23rd and 24th January

A very samey couple of days, still at Dungeness; very calm but heavily overcast, dull and dreary with not too much in the way of new birds.   A walk round the Obs area on the 23rd produced a single Firecrest at the top Long Pit, 3 Cetti’s Warblers and 3 Kestrels before a drive round produced counts of 82 Pochard and 172 Barnacle Geese (local breeding feral-types) at Scotney and a few birds down Dengemarsh Road including another Firecrest, 21 Linnets, 20+ Reed Buntings, a Chiffchaff, a good flock of 115+ Pied Wagtails feeding with the Golden Plover and Lapwings, an adult male Marsh Harrier, a Buzzard and 17 Egyptian Geese.   

A walk from the seawatch hide, round the point to the fishing boats and back across the desert in the morning of the 24th produced 70+ Red-throated Divers offshore but not a lot else while birds on the land included a Firecrest feeding with a Goldcrest, a pair of Stonechats and 2 Stock Doves.   Not much else through the day with an impressive count of 356 Shoveler on ARC and an increased 40 Bewick’s Swans out at Midley Farm where the highlight of the day was actually a Weasel which ran across the road carrying prey, dropped it and gave awesome views as he plucked up the courage to come back out in the open to retrieve his rodent lunch.

Weasel

Sleeping Fox on Littlestone Beach

Goose Barnacles