Gulls steal the show at Dungeness

Female & Male Goldeneye.

I paid two visits to Dungeness over the last week , my 1st trip was on Saturday 16th Jan , and i started off checking the geese at Scotney hoping to see the Tundra Bean Goose but sadly i once again failed to see it , then i called into Dungeness reserve and added plenty of Goldeneye with a few male birds displaying to the females , i then walked around to the viewing ramp at Hookers in an attempt to see the Penduline Tits however this drew another blank , i bumped into Neil  and he informed me of a Slavonian Grebe that had been seen that morning in one of the back pit's.

Slavonian Grebe at Hookers.

I headed off and saw the Slavonian Grebe plus 4 or 5 Bearded Tits flew past me on my walk , i returned to the viewing ramp just in time to see a Bittern fly up from the reeds plus a Great White Egret was nearby.

Great White Egret coming into land.

I eventually headed to the sea front and more or less straight away saw the 1st winter Caspian Gull near the fishing boats. Here are a selection of photo's i took.

1st winter Caspian Gull.

Dark tail band & long winged.

White under wing.

Long legged & white head.

Bold breasted & anchor markings on mantle.

Really great views of this bird which seems to favor the area by the fishing hut along Dungeness road. I then headed back to the Rspb reserve and saw two Long Eared Owls roosting behind the dipping pond by the visitor centre.

19th January 

1st winter Glaucous Gull.

My main purpose of this trip on the 19th was to see the 1st winter Glaucous Gull that i missed on the Saturday , it took me the best part of the day to finally catch up with it though.

Taking off.

Huge bird .

1st winter Glaucous Gull

There were 1000's of gulls out with the fishing boats with plenty of Cormorants & Great Crested Grebes on the sea , i also saw several Razorbills on the sea plus 3 Red Throated Divers flew past , oh and the 1st winter Caspian Gull was also on the beach near the fishing boats.