Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Right place, right time. Ole, Ole, Ole.

I paid a visit to Dungeness today. Started off at the power station area, not much about just Meadow Pipit, Linnet, Herring Gull, Great Crested Grebe and Common Tern. Next stop was the RSPB reserve, about 30 minutes after entering the reserve Brendan G phoned and said a Roseate Tern had been reported on the beach close to "the patch" So I went straight back to the power station and walked along to "the patch." A couple of birders were already there but the bird was not on the beach. After about ten minutes the original finder re-found the Roseate Tern further along the beach in amongst some Common Terns. The finder incidently was from the nearby bird observatory. Whilst we were admiring the Tern the guy from the observatory received a message on his walkie-talkie saying a Collared Pratincole had been seen on the RSPB reserve close to the Christmas Dell hide. So back to the reserve I went and headed straight for the Christmas Dell hide, but no birders or Collared Pratincole were to be found. So continued my way round the reserve noting; Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher, Whitethroat, Marsh Harrier, Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, Cetti's Warbler, Linnet, Stonechat (2 pairs.) Then an RSPB volunteer in a car stopped and told me the Collared Prtincole had been re-found and was showing well in the original place. So I hot footed (even hotter footed than for sunday's Ibis!) back to the Christmas Dell area where I and a handful of other birders enjoyed some great views of the Collared Pratincole hawking over the gravel pit for 15-20 minutes. It then disappeared out of site as before. It was seen again early evening.

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