Reculver & Dungeness & Godmersham

Black Redstart.

On Saturday the 6th April we started the day at Reculver , and the first bird seen was the immature male Eider which was on the sea near the Towers, we also saw the Black Redstart near the car park.

Immature male Eider.

We only paid a short visit here as the plan was to go to Dungeness to try and see the Common Crane, so that was the destination, the Common Crane had been reported along Denge marsh road and sure enough there it was although distant , reasonable scope views were obtained.

1st winter Common Crane.

We spent sometime watching this bird but it always remained distant , after a while i drove to Springfield bridge to have a look around and more or less straight away the Gulls all took to the sky in a right old panic , the Greylag Geese were also flying around , what was causing all this comotion ??

I soon picked out amongst all the various Gulls the Common Crane !!!!

Common Crane causing a panic.

Common Crane.

A walk around Dungeness Rspb reserve produced  good views of an adult Little Gull which was also new for the year plus 2 Sedge Warblers were heard along the entrance track which was a very pleasant sound indeed, various other highlights in the general Dungeness area included Wheatear, a brief Dartford Warbler & 2 Sandwich Terns.

Male Wheatear.

On the way back we called into Godmersham and had good views of ♂ & ♀ Mandarin on the river by the bridge.

A brief Kingfisher and 2 Grey Wagtails were also seen.

♂ & ♀ Mandarin

Stunning male Mandarin.

Grey Wagtail , ♂&♀ Wood Duck plus ♀ Mandarin ?

Of note we also saw a ♂ & ♀ Wood Duck (presumed escaped birds)  plus a 2nd female bird which looked like another female Mandarin ???