MORE SHADES OF GREY,BLACK AND WHITE TOO.

Thought I had better get up to date,ain`t it funny how time slips right on away.
Been out a few times despite the grim weather,Reculver,North Foreland and Pegwell with Barry Woolhouse was uneventful in the main,except for ze banter wiv Phil at Pigswill Bay.

 RECULVER STONECHAT

 FULMAR PETRELS AT NORTH FORELAND

 LAPWINGS KNOT AND A REDSHANK AT PEGWELL
The wind at a gloomy Dungeness was not conducive to standing around outside for long,but I did catch up with the Black Throated Divers and a female Goosander on New Diggings,a Great Egret on A.R.C. and a female Smew was just outside Hansons for a short time.

 GREAT WHITE EGRET

GOOSANDER

 BLACK THROATED DIVER

 BLACK THROATED DIVER

 BLACK THROATED DIVER

 RED HEAD SMEW

RED HEAD SMEW
Back to Dover and the harbour where guillemot and razorbill numbers are rising and a grey seal has joined the commoners,the first sighting on wednesday afternoon.

 GREY SEAL-note the straight muzzle and forehead.

A FLOTILLA OF AUKS-RAZORBILL is tail end charlie.
Today a grey seal popped up so I took some more pics,on inspection this was a second animal with different markings.

GREY SEAL,this one has a reddish muzzle and less mottling on the face.
Also of note today was a juvenile eider,whether it is the same bird that has come back is uncertain,but it is hanging out in the same place,so it may well be.

DISTANT JUV MALE EIDER
There now follows a series of guillemot pics,these are of a bird in summer plumage :-

You can wake up now the guillemot has gone.
To end with I can`t remember which day it was but the sun came out briefly and the Little Gull turned up again also briefly.

LITTLE GULL

And finally

A SUN BLESSED TURNSTONE. DOESN`T IT MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE!!!!

SEVERAL SHADES OF GREY

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.