Trip reports

Dungeness

Sunday, 26 November 2006

The weather forecast was not good, which may explain why only four of us decided to make the long trip to Dungeness. We were fortunate that the rain held off, but a very strong wind kept the bird numbers down. We started at the RSPB visitors centre and made our way slowly around the hides hoping
for some good sightings. We were delighted with the marsh harriers that showed well and an obliging sparrowhawk hunted accross and through the reeds beds. Several duck species were well represented teal, pochard, ruddy duck, tufted duck, shoveler, mallard and gadwall. Two snipe were spotted in
the reeds, one of which look flight and landed in front the hide to give everyone a superb view. After lunch we visited the ARC hide in search of the bewicks swans and glaucous gull which had been sighted earlier, without sucess. However we did add pintail and a kestrel to the list. As the sun was
setting we made a brief look over the shingle at the powerstation into the stormy sea before making a rapid retreat.