The Lincolnshire Bird Club

after missing the white tailed plover in lesbos then israel then india then leighton moss i watched the movements of this bird from rainham to river seven then dungerness and got itchy feet and went on a twitch. phoned dave sneap and des my old muckers from derbyshire at around 09.30 and picked them up in newark around 11.00. arrived at dungerness (never been before) just after 14.30 and was directed to the corrct site and saw my bogey bird with much relief. apart from good views of the plover we had a great half days birding. we also saw the purple heron, great white egret, bittern, gargany and 3 superb hobbies swooping on dragonflies and soaring up feeding in flight pulling the wings of the dragonflies and swallowing them whole absolutely superb views then we went to the power station and saw a pair of black redstarts and med gulls, wot a day and a lifer to boot, i do not get many of them. though as mr sims would say its just a tarts tick . left dungerness around 19.00 and dropped my mates of in newark around 23.00 after stops for a bag of chips and coffee and i arrived home around 00.30 absolutely cream crackered, big glass of celebratory bells then bed, phew !!!

terry whalin

ps forgot we had a red kite over the a1
sorry about the slip folks

Terry,
What a great day's birding plus that c 8 hours' driving stint .....no wonder cream crackers were on your mind soon after midnight.
Glad my old local patch (1977-99) lived up to its great reputation - Dunge and the immediate area can really deliver, time and time again.
My wife tells me I went a paler shade of (greenish) white as I was reading your report.....I think they call it envy.

Regards,

Freddy

freddy, 540 miles round trip but with a car full it worked out only £18 each. from newark we were on dual carriageway or motorway till ashford and i averaged around 60 mph and it was well worth it, a great trip and many much sought after species. egrets herons etc 5 species in a day in england, never done that before. grey heron, purple heron, little egret, great white egret and bittern plus the other goodies, yes quite a place,

terry whalin