Top Birding Session at..................Dungeness

Red Backed Shrike.

On Thursday 3rd September i headed of to Dungeness for a few hours birding in the hope of seeing the 1st winter Red Backed Shrike that had been seen the previous day along the access track to the Rspb reserve , i had a later start than expected but eventually arrived on site at approx 10.30 , there were a few cars parked up on the access track and i joined the already assembled birders , and i quickly got onto the Red Backed Shrike which was fairly low down in a bush , only brief  views but at least i had seen it.

It was fairly elusive at first but i did manage a photo of it partially hidden , however as time went on the Red Backed Shrike did what Shrikes like doing , it found a perch higher up out in the open and gave us all tremendous views. Here are a small selection of the photos i took.

Red Backed Shrike.

There were at least 3 Whinchats in and around the area which were great to see .

Whinchat.

After watching these superb birds for quite some time i headed back out of the reserve to go a check over the Arc pit to see if i could see the White Winged Black Tern that has been there all week , however i had one final look over the fields where i saw the Cattle Egret walking amongst the cows.

Cattle Egret amongst the Cows.

Closer view from earlier in the Year.

There were good numbers of Golden Plover & Lapwings from the Hanson hide overlooking the Arc pit plus a single Dunlin was on Cormorant island , Ruff and a small flock of about 10 Knot put in a brief appearance , there were 100's of Hirundine's hawking over the water and the White Winged Black Tern was distantly doing the same thing , i drove down to the far end to try and get a closer look but it's always abit dodgy parking along the causeway so i only had a quick look which resulted in better views and 1 or 2 photos.

White Winged Black Tern with a Sand Martin

White Winged Black Tern.

A really enjoyable birding session with some top birds seen.