NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

Dungeness seems to be reverting to the Dungeness of old, all gusting south-westerlies and rain. However, this does mean that a few hours staring out to sea can be rewarding, and so it proved. A thousand plus Gannets and the same number of Kittiwakes streamed west in the first three hours of daylight, along with a bonus Sooty Shearwater and second-winter Little Gull. This afternoons watch was not nearly so productive, although a late Common Tern flew through and an adult Caspian Gull was on the beach. Mark H kindly acted as chauffeur and companion throughout the day, with our time in the field being punctuated by cups of tea, pontification and yarning. We could do all of this while looking through binoculars, which proves that men can multi-task!

It's that weekend of the year when Dungeness beach gets inundated with birders out to 'year tick' a Pomarine Skua. Most of them leave the beach having had a sea watch full of great birds - whether they've actually seen them or not... With apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein, these lyrics can be sung to the tune of the  Sound of Music track 'These are a few of my favourite things' . It's already a number one download at Dungeness! Purp Sands are Stormies House Martins are Leach's Nightjars are Swinhoe's From headlands and beaches It's amazing what rarities Imagination can bring These are a few of my favourite strings Slavs past Cap Gris Nez Confirmed at "The Patch" All done by us birders Starting from scratch Claiming a Thayer's Gull Seeing one wing These are a few of my favourite strings When the mist comes And the rain falls And the light gets bad It helps to create my favourite strings That makes my life list feel...

Sea watching can be a dull affair. One of the frustrations (and joys) of this sport is that a sudden change of wind direction can kick start birds to move. So, if there is the promise of an onshore wind, it is best to be in place before it actually happens - after all, you don't want to miss anything. Sometimes you would wait... and wait... and the hoped for change never happened. If you are really keen on seawatching however, you may well stare out across the waves regardless of the weather conditions just in case... I used to seawatch an awful lot, 99% of this being at Dungeness. I'm pretty sure that between 1976 - 1991 I most probably saw the same individual birds move east in the spring and west in the autumn on an annual basis. Part of the joys of this particular branch of ornithology is the unpredictability of what will happen, the fact that the birds come to the observer (like an avian conveyor belt) and it is also the ultimate test of one's identification prowes...