Right Place, Right Time.

 Wednesday, October 14

Famous date for the Battle of Hastings. Cliff Richard's and Pam's birthday. So it was Pam's choice as to what we did to-day.

Dungeness was the chosen destination. A compulsory stop at Cook's Pool brought us our first view of one of the Glossy Ibis on the ground, feeding at the far reedy edge of the pool. It then flew out of sight.

 

As we neared the power station, a Hobby dropped off a ledge, flying straight out to sea. We met warden David Walker driving the other way to look for it. He hadn't put the trap out last night, but the assistant warden had saved a Feathered Brindle for us. Not a new moth, we saw one at Portland last year, a very desirable one though as it's an NB speciality of the south coast.

Occurring sporadically along the southern coastline of England from Suffolk to Cornwall, and also south Wales, the species inhabits a range of coastal habitats such as sandhills and shingle beaches.

 

Finished with the moth, the assistant warden appeared telling us that there was a Short-toed Treecreeper in the Lighthouse garden. Off we drove, parking within sight of the garden and the five birders, including David, staring at the shrubbery. Pam and I both saw the Treecreeper plus, Goldcrest, Willow Warblers and Chiffchaff. Three Velvet Scoter flew by. 

The Assistant Warden (wish I knew his name), had wandered off into the distance.  My pager screamed at me. Mega. The first time I'd actually seen a mega before the birding services announced it.

David clapped his phone to his ear, called Red-flanked Bluetail, and all present went as fast as they could into the distant shingle and scrub. We parked at the central parking area, in view of the birders, but not the bird, which was deep in a gorse bush. No year tick of this delightful bird to-day.

Our final visit to the RSPB Dungeness reserve for a hot drink and a postcard. We drove to the only hide open, adding Pintail to the week's list. Then, a drive down a track labelled 'Authorised Vehicles Only', with permission of course. We didn't find the Bearded Tits but we did find three Ring Ousels feeding avidly on top of  berried tree. The only possible photos were through the horrible windscreen. It will do for my year folder!

We missed so many birds this spring, because of both lockdown and the Scottish month denial.

We've had a good week with some good birds. We intend emptying the moth trap, stripping beds etc, packing, and driving home to-morrow. Pam, understandably, finds this preferable to getting up at sparrows and doing all that to be out before 9 a.m. on Friday. I absolutely agree.