Dungeness 17/01/2013.

Thursday arrived and the weather forecasters promised sunshine all day for the Dungeness area, so having seen very little of it this year I decided on a visit, but made the mistake of going via Ashford from my Sturry home. Leaving at 8 am, I finally pulled into the ARC pit car park just after 10. It took an hour to cross the junction 10 roundabout over the M.20 by the Ashford hospital, and I would like to designate a medal to the berk who though it would be a good idea to stick traffic lights on every junction of the roundabout (rendering the whole roundabout useless when there is a build up of traffic) and pin it on their arse. (# Council planners suk) There were a good number of Tree Sparrows around the RSPB cottages when I left the car but they seemed very flighty so I never stopped with them for long. I spent the first hour alone in the ARC hide where 4 Goldcrest's entertained me, foraging for food outside of the hide window.

A Drake Smew flew in and landed out in front of the hide, very close, but after a second or two a Cormorant surfaced spooking the bird and I could only manage a few distant shots as it circled out in the middle of the pit before flying back in the direction it arrived from.

Most of the day was spent with the 1.4x converter on as the birds were just a little too far out for my 400mm lens. As well as the Drake Smew 3 Redheads were also present but they stayed over on the far side of the pit. 2 Drake Goldeneye were in display mode strutting their stuff to 4 females, the converter bringing them into range of the camera. (just)

I managed a few other bits and pieces before leaving and spending an hour at the point in a fruitless attempt to locate the Glaucous Gull.

While I was looking for the Glaucous Gull, I saw a Red Throated Diver fishing off shore and again with the help of the converter bringing it within range of the camera. Also there were several Guillemots fishing as well as Great Crested Grebes and Cormorants but I could not find a Razorbill.

The last hour or so was spent back in the ARC hide where after not seeing a Bittern all day I had 5 sightings of 4 different birds all within 15 minutes of each other. As a Bittern passed the hide two more flew out of the reed bed just to the right of the hide giving me 3 in the air together and all fairly close.

A Great White Egret flew down the pit, having come from the direction of the RSPB reserve and just as the light was fading, three female Smew (I presume the three seen earlier) swam out from the edge of the reed bed where the Bitterns had just alighted from and headed off out into the middle of the pit. I don't know how long they had been there; I had not noticed them since my return to the hide but a great end to quite a good day. I suppose now its back to dull and dreary until the good lord allows us another glimpse of his sun.