Trip reports

Dungeness

Sunday, 12 April 2009

We arrived at Dungeness RSPB reserve bathed in fine sunlight. The gravel drive afforded an opportunity to start our bird watching from the comfort of the car. There were sedge warblers singing loudly from the bramble bushes. This species was prominent throughout the reserve all day. A whitethroat, linnet and for one lucky person a tree sparrow was also seen on the way to the centre. The main lagoon was fairly quiet. There were greylag and canada geese, coot, moorhen, great crested grebe, mallard, teal, shoveler, gadwall, tufted duck, shelduck and pochard were all found with cormorant nesting on the islands accompanied by lesser black backed, common, herring and black headed gull. Oystercatcher, snipe, lapwing and a solitary ringed plover were the only waders present. Away from the water there was a cloud of midges along the paths which will provide food for the insect eaters. A meadow pipit posed for us at close range and a wren, dunnock, reed bunting, green woodpecker and more linnets were found. A cettis warbler sang and provided a very brief view. Continuing around the reserve mute swan, stock dove, wood pigeon, magpie and carrion crow were present. Back at the centre slavonian grebe and black-necked grebe were reported on the ARC side, so after lunch we moved to the other side of the road. Here we had distant views of a marsh harrier and eventually found a grebe, but it was at the far end of the lake so we were unable to make a firm identification. We decided to drive towards the sea and stop to look over the fence at the far end of the lake. Here we could clearly make out two grebes both sporting yellow breeding plumage, but there were distinct differences between the two and after checking the field guides we were able to confirm which was the slavonian grebe and which was the black-necked grebe. Here we also found a female goldeneye. From here we finished the day at the shore. The first bird we found in the gorse was another linnet, then a fine wheatear and the next was a confiding black redstart that perched on a wire for us. Out at sea there were virtually no gulls, possibly because the bank holiday had brought out the crowds. But we were able to see a pair of sandwich terns perched on the buoy and a small party of common terns passed by in flight. Greater black-backed gull was also seen on the power station roof. The last bird of the day was a pied wagtail as we walked back to the cars.