Two Dunlin at Dungeness.
My first location today was to pop into Elmley to try and see the roosting Long Eared Owls at Kinghills farm i spent a fare amount of time trying to locate these but was not lucky this time , however i had decent views of a Garden Warbler and there were 2 Green Sandpipers and a couple of Avocets nearby which are always nice to see , i decided to cut my loses and head of to Oare Marshes , i encounted 41 Golden Plovers and a smart Whimbrel out on the mud flats , i had 50 +Black-Tailed Godwits and 200 + Avocets , other than a few Dunlin there were no small waders to be had here.
Dunlin.
My final destination of the day was Dungeness , i headed straight to the Arc pit to try and see the recently found Pectoral Sandpiper and i was straight onto this delightful sandpiper , this was a new bird for me at Dungeness and a very much welcome year tick .
Pectoral Sandpiper.
Another record shot of the Pec Sand.
I enjoyed this bird for about 30 minutes , often feeding close by and it was also quite flighty showing off its centrel tail stripe , i also had up to 5 Dunlin, 1 Common Sandpiper and a couple of Lapwings here , from here i headed of to the Rspb reserve to try and see the Great White Egret having already failed a couple of times this year , i made my way around to the Denge marsh hide eventually i went and had a look from the gate with one or two other birders and was soon enjoying the Great White Egret.
Adult Great White Egret.
And about to land.
This was a really graceful bird , feeding quite actively every so often , there was not alot around other than this apart from some really smart Common Terns and a fly over Hobby , there were a few butterflies about mainly Gatekeeper , Red Admiral and a couple of Peacocks , i also saw a young Fox near the Christmas dell hide .
