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BW Stilt

Black-winged Stilt – Martin Casemore

The excellent run of rare and scarce birds showing up in Kent continues. Last week’s Booted Eagle lingered, as hoped, long enough for those assembled at a high vantage point near Cliffsend on Friday morning. It showed twice, before disappearing North around 10.30 am. It was seen later in the week in Norfolk.

A drake Surf Scoter past Dungeness on the 12th was another great sighting, being only the 11th record for Kent. It was first spotted past Beachy Head at 6.51am, which allowed those birding locally at Dungeness to rush over to the coast in time. Right on cue, it was picked out in a group of some 15 Common Scoter an hour later. This was the start of an impressive couple of days for the Dungeness area. A Black-winged Stilt was discovered also on the 12th on Hayfield 1 and lingered for a couple of days. That same day a Goshawk flew over and a Serin was seen twice in the area. A day later, on the 13th, Dungeness joined in on the Hoopoe influx, while a Red-rumped Swallow was discovered at the ARC and spent the remainder of the afternoon at Dengemarsh.

Booted Eagle

Booted Eagle - Jonathan Dodds

An excellent week of birding ended with a true mega: a pale-morph Booted Eagle was picked up by Dave Ellingworth over Broadstairs late afternoon on the 10th. This might become the first accepted record for Kent for this species no less (a record from some years ago is still in circulation with the BBRC). As it circled the wider area, apparently in search of a roosting place, it was seen by many of the local birders. It was last seen close to darkness so hopefully it can be refound.

Excitingly, the influx of Hoopoes continued. After up to five birds were seen last week, Hoopoes showed up at four further locations this week: North Foreland on the 4th, Bough Beech on the 5th, Farringham on the 7th and St Nicolas at Wade on the 9th. Again, the birds didn’t stick around for long, with the Bough Beech bird the most accommodative being twitchable for an afternoon. Other very good birds were a Green-winged Teal at Worth Marshes on the 5th and two Purple Herons at Long Pits, Dungeness on the 10th.

Sand MArtin

Sand Martin – Marc Heath

Early spring continued to deliver a good mix of birds, with an influx of Hoopoe and a Black Kite, but the best bird was another subspecies, an apparent Ashy-headed Wagtail at Worth Marshes identified from photos taken on 29 March. This would only be the fifth record for Kent if accepted. Also known as ‘Italian Yellow Wagtail’, this subspecies breeds in Italy and winters in Central Africa. It is not easy to distinguish from Iberian Wagtail, another rare Yellow Wagtail subspecies, but the lack of a supercilium and darker head in the photo below are certainly supportive.

iberian chiffchaff

Iberian Chiffchaff – Dungeness – Martin Casemore

As warmer and colder days alternated and south easterly winds changed to northerly, migration picked up nicely. Sedge Warbler, Willow Warbler, Yellow Wagtail, Whitethroat,Tree Pipit and even a Common Redstart (at Swalecliffe) were all added to the year list in the past week, but the best bird was an Iberian Chiffchaff in the famous garden of South View at Dungeness. Remarkably, it was the 23rd warbler species recorded in this small garden, benefitting from a great position and a birder as the occupant. The bird was on show and calling regularly on the 22nd.

Another good bird, again in the Dungeness area, was a Hoopoe near the Cemex quarry on Kerton Road. It was found on the 25th and still there on the 26th. Furthermore, an Iceland Gull flew past Hope Point, an Osprey was reported flying over Sholden while two Ring Ouzel were at Langdon Hole on the 24th as well as the 26th.

An impressive nocturnal movement of Redwing all over the county on the night of the 25th was another highlight. It must have involved tens of thousands of birds, with this migration even showing up on radar.

