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Local weather

Update

The Observatory can accommodate up to 9 people in two dormitories, you need to bring your own sleeping bags and it is self-catering. As well as Birdwatchers, we welcome people from many areas of interest including Moths, Butterflies, Bugs and Beetles or just a general interest in Nature and the local environment. Please forward any Dungeness recording area records to the Warden.
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7th January

A three-hour seawatch this morning resulted in a nice movement of Little Gulls with 120 birds passing west close inshore which ended almost as soon as soon as the weather cleared and the wind veered into the west. Interestingly only one of them was a first-year bird, the rest all being adults. A single Great Skua, a Red-breasted Merganser, 58 Kittiwakes and a few Gannets and auks also flew west whilst 31 Teal, 124 Oystercatchers, a Knot and four Mediterranean Gulls flew east.
The regular first-winter Caspian Gull was showing very well again and despite my better judgement I couldn't resist taking yet more pictures of it.
Caspian Gull Larus cachinnans   first-winter   Dungeness   7th January 2016
Whilst watching the Caspian Gull this Great Black-backed Gull also came to the offering of bread. Most of the black/white colour-ringed birds we see here come from southern Norway or Denmark but this one was ringed on 21st July 2014 well north of the Arctic Circle at Orndalen, Tromso, Norway.
Great Black-backed Gull Larus marinus   2nd winter   Dungeness   7th January 2016
Elsewhere, and surprisingly given the strong winds and heavy rain, one of the Penduline Tits was seen again from the viewing ramp at Hookers Pit this morning.
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