Saturday 7 January 2017

Good Start to the New Year

                                                              2nd January 2017  


Bewick's Swan at Horse Bones farm.


I started of 2017 in the Dungeness area , my first port of call was Horse bones farm and i saw 27 adult Bewick's Swans plus 3 juvs , also present was a Common Buzzard sat in the field behind them , plenty of  Fieldfares were in the hedge rows which are always great to see.

From here i had a look at the 1st winter Caspian Gull near the fishing hut which showed well , also adding plenty of the regular gulls to my year list .

I decided to call into the reserve and saw the roosting Long Eared Owl which was partially obscured but great to see all the same.


Long Eared Owl.


I called into the Dennis Hide and saw Shoveler,  Gadwall, Pintail, Teal, Wigoen , Goldeneye and a 'Redhead' Smew.



Ring Necked Duck.

On the way out of the reserve i had decent views of the male Ring Necked Duck which seems really settled on Cooks pool , plenty of Lapwings & Golden Plovers were in the adjacent fields , a really enjoyable days birding with most target birds seen .




5th January 2017



Red Necked Grebe.


I started off at Pett Level in East Sussex today hoping to see some wild geese that are in the area , luckily i was able to find them more or less straight away , in total i saw 5 Taiga Beaan Geese , 4 Pink Footed Geese , 10 White Fronted Geese , 5+ Barnacle Geese plus good numbers of both Canada & Greylag Geese.



I then headed to Camber to see the Red Necked Grebe and what a cracking bird it is to , i haven't seen one for a good couple of years so was very pleased to see this one.

Great White Egret.

I decided to head along Denge marsh road and i was pleased i did as i saw a superb Great White Egret standing near a herd of Mute Swans , there was also 4 Egyptain Geese nearby.

1 of 4 Egyptain Geese.

I also added a Slavonian Grebe looking across towards Denge marsh hide from Springfield bridge which was probably out of sight from the hide as it was tucked in close to the reeds , i also added a Little Grebe here to , lot's of Linnets & Chaffinches were added to my year list from here .


6th January 2017

Great Northern Diver.

I called into Tankerton slopes in the morning for an hour or so to look for the Divers that had been seen that morning , i saw the Great Northern Diver which was a fair way out hence the digi scope photo above.

There were several Dark bellied Brent Geese on the foreshore plus a few Curlew made it onto my year list , a distant male Goosander flying west was an added bonus plus 2 Red Throated Divers were also seen.