Small flock of Auks, easy to miss when they go through at distance

The Dungeness Buoy 

Auks and Cormorants with GCG on the sea

More RT Divers

The closest an Auk came, Guillemot

Red-throated Diver

By 9.30, I was getting a bit chilly, so decided to head for the reserve, Once again as I was sorting myself out at the car the Peregrines put on a show, this time with a Feral Pigeon for company!! 

Peregrine, tore off up the beach, disappeared for a minute and then was back, you could follow it's progress by watching the other birds in the area panicking as it passed 

Back again in hot pursuit, unfortunately I didn't get a pic of the prey!!!

An actual stoop!!!!

Twisting into the attack, they are so manoeuvrable! 

Team Peregrine

She's run off with me dinner!!

I don't actually know what happened to the Pigeon at the end there was only one Peregrine remaining, it spent some time "hovering" (flying along slowly with rapid wingbeats looking down, not like a Kestrel) examining the ground, so whether the other one was on the ground feeding I don't know!! This  kind of action is why I love birding, watching these guys working as a team, twisting, turning, diving, relentless in their attack, the Pigeon doing everything it can to stay alive, nature at it's best!!!

Go on then one last pic!!!

I checked out the Power Station fence and grounds  for Black Redstarts, no luck so headed off, as I was driving past the fishing boat area, movement to my left, Merlin being chased by a crow!!! Pulled up sharpish, but by the time I'd got out of the car, all I could see was a rather puffed up crow looking pleased with itself!! I scanned likely perching points to no avail!! Denied!!!!

Very pleased with proceedings I headed to the reserve!!

On arrival I headed straight to Dennis Hide, where a Black-throated Diver has been knocking about for a few weeks, usually in this situation I will walk in the hide and the resident Birder will say, should of been here 10 mins ago it was sticking it's head in the window, whilst pointing at a distant dot on the far side of the lake,😢Not today it was right in front of the hide!!!

Black-throated Diver (BTD)

(BTD)

BTD

BTD every angle covered

Great Northern Diver (GND) I was told they were asleep on the far side when this one popped up right in front of the hide, so close I had to shoot through vegetation!! Three GND present all feeding in front of the hide

BTD note the white patch at the back, a good ID pointer

GND

GND

GND

GND

BTD

BTD

BTD

GND

GND ride much lower in the water then BTD

GND

This GND adopted this posture, thought it might be ill, but was soon diving and feeding with the others

GND

GND

BTD

GND

GND

GND

GND Diving

GND predive scan

BTD

BTD

BTD

BTD

Superb birds when seen close, though all a bit black and white 😂. Bit of sunshine would of helped!! Also viewable from the hide, were a couple of Goldeneye, a Robin, Gulls, and the usual Wildfowl and a Marsh Harrier flew over!!

Great Black-backed Gulls

Marsh Harrier

Marsh Harrier

Trio of Shoveller

Goldeneye, a male and two females were on the far side, the male decided to give me a flypast, much appreciated

Robin, nice splash of colour on a grey day

Another  couple of Shoveller 

I dragged myself away and after calling into the visitor center to show my card, I headed out for a circuit of the reserve. I'm not sure of the RSPBs thinking on the hides on Burrows Pit, obviously the hides had to be replaced and I appreciate that hides are expensive, I'm not that fond of them to be honest, but they seem to have ended up with the worst of both worlds. Before the change there were signs everywhere saying, keep off the banks so as not to disturb the birds and rightly so. Now at the former sites of Firth and Scott hides there are view points with benches meaning people will be in full view of the birds!!  Not sure what benefits from this, not the birds which will be constantly flushed as people appear at the viewpoint and not people as the birds will be flushed as soon as they appear. A few years ago at the Scott Hide I had lovely views of a Kingfisher feeding right in front of the hide, zero chance of that now, so not only will people miss out on that experience but the Kingfishers lose access to a good fishing spot, surely for the same amount of money spent on benches and pagoda type arrangement they could have put in a viewing screen with observation slits and various heights!! There is nothing as yet on the corner where the Makepiece Hide was, it awaits to be seen what will be put there!!  Sorry about that, rant over!!!😂

The reserve was fairly quiet, couple of Snipe flew over, lots of Ducks about the place, several Marsh Harriers seen, though couldn't find the Hen Harrier that had been reported several times during the past week, Stonechats and the best bird of this bit a Female Goldeneye in front of the Dengemarsh Hide!

