Over eight hours of seawatching eventually produced four Pomarine Skuas along with a Great Skua, three Arctic Skuas and a Great Northern Diver of note. It remains very quiet on the land but a Turtle Dove and a Yellowhammer along the beach were both new species for the year.
At least 20 Porpoises and a Grey Seal were feeding offshore.
A Terrapin sp was sunning itself at the Long Pits.
Large numbers of Painted Ladies arrived on the Point this morning.
A morning of thunderstorms with a few birds moving offshore and two Great Northern Divers, a Great Skua and five Pomarine Skuas of interest.
Still very quiet on the land with just two Spotted Flycatchers at the Long Pits of note.
Several Painted Ladies were seen.
With a strong southerly wind and heavy rain this morning hopes were high but in the event not a great deal was to be seen. Of note on the sea were two Great Northern Divers, 870 Gannets, six Black Terns, eight Great Skuas and four Pomarine Skuas but it was very quiet on the land.
Only two Porpoises were seen feeding offshore this morning.
There was a small but rich and varied arrival of migrants through the day with a Wood Warbler and a Grasshopper Warbler (both singing at the North end of the Long pits), six Whinchats, a Redstart, three Spotted Flycatchers, a Pied Flycatcher (in the Old Lighthouse Garden) and a Tree Pipit. Commoner migrants included a Buzzard, 12 Willow Warblers, seven Garden Warblers, a few "Greenland" Wheatears, two Yellow Wagtails and two Redpolls.
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| Wood Warbler Phylloscopus sibilatrix Dungeness 7th May 2021 |
Seven Porpoises and a Grey Seal were feeding offshore and two Brown Hares were seen on the land.
Insects of note included another presumed Geotomus petiti shieldbug but from a new location so will need to be properly checked, another Hister quadrimaculatus in the moat. Two Grizzled Skippers were also seen.
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| Geotomus petiti and Hister quadrimaculatus Dungeness 7th May 2021 |
A fairly slow day although there were some nice bits on the sea where seven hours of watching produced three Black-throated Divers, three Pomarine Skuas, two Great Skuas, 14 Arctic Skuas and a ringtail Hen Harrier. The land remains quiet with just ten Willow Warblers and a Yellow Wagtail of note.
Four Porpoises and a Common Seal were feeding offshore and two Brown Hares were seen on the land.
There was a very small arrival of migrants on the land with the first Spotted Flycatcher of the spring along with six Willow Warblers, four Garden Warblers and a Sedge Warbler. Seawatching was very slow with just two Velvet Scoters and two Great Skuas of note.
Two Porpoises and a Grey Seal were feeding offshore.
A 30-minute search of the moat produced one example of the very rare shieldbug Geotomus petiti.
The wind veered into the west and increased to gale force overnight with yet more damage to the roof of the Observatory. All the coverage was offshore but unusually most of the interesting birds moved west including 56 Manx Shearwaters and a Black-throated Diver. An Osprey came in this afternoon.
Two Porpoises were seen.
Still very quiet on the land but seawatching followed a similar pattern to recent days with a fairly quiet morning then a decent passage in the afternoon. A total of 11 hours of seawatching produced two Black-throated and a Great Northern Diver, nine Manx Shearwaters, six Knot, ten Great Skuas, 25 Pomarine Skuas and 28 Arctic Skuas of note.
Following the pattern of recent days the morning seawatch was fairly quiet but the afternoon was much busier with yet more terns passing through. Notable totals from nearly ten hours of watching included four Black-throated Divers, 38 Whimbrel, three Little Gulls, 14 Little Terns, 7626 "Commic" Terns, five Great Skuas, a Pomarine Skua and five Arctic Skuas. It remains very quiet on the land with hardly a passage migrant to be seen.
At least 20 Porpoises and three Grey Seals were feeding offshore and three Brown Hares were seen on the land.
Very few butterflies were to be seen but they did include three Grizzled Skippers.
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| Grizzled Skipper Pyrgus malvae Dungeness 2nd May 2021 |
The weather of April continued into May and even with some hail showers in the afternoon. After a quiet morning on the sea the trend of the last few days continued with another big afternoon movement. Of note were the terns again with 3129 Common Terns, 2415 Arctic Terns and 7132 "commic" Terns, nine Little Terns and two Black Terns. Skuas also featured highly with 21 Greats, three Pomarines and 11 Arctic Skuas and other notables included two Black-throated Divers, a Great Northern Diver, a Manx Shearwater and five Little Gulls. The Iceland Gull was still feeding at the Patch.
Three Hobbies, a Pied Flycatcher at the Long Pits and two Yellow Wagtails were the highlights of the few migrants on the land. The nesting Ravens have fledged four young.
A Grey Seal and 16 Porpoises were feeding offshore.