Friday 20th March (71 species - 105 for year)
The solar eclipse missed me completely today as I birded a murky & chilly Dungeness & Rye.
I started out at RSPB Dungeness. The ARC pit was quiet - a single marsh harrier, several goldeneye & a calling cettis warbler. The feeders at the entrance to the RSPB reserve held several tree sparrow. Burrowes Pit was quiet, so I headed off around the reserve. I soon spotted one of the great white egrets on Dengemarsh, and whilst I had him in my scope a bittern flew into the reeds behind. This was more like it! I was then treated to a stoat running up the path ahead of me, frequently turning around to look at me. Not much else on the reserve, but a pair of marsh harrier were a lovely sight.
I then spent about an hour around Brickwall Farm looking for the long staying cattle egrets. Despite being seen an hour earlier, they stayed hidden for me, so I decided to cut my losses and head over to Rye Harbour.
It was high tide, so lots of waders were on the Flat Beach, including several year ticks for me - avocet, ringed plover, grey plover & oystercatcher among them. Six brent geese were also a welcome sight. No early wheatear at the river entrance,, but four bar tailed godwit were on the beach and a few turnstone were on the seawall. Ternery Hide delivered its expected sandwich terns, then it was pretty quiet for the rest of the reserve until I reached Ray Parkes Hide, where I picked out a pair of fine breeding plumage mediterranean gulls to add to the great black backed gulls I'd picked up earlier. A raven flying along the beach was a new Rye Harbour bird for me,
Before heading home, I dropped into Pett Level. Nothing new, but a large group of brent geese were in the sheep fields and several curlew in the rock pools as it was low tide.
A good day!
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