Good morning at Dunge

Anybody that takes any time to read my pointless postings here will know that if I'm ever stuck for somewhere to go I head down to Dunge...that's Dungeness to the uninitiated.
The Jim's accompany me and we arrive in thick mist at around 7.30am this morning. With visibility low we headed for the moat but found very little present of note. After an hour we're on the beach by the first hide with a local recorder and we had a fantastic couple of hours sea watching with him.
A few Great Crested Grebes are present on the sea, over a hundred Red Throated Diver pass and I guess over a thousand Brent Geese..(sorry I wasn't counting) Lot's of Common Scoter and two Velvets head a small flock. Gadwall, Wigeon and Pintail were all on the sea and a Goosander flew west too. Over twenty Little Gulls were on the move and our first Sandwich Terns of the year were spotted. (183) A male Black Redstart was showing well and singing on the power station wall behind us and we had two Alba Wagtails, a Chiffchaff, (184) a Redwing and two Meadow Pipits all come in off the sea. A few Kittiwake flew past close in and lot's of Gannets flew past as did many auks. Only waders on the move were Oyster Catchers and Curlew.

Female Reed Bunting

Female Reed Bunting

Male Reed Bunting

Tree Sparrow

We stopped at the reserve briefly where we saw up to four Great White Egrets, a Marsh Harrier, Reed Buntings, Tree Sparrow, another three Chiffchaffs and a good few others that you'd expect here. Also bumped into Mick Southcott and Kev Jarvis in the hide at ARC pit....Kev of Crayford Quail fame and Mick writes the "Birding the day away" blog which I follow. Nice guys always willing to chat and share knowledge.

A very nice relaxing morning down in Kent.