Kent Ornithological Society 
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.
Fewer reports of Short-eared Owls this week could also indicate some of them are moving North, while that doesn’t seem the case yet for Hen Harrier, with seven still coming into the roost of Grove Ferry on the 23rd.
A good discovery was a female Scaup at Scotney, although it tended to frequent the Sussex side of the lake. With the female Smew still at the ARC and the Long-tailed Duck at New Diggings, it made for an excellent trio of scarce duck in the Dungeness area this week. A Great Northern Diver spent the week at Burrowes there as well.
An impressive 667 White-fronted Geese were counted on Sheppey, with a single Tundra Bean Goose in the mix. The group of 15 Bewick Swans on Walland Marsh was last reported on 22 February but could still be in the area.
As reported before, this winter is giving great opportunity to see Hawfinches, with this week up to 15 seen at Penshurst Churchyard in addition to the smaller numbers at Godmersham and Chislet. Two Snow Buntings remained at Reculver. The Greater Scaup of Collard’s lake was also still reported this week, while Black-necked Grebes were seen at Motney Hill and Cliffe. Up to three Spoonbills were seen again at Oare Marsh.
This coming week the weather looks less windy, with temperatures picking up a little bit towards the second half of the week with some nice sunshine. This could further support the early signs of spring migration. Enjoy.
Peter Eerdmans
(Thanks to all the observers who posted their records on the KOS Sightings website, BirdGuides, eBird and/or the main Kent Birding WhatsApp groups, Thursday-to-Thursday. Apologies for any omissions. If anyone has any photos they think may be useful for the weekly, please send to me by Wednesday. All records of rarities are still subject to official confirmation by the relevant rarities committees)