Lapwing

Cormorant, loads on Burrows pit 

Tufted Duck

Snipe

Goldeneye

Great Crested Grebe, not many about, must be all on the sea!

Marsh Harrier

Tufted Ducks

Think these are Wigeon

I arrived at Hookers Ramp, could hear Beardies, suddenly they appeared by the grit tray and gave fabulous views, sadly they didn't cross into the nearest Reedbed so the pics are not as good as they could be!

Male Bearded Tit

Grit Tray with Beardies

Three in this pic, think there were about 8 in the flock

Female Bearded Tit

Also from the Ramp, Water Rail was heard Squealing and Cetti's Warbler in brief bursts! A Great White Egret flew in and landed over the back.

Great White Egret

Leaving Hookers I completed a circuit of the reserve, via the entrance track, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and Stonechats the best of it!I found a big flock of Golden Plover, but they were miles away and the scope was in the car, have studied the pics and can't spot an obvious Dotterel! Had another quick look at the Divers but they were asleep miles away!!

Sparrowhawk

Golden Plover and Lapwings

Marsh Harrier

Grey Heron

The Plovers taking to the air en-masse!

Curlew, several on the grasslands, but again distant

Flyover Snipe

Stonechat Female

Stonechat Male

Kestrel

View over the reserve, despite my rant earlier it's a stunning place

Goldeneye, flying in

GND put it's head up for a moment

Wren

I decided to head for the Walland Marsh with a view to seeing the two Tundra Bean Geese and flock of Bewick Swans that had been reported. On the way I stopped off at the Arc Pit, no sign of any Glossy Ibis and everything was a bit far away for pics. I also called in at Marshfield Lane, I've had Cattle Egret here before and found two today, hurrah!! On the way to the Swan location had lots of Common Gulls on the fields and a flock off Mistle Thrush!!

Cattle Egret

Lapwing

Common Gull

Mistle Thrush

I arrived at the Swans, they were surprisingly close to the road as were the Tundra Bean Geese, which was handy!!!

Tundra Bean Geese

Bewick Swans

Nice to see some young uns

Fieldfares

With a bit of time left, I decided to hunt down more Geese at Pett Level, it's on the way home and with Pinkfoot and Whitefront reported off I went!!

On arrival, there was another birder present, he'd had the Pinkfoot! Whoop!!But wasn't currently on it! Damn!! The Whitefonts were easy enough, several in with the Greylags, the Pinkfoot was another matter but the other guy picked it out for me which was handy and much appreciated!! I'd been pointing out stuff to people all day at Dunge so felt this was a bit of Karma!!

Skylarks on the parking space

White-fronted Goose

Pinkfoot (small one at the front) you'll be amazed I didn't tick the White one!!😂

My new best mate, informed me that there was a large flock of Common Scoter on the sea with six Velvet Scoters in it!! I turned around and started scanning, they were very distant, basically I needed them to fly as at that range picking out the subtle differences were difficult, I did pick out a couple of slightly larger birds but the buggers kept diving, time passed, I got colder, Scoters refused to fly or even sit still, the other guy left, I kept at it, frostbite was setting in, several Scoter sat up and flapped none had the required white patches in the appropriate places. Dagnabit!!  Suddenly one sat up wings opened, big white patches!!!!! Hurrah!!! The other guy heard my cry of "yesssssss" from the other end of the sea defences!!! 😂 No pictures obviously they were miles away and it was getting very gloomy!!!

That was it headed home!

 It's nearly 2 hours from Dunge to my house but it's always worth the trip, a great days' winter birding, a few targets missed no Whooper Swans, Black Redstart, Glossy Ibis or Hen Harrier but small quibbles with the high quality birding on offer!!!! Hopefully a couple of White-winged Gulls will turn up in the next month and give me an excuse to revisit.