Male Black Redstart
DUNGENESS NNR
25th May 2025
Exciting news came out of Dungeness Sunday morning on the 25th May , another Bonelli's Warbler species was found and it was soon confirmed as an
EASTERN BONELLI'S WARBLER !!!
This would be a new bird for me and a first record for Kent (only 10 confirmed records in the UK).
MW picked me up from home and we joined the already assembled birders at Dungeness at approx 12pm, we could hear the EBW singing straight away, we were told it's not been seen since it was more or less first found.
On the positive side it was still present and surely with some patience we will eventually see it......Won't we ????
More and more birders arrived, the who's who of the Kent birding scene was present, it felt strange seeing birding crews from various Kent patches all ascending here, just proved to me the magnitude & enormity of this very rare bird.
The EBW had moved to a different clump of bushes , seen briefly by some as it flew across the path (not by me though).
It remained unseen singing it's heart out for maybe over an hour in these bushes, people tried various different angles & view points to no avail.
Then the EBW moved again, unseen this time, we all got a bit separated, i saw 2 birders cut through the bushes and the EBW flew out over the top of the bushes and vanished again.
I had seen it, apart from a very white belly i didn't see any distinguishing features, frustrating to say the least.
The dance continued with this bird, more & more birders turned up from further afield, Norfolk & Somerset plus maybe even further, sure i recognised a birder from Durham ?
As the day turned to early evening the EBW became more vocal, MW, SC, & myself could hear it very close in a little sun trap area, it was just hidden out of view, literally a couple of leaves separated it from us.
Then we were joined by lot's more birders and the EBW flew again, this time i saw a bit more detail.
Near the end of our stay we had one last flight view as the EBW flew across the path in front of us and as it alighted out of view it gave it's very distinctive & diagnostic
call.