24th March 2012 - Allhallows and Dungeness

Unfortunately due to a rather large hangover, I had had to miss the previous trip to Allhallows, meaning Stuart was now ahead of me in the Year List.  Luckily he had coerced his lovely friend Naomi into a weekend of birdwatching when she came down to visit us and first stop on the Saturday was Allhallows.  However, the foggiest fog I have ever been in had descended and we could barely see five foot in front of us, let alone see any birds. 


Look at the fog!

All around us there were Skylarks singing, Reed Buntings calling and ducks quacking, but we couldn't see a single one.  As we trundled round the fog slowly began to lift, so we ended up with 18 species, but none of the ones we had come to see!  We then scrapped our plans of North Kent birding and headed south to Dungeness, stopping for an ice cream and a quick visit to Pets At Home on the way.  Amazingly, it was sunny, warm and fogless at Dungeness, completely unexpected! 

Sun at Dungeness?  Am I in a parallel universe?

The first thing we heard when getting out of the car was a call of 'Black Redstart!' so we went over and spotted him on the fence, a lifer for me.  The day carried on in such form, with the first Linnet of the year for me, a resighting of the Long-tailed Duck, first Common Gull this year and a first Curlew.  We unfortunately missed the Little Ringed Plover, but plenty of time left to see one.



Cute Oystercatcher.



	Allhallows	Dungeness Beach	Dungeness RSPB
1	Blue Tit	Black Redstart – NEW FOR LIFE LIST!	Grey Heron
2	Greenfinch	Brent Goose	Oystercatcher
3	Magpie	Great-crested Grebe	Tufted Duck
4	House Sparrow	Peregrine	Cormorant
5	Meadow Pipit	Black-headed Gull	Lesser Black-backed Gull
6	Reed Bunting	Meadow Pipit	Shoveler
7	Coot	House Sparrow	Long-tailed Duck
8	Blackbird	Linnet	Shelduck
9	Starling	Pied Wagtail	Coot
10	Lesser Black-backed Gull	Mapgie	Great Tit
11	Moorhen	Lesser Black-backed Gull	Great Black-backed Gull
12	Mallard	Herring Gull	Common Gull
13	Carrion Crow	Blackbird	Gadwall
14	Collared Dove	Great Black-backed Gull	Teal
15	Dunnock	Starling	Lapwing
16	Great Tit	Cormorant	Great Crested Grebe
17	Chaffinch		Marsh Harrier
18	Pheasant		Little Grebe
19			Wigeon
20			Goldeneye
21			Canada Goose
22			Greylag Goose
23			Pochard
24			Curlew
25			Linnet
26			Chaffinch
27			Reed Bunting
28			Tree Sparrow

My year list for 2012 comes to 107.