RSPB Dungeness

Jayne and I had a trip around RSPB Dungeness on 1st August. We spent a couple of hours on the reserve, and saw some nice birds, insects and a couple of Harbour Porpoises.

Birdwise we saw, amongst others Dunlin, Lapwing, Common Tern, Little Egret and heard Bearded Tits.

Insects were in good numbers, and included Common Blue Damselfly, Emperor, Brown Hawker, Black-tailed Skimmer, Common and Ruddy Darter, Gatekeeper, Red Admiral and Painted Lady.

One of the Emperor dragonflies landed in a bush, and allowed some photos, as did a male Black-tailed Skimmer.

Emperor

Black-tailed Skimmer

After visiting the reserve, we had a walk down to the beach by the lighthouse, where we spotted a couple of Harbour Porpoises in the sea ( and a dead one on the beach) and several Herring Gulls on the beach.

Harbour Porpoise

RSPB Dungeness - 27th July 2011

Hello and welcome back! Just been away to Kent for a family holiday, hence the lack of updates.

Whilst down in Kent we visited the RSPB site at Dungeness.

As is to be expected at this time of year it was pretty quiet, but we did manage to see  a few nice birds and got a chance to explore this part of the world.

The highlight was the ARC hide where a good number of waders were spotted including summer plumaged Golden Plover, a couple of hundred Lapwing, 3 Little Ringed Plover,including a juvenile bird, 1 Common Sandpiper and a couple of summer plumaged Dunlin.  Also here were 3 Little Egret and my first Teal and Wigeon of the "winter".

Golden Plover and Lapwing

Over on the main site we visited 5 hides and saw many commoner species such as Mallard, Mute Swan, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Oystercatcher, Great-crested Grebe, Moorhen and Coot. The main highlight on this site however, was the pair of nesting Common Tern, with 1 chick seen from Denge Marsh Hide.

Common Tern with chick