England – Dungeness [2]

Sutton, 29 Dec 2010

My final birding day of the year yesterday was at RSPB Dungeness near Lydd in Kent. This was my 4^th visit to this reserve.

A heavy sky and poor light did not bode well for too many photographs, yet the day turned out to be quite a memorable one. While the Firth, Makepeace and Christmas Dell hides turned up most of the expected duck species, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Northern Shoveler, Common Pochard and Eurasian Wigeon, it was Scott Hide that came up with the surprises. The first lifer of day seen here was a winter visitor, a Smew, just too distant to photograph but easily identified through binoculars. I have only seen this before as a captive species at the London Wetland Centre. Next lifer was a Common Merganser (or Goosander) also a winter visitor to this area. The third surprise here was a Eurasian Bittern, which I saw for the first time at the London Wetland Centre on my first birding day of this year. This one was so close, tucked right up against the hide itself, that I had to slide quietly out of the hide and work my way into a position where I could get some decent photos. The results were far better than anything I managed at the LWC in January.

From the Denge Hide I was able to watch a pair of Western Marsh Harrier cruising around on the far bank of the pond, but it was the Hansen ARC Willow Trail that came up with my third lifer. This was my last stop of the day, an area that is detached from the main reserve and has its own car park. I almost didn’t pull into the car park. Having already seen two lifers I could quite happily just passed it by and headed back to Sutton. Just as well I did stop. Apart from birds that I had already seen in the main part of the reserve I added Water Rail, only my third sighting of this one, and as my final bird of the day another lifer, Cetti’s Warbler. Alas, no photo. I first heard its call, and training binoculars on the area of tangled vegetation from which it was emanating, waited for movement. I managed several glimpses long enough to be able to make a visual ID, although it does have a very distinctive call.