The morning began well with a few migrants in the bushes followed by a large movement of hirundines with 7000 House Martins (145 ringed), 5080 Swallows and 154 Sand Martins and also 14 Grey Wagtails. A Short-eared Owl and a Wryneck were seen in the Desert and Merlin and Hobby were hunting around the Observatory. Grounded migrants included 31 Chiffchaffs, 17 Blackcaps, a Garden Warbler, three Song Thrushes, two Spotted Flycatchers, two Redstarts, two Whinchats and ten Wheatears.
The sea was fairly quiet during the morning but came to life in spectacular fashion in the afternoon with an incredible sighting of a Brown Booby which spent about 30 minutes offshore as it slowly drifted west and even allowed a few locals to get to the boats to witness the event. A first record for Dungeness. Also of note on the seawatch was a juvenile Long-tailed Skua, a Little Tern, 15 Black Terns, 465 Common Terns, 761 Sandwich Terns, three Little Gulls, three Mediterranean Gulls and 46 Arctic Skuas.
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| Brown Booby Sula leucogaster Dungeness 12th September 2026 Thanks to Martin Casemore for these images. |
Seven Porpoises, two Grey Seals and a Common Seal were feeding offshore and a Brown Hare was seen on the land.
A Common Frog was seen in the Observatory garden.
The moths produced five Vestals, a Delicate and four Small Mottled Willows of note. One Clouded Yellow was also seen.
There have been a handful of sightings of the very rare paper-wasp Polistes biglumis in the last year or so and a couple of days ago an active nest was found.
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| Polistes biglumis nest and adults Dungeness 12th September 2026 |