Kent Birding Highlights for September 2025

                                                DUNGENESS  AREA

                                                  2nd September 2025

                                         SEAWATCH : 07.40 - 08.40

                                             

Arctic Skua (photo from 2018)

A trip to Dungeness on the 2nd for an early morning seawatch was successful with some mid distant views of 6 Balearic Sheawaters & 1 Arctic Skua, we also saw Common Scoter, Kittiwake & a Wheatear in front of the hide.

LADE SOUTH

A trip to Lade south pit produced 3 Black necked Grebes which were welcome year ticks. There was also plenty of both Great crested & Little Grebes plus on the way back to the car a Hummingbird Hawk-Moth flew in front of us and landed.

Hummingbird Hawk-Moth

ARC PIT

We called into the Hanson hide overlooking the Arc pit and saw 4 Ruff fly into the back of the Pit plus a female Red crested Pochard close in by the hide.

Red crested Pochard.

OARE MARSHES

9th September 2025

Gannet

A trip to Oare Marshes on the 9th was rewarded with a distant Common Guillemot on the Sheppey side of the Swale opposite the slipway.

We were joined by MW who picked out a Gannet flying around the mouth of Faversham Creek before flying along the Swale later on in the morning.

Gannet flying past the slipway.

On the way towards the seawatch hide we saw a distant Osprey which was constantly fishing in the Swale before landing on a post on the Isle of Sheppey to eat it's well caught fish !!!

Distant Osprey.

There were 2 Curlew Sandpipers (juvs) along Faversham Creek plus a very showy Lesser Whitethroat near the hide.

Lesser Whitethroat

There was also a really smart 'lemony' Willow Warbler in the bushes along the footpath by the creek.

Willow Warbler.

OARE MARSHES

16th September 2025

8 of the  9 Glossy Ibis.

Another trip to Oare Marshes on the 16th was a record breaking day with 9 Glossy Ibis seen flying over the West Flood before disappearing out of sight below the sea wall.

All 9 Glossy Ibis.

I have only ever seen a maximum of 2 Glossy Ibis before at Oare Marshes and MW  reliably informed me that 9 is a record count for OM , well done AE for picking them out.

There was also a summer plumaged Red Throated Diver at the mouth of the Creek , sadly bit to far out for a photo.

Plus the Osprey was once again seen distantly over the Swale, 8 Cattle Egrets in with the Cattle & and a juv Curlew Sandpiper in the Creek.

OARE MARSHES

30th September 2025

5 of the 10 Cattle Egrets.

Having returned from Shetland (Blog Post to come) on Sunday evening i was pleased to be back at Oare Marshes for the last day of September.

Starting off with my personal record count of 10 Cattle Egrets at Oare Marshes (reserve record is 22 i believe).

A walk towards Dans Dock was livened up with spectacular views of a very close Osprey !!!

Osprey

There were lot's of birds around, huge numbers of Meadow Pipits which were on almost every bush and constantly flying overhead.

We had a Long tailed Tit flock go through the bushes which also  held 3 Blackcaps & 3 Chiffchaffs.

Long tailed Tit.

We saw a high flock of 10 Bearded Tits flying beyond Uplees in a steady purposeful flight.

7 of the 10 Bearded Tits.

On the way back we saw 2 Clouded Yellows plus several Wall Browns.

Clouded Yellow.