Kent Ornithological Society 
A new species for Kent - David Walker
On 11th July 2010 Geraldine Carpenter, and Malcolm and Carolyn Hawkes were visiting Dungeness for a day’s birding when at around mid-day they found a stunning adult White-tailed Plover in front of the screen hide at the ARC Pit. They watched the bird for a short time and took some video footage before it flew off. They then went to the RSPB Visitors Centre to report their find and eventually news filtered out from there to locals and then to the wider public.
David Roche and myself had been heading towards ARC, ironically to look for White-tailed Plover (see later) and heard of the sighting en route and spoke to the three observers who showed me their video footage and confirmed that it had flown off. Feeling pretty sorry for ourselves we decided to continue on to the screen hide to check but as expected there was no sign of it. As more people got to hear of the bird the local birders decided to spread out over the area to look for it but after an hour or so of waiting the bird suddenly flew back into view and shortly after landed right in front of the screen hide. Numerous phone calls were made and before long a large gathering of observers had amassed.
The combination of pale brown head, breast and mantle, white belly and undertail coverts, striking black, brown and white wing pattern, white tail and long, yellow legs left no doubt about the identification of this superb bird.
Over the next 11 days it remained faithful to the sandy areas in front of the screen hide and spent much of its time eating large Medicinal Leeches Hirudo medicinalis. It frequently showed very well although towards the end it tended to stay more distant but still gave good views and was seen by hundreds of observers with many photographs taken.
There was no doubt about the identity of this bird and there is nothing to suggest that this was not the same individual as that seen previously at Seaforth, Merseyside, in The Netherlands, at Rainham, Essex and then at Slimbridge, Gloucestershire where it was last seen on July 10th. The bird’s departure from there was what had prompted my initial decision to look for it at ARC.