Wednesday 19th February - Dungeness

A day out at 'Dunge' . Which has been well overdue as I shamefully haven't been there for nearly 2 years, especially as this place ( along with Sheppey, Stodmarsh and Cliffe) , used to be the most visited site of my early birding years when I lived in north Kent.

So on with the day ,and I arrived at 8.15am at the fishing boats. The tide was low so very few gulls were on the roost, offshore a few Kittiwakes, plenty of Guillemot and Great Crested Grebe being the lot, with nothing moving offshore.

 

I bumped into Paul James and Bob Hastings and we set off for the trapping area in search of the long-staying Hume's Leaf Warbler. The trapping area was flooded. The area south of the bushes is the dry arid area known as the desert - it was a lake !. We split up and spent nearly an hour wading around the passable and not so passable paths through the bushes (not a great time to find my wellies had a leak !). Paul and Bob had the bird calling but no sighting. With the morning running ahead we agreed to try for the Penduline Tits, so I headed to the hide at ARC and Paul and Bob went to the reserve to head out to Hookers Pits and we would exchange messages if we were successful. The Tree Sparrows were as usual at the farmhouse, but the water on ARC was very high and the wildfowl was limited, with 2 redhead Smew and plenty of Goldeneye being the best on offer . After an hour in the Hanson Hide with nothing more seen and Paul and Bob drawing a blank on the reserve, I headed to the reserve to walk around the trails. There were large numbers of the common duck species on  Burrowes pit and a Great White Egret and a Chiffchaff  showed on the walk  but very little on Denge Marsh. I got to the ramp at Hookers Pit and there had been no sighting of the Pendulines today, although 2 Bearded Tits showed at intervals and the Marsh Harriers were very active and another Great White Egret was at the back of the marsh. I walked back to the car and decided to give the Hume's Warbler another go finding  the 2 Black-throated Divers at new diggings on the way.

After another half an hour wading in the trapping area with no sign, I had a message from Paul that he'd found 2 Snow Buntings at Camber and at the same time that the Penduline Tits had been seen from Hookers Pit (about 15 minutes after I'd left !). I was just thinking that this was turning into one of those days when suddenly the Hume's Warbler appeared just in front of me ! - It spent a couple of minutes giving intermittent views and then called a couple of times and then vanished - I managed one picture -  testament to it's elusiveness. Buoyed by success I then decided to go back to try for the Penduline Tits. It was after 3.30 by the time I arrived at the ramp, no surprise on arrival that the birds hadn't been seen for an hour. After 20 minutes of scanning through the scope and the sun heading in the wrong direction, suddenly I saw a reedmace being attacked and on it was a male Penduline Tit,. After another couple of minutes it was spooked by a Marsh Harrier and disappeared into scrub. I briefly heard the slightly mournful high pitched calls of 2 birds but they didn't reappear.

I drove to Scotney as the light faded , but very little was seen on the pit , so I headed home with ultimately a successful day.

'The Desert'

at least half of a Hume's Warbler