Dungeness day out

We set out this morning to arrive at Dungeness for first light and started a sea watch straight away. The sea was alive with Cormorants, thousands of them and a real spectacle as they moved on mass up and down the coast line in search of fish. Gannets were very evident along with Guillemots and Razorbills with the latter being the dominant auk. Red-throated Divers moved up and down and the patch was heaving with gulls with a first winter Little Gull the pick of the bunch.

A pair of Black Redstarts were feeding in the power station viewable from the shingle ridge and a Raven was spotted on the power station. We'd spotted a Cattle Egret on the drive in and saw two on the way out after stopping at ARC pit to search in vain for the reported Smew although I did year tick Green Woodpecker and Bearded Tick here. At Scotney we ticked the feral Barnacle Geese and then went in search of Swans finding first a herd of 34 Bewick's and then a large mixed herd of Mutes that contained two more Bewick's and five Whoopers. A quick stop at the visitor centre gave good views of Greenfinch at the feeding station but the once reliable Tree Sparrows seem to have moved away from the area.

Bockhill farm woods

The Bockhill farm monument

On the way home we diverted to see if we could find the Bockhill farm Hume's warbler and after parking at the monument and walking down the muddy track to the woods by the farm we quickly heard the Hume's but it took a while to see the bird which was always on the move and I didn't even attempt to lift the camera for it. Ten miles down the road and we were looking into an empty field that an hour earlier had held the White Stork at Worth marsh. We put in a ninety minute shift but failed to see the Stork. The locals suggested it had flown to the far corner of the field and would eventually fly back but with the Dartford crossing to endure we decided it was time to head back up the A2. White Stork has become a strange tick these days with escapees, reintroductions from here and abroad and the true vagrants that are obscured but the others. This Kent bird has been around almost two months and is un-ringed but what's it doing in Kent in Dec/Jan? I would still have liked to have seen it and no doubt it would have appeared on my year list had I seen it.

Year list up to 128.