Trip reports

Dungeness

Saturday, 9 September 2006

We met at the old lighthouse at 9.30 on this lovely sunny morning, starting as usual with some seawatching at "The Patch", an area where seabirds gather to feed on the fish and invertebrates that thrive in the warm water pumped out of the nearby power station. There was a selection of gulls, good numbers of Sandwich terns, plus two black terns mixed in with the circling flock. Next we drove round to the RSPB reserve, where we had an early lunch, then set off on the circular walk, visiting hides as we went. Hundreds of sand martins and a smattering of swallows and house martins were feeding in the warm sunshine, and we were lucky to have their company all day. Sadly, the numbers of small birds were low, but we were fortunate to have close views of a spotted flycatcher and some of us had a brief sighting of a lesser whitethroat. Three species of wagtails were seen standing close together, ideal for identification comparisons, although a number of juvenile wagtails were mixed in with them, just to add to the confusion!

The lakes' clear, fresh water held a good variety of ducks and geese, plus a few grebes. A small selection of waders were seen from the new Denge Marsh hide, and at the new hide across the road from the reserve's main entrance. Raptor numbers were very low, with only marsh harrier and kestrel seen, but this could have been down to an air display at the local airport. Migrant and southern hawker dragonflies were out in force - there seemed to be hundreds of them. Our bird list tallied at 64 for the group. We had some good sightings, and everyone said they enjoyed the day.