I offered the Jims two choices today....go for the River Warbler which I did a solo run for on Saturday or have a longer more local days birding in Kent and they chose Kent.
We started at Dungeness where the reserve and point were covered in thick sea mist on our arrival at 6.30am. We walked out to ARC pit and despite the thick mist managed to see the Glossy Ibis and a couple of Cuckoo before turning to walk back to the reserve. Dungeness is one of those reserves that doesn't open until later in the day but despite the gates being locked you can walk out onto the footpath. We joined three other birders and waited for the mist to get a little thinner. Great White Egrets were seen before the warden drove down to us to let us know a Pratincole had been seen in the sheep fields. As soon as we got the the fields we have eyes on first one then two Collared Pratincoles hawking over the field. As the mist cleared more birders arrived and before long a third bird was seen to make it a very memorable experience. To see these three birds flying around with three Hobby for company was something special.
We moved to the sea watch hide but by 12pm the mist remained at the beach and the bouy wasn't even visible. We did pick up a single Sandwich Tern to give the Jims a tick but left soon after, stopping at Oare Marsh on our route home. At Oare a local pointed out a Turtle Dove which we managed to scope for a late year tick and we managed to find a male Eider sitting out on the shingle bank at the mouth of the creek.
Year list now 203
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| One of the Collared Pratincoles |
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