Black Redstart at Dungeness

A quick trip down to Dunge today rewarded me with a couple of year ticks.

Swallow at Dunge

Swallow

First I found three Black Redstarts between the lighthouse and Observatory then on the beach a local put me onto a Yellow-legged Gull although apart from that and the usual Terns the only other bird of note was a single Arctic Skua. Two Peregrines hunted around the power station and took a pigeon whilst I watched them taking the kill back to the pilons to eat.

Peregrine

Hundreds of Swallows and Sandmartins sat on the wires along the back of Denge Marsh and I counted at least five Wheatear along with good numbers of Willow Warbler.

Sand Martin

Sand Martin

From Hanson hide I only found a couple of Ringed Plover and Common Sands along with Redshank, Lapwing, Blackwit, Ruff and Golden Plover on the wader count.

So two year ticks taking the year list to a pretty low mid August total of just 249.

Wag!

Black Redstart

Resting Fox