Caspian Tern has been on my top 3 "Birds I should of seen by now" list for long time! Not since Green-winged Teals avoided me for centuries has a species been so elusive, numerous false alarms, semi-dips and most embarrassingly the bird at Shoreham last year, which I drove right past, before dipping the the next day at sunrise😢 Although number 1 on that list is Black Kite, do they actually exist!!
Anyway, last Wednesday, a Caspian Tern had turned up at Dungeness, one has been in Norfolk, then in Scotland, which due to my green credentials are out of range! But now in range!!! Same bird perhaps! The dilemma? Work!! No chance of going Wednesday, a lot of begging, full puppy eyes and a day off was secured for Thursday. I realised there was little chance, notoriously they are one day birds, but you gotta be in it to win it! Alarm set for 5.30, too late I know, but I'm old and lazy, as it happened I awoke before the alarm and was on the road at 4.30, heroic effort! I could of waited for news, but my house to Dunge at 4.30 is an hour and a half , at 7.30 it's 2 and a half if you're lucky!! Also it's Dunge so even if it had gone it's a great place to visit anyway! I arrive at 6.06! The gate is closed, noooooooo! Bloody RSPB!! Dawn til dusk you gits😡!! So I parked in the Arc Pit, which for some strange reason isn't shut! No news so far, kitted up, Scope,Tripod,Bins, Camera best part of a thousand KG and now a mile and a bit route march!! I'm quite fit for my age, if I was a 107!! I'm off, can I threaten the four minute mile! 300 yards in I hit the wall! Luckily I was distracted by a very bright Wagtail, maybe it was hallucinations from exercise stress but I was thinking Citrine Wagtail another bird on my should have seen by now list, the one on Marazion Beach seemingly able to disappear at will on my arrival! However I began to realise it was a bright Juvenile Pied, probably sent by the Birding Gods to delay me!!!
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| Pied Wagtail |
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| Heron in the Reeds, quick snap |
I headed on, halfway, a bird flies across the track and lands in front on me!! A juvenile Cuckoo, FFS,!!!😂😂😂😱 I've only ever seen a juvenile a couple of times and here is one posing right in front of me!! The BGs are on it today!! I can't resist it. I can almost here the Caspian disappearing over the power station!! I start take pics of the Cuckoo, mercifully, after about 400 pics it flies off across the reserve!
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| Juvenile Cuckoo |
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| Cuckoo |
Stunning bird! People are always going on about the mental health benefits of birding, but my anxiety is through the roof😂😂😱, I march on another 100 yards a fecking Hare walks casually out in front of my, Kin Hell!😱😱 I get a couple of pics and I'm on me way!
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| Hare |
I arrive, start scanning the islands from the picnic area next to Dennis Hide, the furthest island, has two birds on it, one looks like a Tern! The other is a Black-headed Gull and the Tern is bigger than the Gull, could it be, suddenly it moves it's head a large Red Bill swings into view, Yip, Yip, Whoop,Whoop !!!! Hurrah!!!! I set the scope up, looks fantastic in the scope, I look down to sort the camera. look back, it's gone!!!!!!!! I looked to the left and there it is fishing right in front on me!!! So I took some pics😂😂😂!!
By some pics, I obviously mean kin hundreds, in my defence it might be another 25 years before I see one again, what a bird!!! It flew off towards Dengemarsh, I put the news out on Birdguides, another Birder arrived, sadly I had to give him the "you should have been here 5 minutes ago" speech!! I would like to say at this point the bird was never seen again, it would have been a fitting end to the story, However at time of writing 3 days later it's still there!! Talking to some local birders later in the day, they reckoned it was the first one in Kent that has stayed more than a day!!! Me and the the other birder, yes I forgot to ask his name even though we spent the best part of two hours scouring the reserve for the Tern! Having gone all the way to Dengemarsh and back, we returned to Dennis and the Tern was back on it's Island!! On our wander we had some good birds, including a Great White Egret right in front of Dengemarsh hide, lots of Common Terns and a couple of flight views of Bittern amongst them!
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| Great White Egret, thought it was coming in the hide at one point |
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| It was eventually driven off by an aggressive Herring Gull |
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| Great Crested Grebe, flew across the lake |
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| Common Sandpiper flew in! |
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| Bittern |
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| Egyptian Goose |
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| Bittern |
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| Herring Gull chick, not sure a even a Great White Egret would managed to swallow these! |
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| Juvenile Little Ringed Plover? Both Ringed and Little Ringed seen think this is a young LRP |
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| Common Gull |
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| BHG, Caspian Tern, and a Plover |
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| The island was a bit distant for pics but you can tell what it is |
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| Lesser Black-backed Gull |
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| Pochard, lots of eclipse ducks about the place |
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| It flew about again but didn't really comes as close as last time! |
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| Mates falling out! |
Eventually it flew off over the Arc Pit and out towards Boulderwall before disappearing behind some bushes!
I decided to head back up to Dengemarsh, to try for some better Bittern pics and have a go at the Common Terns!
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| Young Little Grebe |
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| Common Tern, several about fishing the lakes! |
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| Painted Lady, saw loads, but it was very windy day so most went whizzing past! |
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| Heron |
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| Marsh Harrier from the Hookers Ramp, as said it was very windy, saw a couple of Beardies but they didn't hang around |
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| Best view of a Bittern I managed, saw one on three occasions but they/it didn't stay up for long! |
As I stood there getting battered by the wind, the Caspian Tern gave a flypast, obviously now I've seen one they will probably be everywhere, wouldn't be surprised if I didn't get one in the Garden next week!
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| Caspian Tern |
I was flagging now, the stress and exercise getting to me! I had a quick look at Arc Pit nothing out of the ordinary though some nice Dragonflies buzzing about!
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| Red Admiral |
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| Black-tailed Skimmer |
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| Brown Hawker (I think) |
I headed to the point, gotta look over the sea when you go to Dunge, nothing about! Walked to the OBs but apart from a couple of Linnets it was pretty quiet! The wind was pretty strong so most birds had their heads down!
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| The new Lighthouse, always forget to take landscape pics when Margie's not about! |
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| Smart male Linnet, braving the wind! |
That was about that. shame about the wind and the clouds, better light might have produced better pics but you can't win them all. It took two hours to get home!! Brilliant day, completely knackered, but Dunge does it again!!!!
New top 3 birds I should have seen by now list!
1) Black Kite
2) Citrine Wagtail
3) Whiskered Tern
Come on Dunge step up!!
