Sunday 27 April 2014

Fleeting Dunge visit

Waking at 5am, I decided to get up and head for Dungeness. I was undecided whether to seawatch first or look for the Black Winged Stilts reported yesterday, as they would be a Kent tick for me. In the end I made the wrong decision and parked in the ARC car park and walked onto the reserve heading for the hayfields. I did see my first CUCKOO of the year and there were SEDGE WARBLERS and COMMON WHITETHROATS everywhere. I added RAVEN, 4 MED GULLS and several BEARDED TITS but there were no Stilts and in fact no waders at all on the hayfields. Eventually I headed for the sea stopping off on the causeway between ARC and New Diggings, there were good numbers of Terns. Among them was 1 LITTLE TERN, 2 BLACK TERNS and at least 1 ARCTIC TERN with the rest being COMMON TERNS, a really nice stop, before heading off to the sea news came through that the Stilts were back on the hayfield! I met up with Neil, Jan and Paul and enjoyed good views of the BLACK WINGED STILTS (2) plus a WOOD SANDPIPER and LITTLE RINGED PLOVER. In hindsight I could have seawatched for a couple of hours before looking for the Stilts but it was good to be out and about, away from the local patch for a change. A couple of shots from today.....
Sedge Warbler

Common Whitethroat

Common Whitethroat




Black Winged Stilts
 

7 comments:

Marc Heath said...

Sounds like a good session Alan. Always a top Kent day if you can see Black winged Stilt. Some lovely shots of them.

Pete Woodruff said...

A good day Alan, with good records and excellent images.

Regards

Pete.

Mike H said...

Great shots of the BWS hoping to see them tomorrow! Shame about the football result today !

Greenie said...

Alan ,
Love the first CW shot , with attitude .
Great BWStilt shots . Did you read that there were 10/11 there originally on the 24th .
Wd. Sand a nice bonus too .

Phil said...

BW Stilt isn't on my Kent list either Alan. Maybe they'll stay long enough for me to get down there. Nice shots by the way!

Helma said...

Ohwwww ....... especially those stilts I find beautiful to see. That I have never met yourself. The warbler I have never seen it and I know it only from photographs of others. Here Truly these pictures Alan :-)

Ana Mínguez Corella said...

Beautiful common Whitethroat.. Nice pictures.. Have a great weekend..