Saturday 18th April Day out in Kent

Dungeness & Grove Ferry

Back in London for the weekend so I decided I would go birding with my mate we have now been birding together for over 30 years

We decided that a day out in Kent was on the books but where do we start Dung or Grove, We left my house and headed for the motorway just as we reached the M25 I looked at the Pager and found that there was a Hoopoe at Dungeness so now we new where we would be going first. So after a quick and enjoyably breakfast Dung here we come

Dungeness
On arriving at the observatory we parked and had a walk around the mout as we could not see any birders looking for the Hoopoe there were a small group of birders looking in the shrub(we found out later that they were looking for a nightingale) our walk around the mout produced very little Linnets, Meadow Pipits and we found 3 Whitethroats in a bush as walked towards them 2 flew of leaving 1 in the bush after a short while we realised that it was a Lesser Whitethroat but not showing very well but it was singing. Then I noticed some birders coming back across from the trapping area as they got closer we asked about the Hoopoe and they told us where to look after short while we found the Hoopoe but it then flew the other side of the power station road into the desert area, Now we had a look around the shrub but there was not a lot more to see in the way of migrants so it was of to do a sea watch as there had been a few Skuas seen earlier in the morning, But no luck with Skuas we did have Gannet, Kittiwake, A small movement of Sandwich Terns, and some Common Terns over the patch, other birds seen where 18 Whimbrel 1 Bar tailed Godwit,25 Common Scoter. Flying by. We the drove back past the ARC pits where had a Little Ringed Plover, Spotted Redshank, Our next stop was the RSPB reserve to see what else might be about not a lot on the main reserve but there was a few bits to see on the ARC pits on arriving at the car park we set of down the track we could hear Cetti’s Warbler & Sedge Warbler singing, After a short while we heard a Cuckoo but we did not manage to find it, My mate had gone on a head of me then called to say he thought he had a Reed Warbler I caught up with him and after a little while we did manage to find the Reed Warbler, We had a Marsh Harrier flying around over the back of the pits, We then had a look from one of the hides and found 3 more Little Ringed Plover, & a nice Male Garganey, Other birds seen in the Dungeness area Herring Gull, Common Gull, Greater Black Backed Gull, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Shell Duck, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, Woodpigeon, & a large number of Stock Doves so it was now time to leave Dungeness and head for Grove Ferry where there had been some migrants seen

Grove Ferry Stodmarsh Nature Reserve
On arriving we parked and started the walk to the viewing area I spoke to a birder who gave us some information our first bird of note was another Lesser Whitethroat but a bit different from the one at Dung as this was showing and singing very well, we then had a look at the viewing area where we found 6 Greenshanks, 1 Ruff, Redshank, 1 Little Ringed Plover & a Yellow Wagtail and yet another nice Male Gargeny ( must say I do like watching Gargeny) we also had Swalloow, Sand Martin flying over the water, Then took a walk around to the Hide where we found 3 more Little Ringed Plover & Hose Martin,
We now decided to have a drive around the back roads to see if we could find Nightingale but with no luck we did have what we thought might be a Garden Warbler but could not find any where to park to try and locate it

So all in all a nice and pleasant days birding