** Wednesday 22nd September. Dungeness.**

I paid a visit to Dungeness today. It turned out to be a glorious day, no need for jacket or a sweater, just a gillet, and the first place we went to was the trapping area. We parked just off the road on the concrete on the right. It was a good decision because within minutes a Stonechat made a appearance, shortly followed by a Whinchat.then as the minutes ticked by more and more birds showed themselves, I saw another 3 Stonechats, and 5 more Whinchats, along with 2 Chiffchaffs, 11 Pied Wagtails, and a Wheatear, all seen without moving away from the car, but none close enough for a decent photo, then on our leaving 2 Black Redstarts was seen in the usual place, where I often see them, around the house on the left.
There was also many Swallows gathering on the overhead wires preparing for the long flight ahead of them, Africa here they come, and good luck to them!
As we entered the RSPB Reserve we stopped by the pool on the right, to admire all the Mute Swans that was there, I counted 51, although there had to be more that wasn't visible.
From here went to the Denge Marsh Hide, but before I went in I walked up to the end of the path to see if the Great White Egret could be seen, alas no, but I am glad I went there because over the back near the reeds was a Red Crested Pochard. It was distant, but I know it wasn't a male, it was either a female, or a juvenile. I then went into the hide to see what was about. The Red Crested Pochard wasn't visible from here. Out in front was mostly the usual birds that are seen: G/C/Grebe; Dabchick; W/Pigeon; C/Dove; Greylag Geese; Cormorant; Coot; Moorhen; Tufted Duck; Kestrel; Marsh Harrier(1m,1f); Mute Swan; Shoveler; Mallard; Swallow; C/Crow; Grey Heron; Gadwall; Little Egret; Teal; Pochard, B/H/Gull; Herring Gull; L/B/B/Gull; Magpie; Lapwing.. As left the hide a Reed Bunting was in one of the bushes to the left, as was a Cetti's Warbler. then before I got into the car a saw a small colourful Butterfly just inside the gate that leads to Christmas Dell Hide so I checked it out, and it turned out to be a Small Copper. The last time I saw a Small Copper was June 2009. when I got arrested.........Just kidding!
I did see a good number of Dragonflies today, but they just don't want to settle when I am around. I was hoping for a Migrant Hawker to photograph but no such luck. How do my fellow Bloggers entice then down to pose for them?
When we left this area, the bird species seen from here as we made our way back, and across to the ARC Pit was: G/B/B/Gull; L/B/B/Gull; Common Gull; B/H/Gull; Herring Gull; Jackdaw; Rook; C/Crow; Magpie; W/Pigeon; C/Dove; Kestrel; H/Sparrow; Blue Tit; Starling.
As we parked up we had 2 Green Woodpeckers fly across in front of us, then one I had set up my scope in the hide I was informed that there was 2 Little Gulls out on the water feeding, so I scanned around and there they was. They are not a difficult gull to find, as they behave, and feed off the water like a tern . They was both juvenile birds, they have a very distinctive with a very dark, almost black W across there back, and wings. They are about the size of a Blackbird, perhaps a bit smaller. They did eventually settle on one of the islands, and then one could see just how small they are, when next to a B/H/Gull.
There was a good variety of birds there, wildfowl, and waders.Among the ducks was a female Tufted Duck with a pale blue nasal saddle I.D. tag with the letters JA on it. Some years ago I saw a similar one on a Teal, and I found out that they do this abroad, The Teal which I photographed at Elmley was done in Portugal.

The tufty on the ARC Pit was too far away to photograph.The other Species seen was: Mallard; Pochard; Gadwall; Shoveler; Wigeon; Pintail(4); Teal; Greylag Geese; Canada Geese; Cormorant; Grey Heron; Little Egret; Marsh Harrier; Kestrel, Sparrowhawk( a male flew low across the water putting nearly all the birds up); Lapwing; Golden Plover(5); Avocet(9); Spotted Redshank(2), Turnstone(1); Ruff(1); Common Sandpiper(1); C/Crow; Magpie; W/Pigeon; Starling, Swallows and Sand Martins in good numbers high up;
Herring Gull; Common Gull; B/H/Gull; L/B/B/Gull; G/B/B/Gull; Coot; Moorhen; G/C/Grebe; Dabchick; Sedge Warbler( outside of the hide windows).

Total number of species seen was 54.

My Bird of the Day is to be the ** Little Gull.**