A small but varied drop of migrants on the land today resulted in the first Garden Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler and Whinchat of the year along with a Snipe, 20 Swallows, 30 Willow Warblers, a Ring Ouzel, a Redstart and seven Yellow Wagtails. Seawatching was fairly quiet in the morning but improved considerably in the afternoon with final totals of 142 Brent Geese, four Shovelers, three Eider, 523 Common Scoters, 26 Whimbrel, a Purple Sandpiper, 209 Sandwich Terns, 47 Little Terns, 210 Common Terns, 43 Arctic Terns, 1057 "Commic" Terns, the first Black Tern of the year and 11 Arctic Skuas.
Four Porpoise and two Grey Seals were feeding offshore.
Spiders do not feature that often on this page but this impressive Segestria florentina was found on the back door frame of the Observatory and appears to be a new species for the area.
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| Segestria florentina Dungeness 26th April 2024 |
On the flora front a small patch of Rue-leaved Saxifrage was found at the Lifeboat Station. It is a previously known location but as far as I can tell has not been seen here since 2000. Close-by the patch of Rock Soapwort was looking superb.
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| Rock Soapwort Saponaria ocymoides Dungeness 26th April 2024 |
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| Rue-leaved Saxifrage Saxifraga tridactylites Dungeness 26th April 2024 |