Bearded Tit

Always a joy to see and hear, a lone male Bearded Tit was foraging amongst a small and narrow section of reed on the RSPB Reserve.

Bearded Tit

Bearded Tit

The Flood Field on the reserve is looking brilliant, attracting a couple of elusive water pipits and plenty of teal.

I've seen an Otter!.....

...'I really doubt it', is usually my response when a visitor to the RSPB Dungeness Reserve says this to me. 'I expect that you've probably seen a Mink'. If folks leave the reserve thinking they have seen an Otter, then good for them, maybe one day it might happen for real. Mink are present across the reserve and wider peninsular meaning that it is very unlikely that Water Voles occur, in fact I have not seen any signs of Water Voles on the reserve since moving to the area in 2019.

Mink

This Mink was at Dengemarsh today and scampering off to the Hayfields and yesterday two were seen at the Viewing Ramp.

Great Crested Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

Always lovely to watch the courtship display of Great Crested Grebes, head shaking, preening and the wonderful weed dance.

Great Cormorant

This Great Cormorant of the race sinensis caught my eye with its wonderful Mohican breeding plumage.

Purple Sandpiper

A good local find today by Stephen of a Purple Sandpiper early afternoon at Scotney. It was still in the same place late afternoon. The female Scaup was close by asleep amongst sleeping Pochard and Tufted Ducks.

Purple Sandpiper

Elsewhere, the female Smew remains on ARC and the female Long-tailed Duck on New Diggings. Possibly some inland gull movement today with small flocks of Black-headed gulls moving between ARC and Boulderwall, with a count of c.280 at Boulderwall at one point.

Tricky to see Snipe

Female Smew still on ARC, female Long-tailed Duck still on New Diggings and female Scaup still at the Sussex end of Scotney, plus the two White-fronted Goose still with Greylags at Dengemarsh.

There are at least eight Snipe in this photo. I've had up to 11 resting in the grass brash near Cooks Pool, always tricky to know if you've found them all even with a scope.

Wigeon flying in to Cooks Pool after being spooked by a Marsh Harrier.

Little Owl at Lydd, shortly after I took this shot it flew off.

Ringed Plover

A wander around part of the reserve recorded the female Smew still on ARC and the Long-tailed Duck still on New Diggings. Waders are starting to pair up with noisy Oystercatcher pairs on ARC, Burrowes and New Excavations and also a pair of Ringed Plovers on the shingle, certainly the right habitat for them to potentially nest.

Ringed Plover

Ringed Plover

Ringed Plover

Snipe and Jack Snipe

 Most of the day spent at the RSPB Dungeness reserve with my thermal camera looking for Snipe and Jack Snipe with Martin. In the end we located 23 Snipe and 2 Jack Snipe. Without the aid of the thermal camera we almost certainly would not have located the Jack Snipe and if we had then we would have flushed them. It felt really good to get excellent views of them both and just leave them in peace afterwards. It's much harder to do the same with Snipe which despite having excellent camouflage, insist on flying off before you get anywhere near them.

A Jack Snipe is in this photo

A Jack Snipe is in this photo

At the Return Trail, 11 Great Crested Newts were under the felts.

Great Crested Newt

Three Good Ducks and a Diver

On the 22nd February, Brenda found a female Scaup on the Sussex side of Scotney at the double bends and I managed to see it today the 23rd.

Scaup female asleep with two Pochard

Scaup female

Scaup female

Scaup female

On the Dungeness RSPB reserve the female Smew remained on ARC and the Long-tailed Duck remained on New Diggings. On Burrowes this 'Scaup type' female Tufted Duck has recently been causing some visitors to think they might have seen a Scaup on the reserve.

'Scaup type' Tufted Duck female

'Scaup type' Tufted Duck female

'Scaup type' Tufted Duck female

Due to the overnight rain and temperatures in excess of 10°C, large numbers of Smooth Newts were starting to make their way to the complex of ponds to the west of the track between the ARC Screen and the level crossing at the Affinity Water Works. You had to be careful not to tread on them and I must have moved over 30 from the track to, hopefully a safer location.

Smooth Newt

The Great Northern Diver that was seen yesterday on Burrowes had remained being seen, albeit distantly, from the replacement Makepeace hide. With big gaps between sightings this year, it makes you wonder how many have been recorded on the reserve.

Great Northern Diver

Great Northern Diver

Drake Pochard are scattered across the reserve and looked great in the early morning sunshine at ARC.

Pochard

Pintail Record

A brilliant February sea watch today with a packed hide early morning in anticipation of something happening on the strong south/south east wind. A total of 7:45 hours of watching was completed with the highlight of the day being a movement of Pintail with 994E and breaking the previous Dungeness day record of 860. The supporting cast of birds included some oddities including a flock of 28E Greylag goose and 13W Stock Doves both groups originally coming in from the south east. 

Pintail

Pintail

Pintail

Pintail

There was also a reasonable movement of Dark-bellied Brent Goose with 2,283E being recorded.

Dark-bellied Brent Goose

Dark-bellied Brent Goose in the glare

Adult Mediterranean Gulls starting to moult in to summer plumage were also going past, with 60 recorded.

Five Mediterranean Gulls, part of a passing flock of nine.

Smew

The highlight of the month so far has been the female Smew found by Alan Parker and Peter on 12th Feb at Dengemarsh.

Female Smew

It preferred to presumably forage within the reed edge out of sight and occasionally appeared in open water but never for very long. It remained on Dengemarsh until 14th Feb.

On the 17th Feb, I was doing the WeBS count at ARC for the RSPB and found it (presumably the same bird) there and it was much closer.

Female Smew

On the 13th Feb 19 White-fronted Goose were in Boulderwall Fields or in the adjacent Lydd Fields.

White-fronted Goose

Richard picked out J16EY a Great Black-backed Gull in its 3rd calendar year. According to my records it was last recorded in the Dungeness area on 14th Sep 2024.

Great Black-backed Gull

In recent days a couple of Ringed Plovers have been on Hayfield 1 and 2, hopefully the new shingle islands that have been created across the RSPB Reserve will tempt them to nest.

Ringed Plover

Weather in recent days has been cold with a south-east wind but sunny and bright. The wind was creating havoc with the Tufted Ducks, giving them a very bad hair day as they slept in front of Dengemarsh hide.

 

Tufted Duck

After being absent from the 12th, the Long-tailed Duck re-appeared on New Diggings on the 16th Feb.

Female Long-tailed Duck