Dungeness

July 30th



After Sunday’s superb Great Shearwater by Andy Lawson and a not too bad a forecast for Monday, I headed down there early a.m arriving at the Fishing Boats at 6.00am.

Birds seen en route were Common Buzzard, a hunting Hobby after Sand Martins and a Wheatear which was good.

Settled in watching until 10.00am, very overcast at times but thankfully not much rain, others were present to around 9.00m but totals below is what I recorded.


Bonxie – 1
Common Scoter – 17
Kittiwake – 1
Little Tern – 9 including a flock of 5
Juvenile Mediterranean Gull – 6 always nice to see these
Fulmar – 9
Manx Shearwater – 1
Balearic Shearwater – 1
Common/Arctic Tern – around 120, lot of movement between 9-10am
Sandwich Tern – 23
Gannet – 264, largest flocks around 25 birds, most birds going east.
Swift – 16 east

The first Shearwater seen I must admit I thought was a Manx but on looking at the photos is actually a Balearic, so easy to be wrong in Sea Watching, need to do it more and brush up on my ID.

A little slow and nothing earth shattering in regards to numbers but an enjoyable visit anyway, although standing still for 4 hours with a dodgy knee is not ideal, time I wised up and got a chair like everyone else.

Balearic

France in the distance - Boulogne area I think

Little Tern

Fulmar