Apart from a trip to a wet and windy Dungeness on friday most of my birding has been around Dover this week.Bushy Ruff had a single grey wagtail,a pair of gadwall,and a couple of grey herons as well as the regular water birds.Very few small birds were seen here or in Kearsney Abbey but the grey squirrel population is thriving,any connection I wonder.
GREY WAGTAIL at BUSHY RUFF
A PRECARIOUSLY PERCHED GREY HERON
MUTE SWAN
GREY SQUIRRELS ABOUND in KEARSNEY ABBEY
Dungeness on Friday with Charlie Stokes was very windy with showers on and off,all the usual winter ducks were present but with water levels at a record high there are no islands left for waders.On the way home we found the Bewicks swans in Caldecote Lane (47) 3 Purple Sandpipers at Hythe and Charlie had not seen a Med gull so we put that right at Folkestones East Cliff.
PURPLE SANDPIPERS
The weekend was about the harbour area in the main,principally the Prince of Wales pier where there has been snow bunting,black redstart,the juvenile eider is almost 3 weeks into its stay,good numbers of guillemots a couple of razorbills,shag and a juvenile little gull provided a moving target for the camera on sunday morning.
CORMORANT -WELLINGTON DOCK
CORMORANT & SHAG=the difference is obvious when seen together
COMMON SEAL hauled up on the hoverpad,I wasn`t sure if it was dead or alive until another seal approached and it moved its head briefly to look it over.
KINGFISHER seen near Crabble Corn Mill on Saturday afternoon whilst I was en route to the rugby ground,unfortunately before it turned its head a crowd of unruly yobbos scared it off,so I went to watch another crowd of unruly yobbos watching a very exciting game of rugby.
SNOW BUNTING
LITTLE GULL exercised the auto focus on sunday morning on the pier, here are my best efforts, I am sure there are many better images around on the various blogs.
WISH I COULD DO THAT????
FLOTILLA OF AUKS-3 GUILLEMOTS and single RAZORBILL
GUILLEMOT
KITTIWAKE walking in the air.
