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Welcome to my blog. If you live in Surrey and birding is your obsession (to get out of bed at some ridiculously early time of the morning, no matter what the weather, to go and look at birds isn't normal behaviour, believe me) and you're still a bit of a novice (like me) then, hopefully, this blog is for you.



Thursday 21 September 2017

WE ALL LOVE A WRYNECK

Not long after clocking the Baird's Sandpiper, I visited Dungeness a week later for an enjoyable morning's birding. Dungeness has been one of my favourite haunts this year and when a Wryneck was seen in the Desert area near the observatory I couldn't resist giving it a go.

It was beautiful morning, and was able to take a leisurely walk over the shingle to the patch of gorse scrub where the Wryneck had been seen before I arrived.

On the walk there I saw three Whinchat, always good to see, before scrambling across the shingle towards the gorse where another local birder was peering into the vegetation from a distance with his camera and big lens.

Whinchat on the gorse near the observatory
The Wryneck was skulking around deep in the undergrowth, but after about 45 minutes once a group including Martin Casemore had venture elsewhere,another local birder and myself hung around long enough for it to appear again. I spotted the Wryneck briefly on a branch before it dropped back into the fauna.

The Wryneck at first appeared fleetingly for one photo

While we waited an Osprey that had stuck around the reserve for a few days could be seen in flying around in the distance before it dived down out of view, probably with a fish in its sights.

The Wryneck stayed hidden for another 20 minutes before it eventually came out to feed behind some twigs for a few minutes. Such a fabulous bird, one of my absolute favourites, although clear views were at a premium.

The Wryneck liked to play hard to get
Once it decided to fly back deeper into the scrub I opted to head back to the car and drive over to the reserve. Once there I caught up with four Great White Egret while over at the Denge Marsh hide I had another fleeting view of the Osprey. Also there were a couple of Ruff and a Spoonbill, but I dipped a pair of Cattle Egret.

Three of the four Great White Egret
A Great Crested Grebe gets a close-up view of a Spoonbill coming in to land
The Spoonbill at Denge Marsh – and not asleep
Soon after midday the weather turned, the wind picked up and the rain began to fall, so it was time the head back home. Overall, however, a decent morning

5 comments:

  1. Very decent place dunge, I am gearing up for a session I think

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  2. You should mate - it has been a good year on the shingle

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  3. This is a nice post, very beautiful place with decent sceneries and birds looking awesome. Looking upto same season . Thanks for sharing.

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  4. Really structured and useful information. And everything is clear, thanks. I looked through some posts and must say, they are very interesting net worth

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