One of two Cattle Egret's .
I spent the day down Dungeness and Pett Level area yesterday the 7th January , i started of checking out the Swan herd on Walland marsh and counted 70+ Bewick Swans and a single Whooper Swan plus a lone Greylag Goose was keeping them company plus flyover Sparrowhawk & Marsh Harrier were great to see.
From here i went to Egret Central and had close views of the two Cattle Egrets along Denge marsh road.
Cattle Egret along Denge marsh road.
These are really confiding birds and look very settled in the cow field they have made their home , i then checked Scotney and saw 3 distant Black Necked Grebes , i bumped into another birder who informed me the Lesser Yellowlegs was showing at Pett Level so of i set , i pulled up along the road , and saw the Lesser Yellowlegs in my bin's and just as i was about to try and get a photo the bird took to flight flew around above me calling then flew high and out of sight towards Rye , other birders told me it often does this but always returns , 1 hour later still no further sign .
Very close Turnstone.
Other birds in this area included 5 Ruff , 8 Dunlin , 300+ Lapwing and 5 Turnstone including 1 very close bird , wildfowl were well represented with good numbers of Wigeon , Teal , Mallard and Shoveler.
I headed back to Dungeness via Scotney where i managed to locate the 1st winter male Scaup and then i called into the RSPB reserve where i had a distant view of a Redhead Smew plus Great White & Little Egret.
Great White Egret.
Great White & Little Egret size comparison.
With time getting on i paid one last visit to the Hanson hide over looking the ARC pits and was rewarded with cracking views of a Kingfisher which was feeding right in front of the hide.
Kingfisher with one of many fish caught.
I really enjoyed watching this master fisherman catching fish and was a real high point of my day , i also saw another Great White Egret here plus a Bittern was seen walking through the reed bed the other side of the pit .
Male Goldeneye.
There were 3 female and 1 male Goldeneye from this hide as well , and that concludes a very good days birding .
