Kittiwake.
I headed to Dungeness today i started off at the beach and enjoyed close views of a Kittiwake , there was not much moving out at sea other than the usual Gannets and Comic Terns , i did see half a dozen Common Porpoise fairly close in which is always nice to see, i ventured down to the " Patch " which was rather quite with just a few terns mingling around how ever on closer inspection i was rewarded with 2 juv. Arctic Terns which was a welcome year tick . From here i headed of to the RSPB reserve and had a walk around to Denge Marsh where i had distant views of the Great White Egret .
Record shot of Great White Egret.
There were plenty of butterflies around mainly Meadow Brown , Gatekeeper , Red Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell , i manged a couple of photos.
Red Admiral.
Small Tortoiseshell.
Small Heath and a single Small Skipper were also seen plus plenty of Common Darter and Blue Tailed Damselfly were seen , back on the birding front it was fairly quite with only a single Common Whitethroat and 3 Reed Warblers seen , from the hide i did add Common Terns plus several Little Egrets were around the reed edges .
Common Terns with a Fish.
I decided to head over the road to Hanson Hide in the hope of connecting with Little Stint however i missed out this time , there were plenty of Golden Plover , Lapwing and at least 3 Common Sandpipers here , also of note there was a single Garganey amongst the Teal , i was about to leave when another birder picked out a Little Gull which was a year tick for me.
Note the size difference alongside the Black Headed Gull.
Love the black underwings with white trailing edge .
I left the Hanson hide very happy and i then headed off to Oare Marshes for a quick look .
Wood Sandpiper .
The East flood was over run with waders , hundreds of Golden Plover and there must of been getting on for 2000 Black Tailed Godwits , there were Avocets and Redshanks everywhere , in with the Black Tailed Godwits i managed to see 3 smart looking Curlew Sandpipers although there were probably more, there was a scattering of Dunlin and Ruff and i also saw the two magnificent Wood Sandpipers again i also added 2 Common Sandpipers to my wader list here .
