Sunday 9th March 2014

     A fairly early start saw me back beside the river Arun, but not many Gulls there, and no sign of the Kumliens!!!! Back for breakfast, then after we met up with Nick bond, a birding friend who lives in Worthing. I managed to throw a whole loaf of bread out for the Gulls, but it didn't work, NO Kumliens or Glaucous Gull! We did have at least 4 Med Gulls, but none of them would pose for photos! Looks like i was right, when i said my luck had run out?

Herring Gull

   We left Nick and headed for Kent, not too far i thought. A stop at Dungeness RSPB, then onto the Heron? How wrong could i be........by the time we got to Dungeness, 3 hours later, i couldn't be assed with the Heron, might do it later in the day????

   I went into the Visitor centre at Dungeness to see what was about. The regular stuff really, until i noticed, right at the bottom of the board, 2 Penduline Tits at the ARC pit. Oh well, there is always other stuff there too, lets have a look. So, after a look at Google maps, to see how far the Heron was from here, we set off across the road to the ARC pit, and more precisely the Hanson hide. Got to the hide, quite a few people there, and a couple taking photos, so lets have a look......got it, thats too far away for pix though. But, they were still taking photos? Then i noticed that, either the first bird had moved closer, or the other one had been close all the time! Either way, it put on a great show for, probably, an hour. Lovely birds.....

Penduline Tit

Penduline Tit

Penduline Tit

      While there, may thoughts were proven right too, there was other stuff there. At least a pair of Goldeneye, a flyby female Smew, which i failed to get the camera on....bugger. The female Goldeneye showed well though.

Goldeneye (Duck)

    Do we have time for the Heron now? No not really, too far away, oh well lets spend some more time here instead. Tree Sparrows near the car park, very nice, a quick search, in vain for a Glossy Ibis, produced a flyby Great White Egret. 3 female Smew were found further east along the ARC pit. A search through the Gulls near the fishing boats, sadly didn't produce the Glaucous Gull or the hoped for Caspian Gulls. Right then time to set on our way home, check Google maps, don't know why, i know how to get home from here, but hey.....my phone clicked into gear, and Hythe, where the Heron was, was 14 minutes away............shit......it said over an hour earlier.....thought it had to wrong, but didn't have any go in me anyway after the traffic earlier. Oh well its 'plastic' anyway........aint it?????