You'd think we'd learn......

Thinking yesterday’s poor return was an aberration Ian and I walked to the point. Well we were wrong. We struggled to find anything.

The walk there only revealed a few skylarks and song thrushes, a lone dunnock and a lone great tit.

Getting to restricted area the wader flock was roosting on the shore line (bar tailed godwits, knot, dunlin, sandling and grey plover) so we moved inland and followed the footpath to the point.

We found next to nothing on the dunes/salt marsh – no mippits, no linnets, no corn buntings – the high light  being a lone reed bunting and a few skylark.

Over by the river and in Pegwell Bay were all the regulars Phil Milton normally comments on (redshank, lapwing, golden plover, curlew ducks etc) but  it’s a darn sight easier to see these from Pegwell rather than walk the 3 miles to the point along the beach seeing litter and dog walkers.

It wasn’t all in vain though as Ian found a black-tailed godwit roosting with the redshank and a common scoter flew into the bay – the godwit being a year tick and the scoter being a Bay tick for the year (though for the non-listers I doubt whether you’d find a lot to enthuse about these two).

We returned to the beach just in time to see 2 dog walkers ignoring all the signs and flushing the roosting waders. Perhaps these pople can't read but I think somthing a bit more effective than a sign is required...........what about a machine gun ? There must be someone out there who needs a job.
The walk back was a little better in that we did find the shore larks but that was about all and I suspect that if you want to see shore larks Reculver is the easier option and you might always see some other birds.

On the drive home I pulled up at Restharrow to see whether the pied wagtails were present on the muck heap and one was.

Pied Wagtail

I also stopped off along

Undercliff Road

and looked for the northern long tailed tit. I didn’t find the tits but I did hear something interesting and after a few minutes a firecrest popped into view. I did had some good views (mostly when distant) but the only image obtained was this one:

Firecrest

It really is a firecrest.