Yesterday, with a forecast of blue skies and sunshine, I decided to head east to Dungeness and the surrounding areas. Opening the door to a covering of snow, I resisted the urge to head back to bed, girded my loins and headed out, so brave! There was quite a bit of snow around Eastbourne, Bexhill area but by Rye the ground was clear, this made up my mind and headed to the back roads around Lydd in search of Geese and Swans. I found Whitefronts and Bewicks, but no Bean Geese, lots of Lapwings and Common Gulls in the fields.
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| Greater White-fronted Geese with some Egyptian Geese and a single Brent Goose |
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| Bewick Swans |
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| Bewick Swans |
Sadly a bit distant and the early morning light and cloud cover did the pictures no favors, but nice to see em!!
With at least some of the Geese and Swans on the list I decided to relocate to Dungeness Point and do a bit of Seawatching, on the straight road past the power station I spotted some Cattle Egrets in a field, so pulled over and got some shots from the car! Think there were about 6!
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| When the Cattle all indoors for the winter, Sheep will do! |
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| Cattle Egret |
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| No distance worries here and nice and warm in the car |
I arrived at the point, there were a couple of guys in the hide, they said they'd seen 450 Red-throated Divers!!! It was brutally cold, I prefer to stand outside rather than sit in the hide. I stuck it out for about three quarters of hour, I saw about 30 RT Divers, hundreds of Cormorants, a couple of Guillemots, a few distant Gannets, a Kittiwake was flying about just offshore, and there were a few Gulls, although the patch was empty, have they turned the outflow off?
The entrance track produce a Stonechat and good views of a Great Egret the first of many seen!
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| Great Egret |
The view point at Dennis Hide, had a distant Goldeneye, Gadwall, Tufted Ducks and Coots
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| Gadwall |
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| Tufted Duck |
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| Gulls |
I popped into the visitor centre, strange without the shop! Headed out, Burrows Pit was quiet with the usual fare, the new Hide seems nice but apart from a Great Crested Grebe resting on the bank, it was the usual Cormorants, Gulls, and Wildfowl.
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| Great Crested Grebe, seemed alert enough, but strange to see one out of the water! |
I headed up towards Dengemarsh, lots of Robins on the trail, Hookers Ramp had a few Beardies calling and I heard Water Rail and Cetti's Warbler, I wandered around the back, more Beardies, a Bittern flew 20 feet between Reedbeds but disappeared before I could get a pic, first Bittern I had actually seen for about 3 years, usually tick em on Boom but didn't even do that last year!
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| Robin |
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| Tufted Ducks |
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| Greylag Geese |
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| Another Robin |
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| And another, told you there were lots! |
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| More Geese |
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| Light through the Reeds |
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| I'm so Arty |
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| Lapwings, plenty about |
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| Egyptian Geese |
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| Kestrel |
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| Distant Lapwings |
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| Great Crested Grebe, this one seems to be in full breeding plumage |
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| Marsh Harrier, saw several but they were always distant |
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| Bearded Tit in the next postcode! |
When everything seems distant, or flighty or just doesn't want to play you can always rely on a Stonechat! Where would us Bird Photographers be without em!
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| Stonechat |
I headed back to Hookers, Beardies were pinging and a Kingfisher zipped around the corner too fast for my reactions! A Beardie eventually appeared on the Grit Tray across the water, would it kill the RSPB to move the tray a bit nearer? Can't see it doing any harm to the birds!
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| Bearded Tit |
I wandered back past Dengemarsh Hide and followed the trail around the corner, some Reed Buntings were calling in the reeds, I was watching the antics of some Pied Wagtails when I noticed some Pipits with them. Water Pipit!! I was well chuffed with this as they are quite difficult to find around here!
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| Coots |
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| Safety in numbers |
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| Great Crested Grebe on Dengemarsh |
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| Reed Bunting in appropriate habitat |
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| Kicking off in Pied Wagtail world |
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| Water Pipit |
I headed back to the carpark, a Great Northern Diver had been reported on Burrows, but buggered if I could find it!
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| Raft of Grebes |
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| Gadwall incoming |
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| Little Grebe |
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| Two Egrets for the price of one Great and Little |
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| Great Egret flying in! |
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| Goldeneye, always distant |
The exit track, which is the same track as the entrance track but going the other way, had one last surprise another Great Egret, so not that much of surprise, but at least it was quite close, though it was behind some reeds!
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| Great Egret |
I decided to head to Pett Level, in the hope of seeing the Tundra Bean Geese that had been there a couple of days previously, no luck, but Lapwings, Curlews, hundreds of Wigeon, plenty of Feral Geese with a few Whitefronts among them and loads more Coot on the grass and some waders on the foreshore made for an entertaining hour before the cold got to me again!! had another brief Seawatch in the hope of some Scoters, but couldn't find any, counted 5 Red-throated Divers on the Sea and a few Great Crested Grebes but they and the few Gannets that were present were far to distant for pics!!
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| Lapwing through reeds, could be whole new sub-genre of photography! |
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| Curlew feeding |
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| Wigeon |
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| Curlew |
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| Grey Plover |
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| Knot I think! |
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| Curlew |
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| A selection of waders |
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| Grey Plover and Knot |
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| Curlew |
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| Grey Plover and Knot |
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| 3rd Winter Great Black-backed Gull |
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| Greater White-fronted Geese |
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| Pied Wagtail, strutting around the car park |
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| Lapwing |
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| Curlew |
A fantastic days Birding, in glorious sunshine,frozen but happy. I love Dungeness, it personifies winter birding, the wide open spaces, the evocative calls of Lapwing, Curlew and Wigeon, Beardies pinging in the reed beds, Marsh Harriers floating about, large flocks of birds taking to the sky, so relaxing and calming wandering about on me own, very few other people to start with as well. Was chuffed to find and identify the Water Pipit on my own, although somebody told me after that they had been reported a couple of days before, though |I didn't know that!! Probably Bird of the Day
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| Water Pipit! |
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