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Apparent ‘Eastern’ Lesser White-throat – Tankerton – Jim Bloor

Best bird of the week was an apparent Siberian or Central Asian Lesser Whitethroat in a birder’s garden in Tankerton on 14 and 15 March. It is very difficult to be certain of the identification of the Eastern subspecies without DNA evidence, but photos do seem supportive and could even be suggestive of the Central Asian subspecies, of which only one has been recorded in Kent before. The timing also looks good, as it would be very early for our Lesser Whitethroats to return, while ‘Eastern’Lesser Whitethroats often are recorded overwintering.

As the week warmed up, some migration started to develop.

Caspian gull

Caspian Gull – Dungeness – Martin Casemore

Amazingly the Pintail record from two weeks ago (which was breaking a previous record from 2006) was broken within two weeks! A brilliant 3705 Pintails flew past Dungeness on the 7th, with 474 Shoveler in tow. Conditions were good, but increased observer coverage in early Spring over recent years might also be a contributing factor.

Another ‘white-winger’ showed briefly, this time a first-winter Glaucous Gull touched down at Foreness Point on 7 March. Other than that, sea-watching around the county delivered Slavonian Grebes past Tankerton on 11th and past Sandwich on 13th, plus a Great Northern Diver past Cliftonville on 11th. The Serins remained on view at Restharrow Scrape early in the week but haven’t been reported after the 9th. A White-tailed Eagle from the Isle of Wight re-introduction project was at Dungeness on the morning of the 13th.

Spoonbill

Spoonbills – Oare – Peter Eerdmans

In a week with lots of glorious sunshine, the best new birds only showed briefly. A juvenile Iceland Gull only spent a few minutes at Swalecliffe on 28 February while a Common Crane flew off shortly after being discovered at Elmley on 1 March. The Serins were more accommodating resurfacing at Restharrow Scrape, Sandwich Bay on 2 March after hiding from view for 10 days. Two males and a female showed well at times, with the males starting to sign softly.

Pintails

Pintails – Dungeness – John Young

Highlight of the week was a record passage of Pintail past Dungeness on 21 February. An amazing total of 994 were counted, surpassing the previous record of 860 in 2006. With the strong southerly winds, there was a nice support cast as well, with two Sooty Shearwaters, several Velvet Scoters and Eider and large flocks of Brent Geese recorded on various days.

With the slightly warmer weather from the South, there was certainly some early bird movement, also outside of sea-watching. The first, and very early, Sand Martin of the Spring was seen on 21st over Bough Beech with two a couple of days later at Grove Ferry. A calling Stone-curlew on the evening of the 25th over Dungeness Bird Observatory was also an early surprise. More expected perhaps was a Woodlark past North Foreland, while a White Stork flew over Godmersham.

Serin  – Sandwich Bay – photo John Neighbour

Highlight of the week was the discovery of four Serins in a Linnet flock at Restharrow Scrape, Sandwich Bay, on 18 February. Often only recorded as a fly-over, a group of four, comprising two males and two females, was certainly noteworthy and a patch tick even for some of stalwarts of Sandwich Bay.

Sea-watching picked up as the week progressed. Highlights were 450 Kittiwake on the 19th, Red-Necked Grebes on the 18th and 20th and a Sooty Shearwater on the 20th, all past Dungeness. There were also a couple of Black-throated Divers (St Margeret’s and Dover), two Great Northern Divers (Foreness and Dungeness) and an Eider and early Sandwich Tern also past Dungeness.

red necked grebe

Red-necked Grebe  – Oare – photo Mark Chidwick

Easterly winds persisted throughout the week, with temperatures staying low, below freezing on some nights. It didn’t lead to a big movement of winter birds, say from the continent into Kent, but two new Red-necked Grebes were nice and stuck around longer than those seen in January. One was at Oare for three days on the Swale as well as into the mouth of Faversham Creek, while the other was with Great-crested Grebes offshore at Hythe.

A female (red-head) Smew was discovered at Dengemarsh, the first for Dungeness since January 2022. Interestingly, one of the old guard at Dungeness looked back in his records and noted 29 Smew on Burrowes in January 1984..

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