We had a busy start to the new year with lots of keen bird watchers visiting the reserve to get their New Year's lists started! We've had a couple of good bird sightings here too which I'm sure boosted the list for the start of the year.
Lots of Bewick's swans have been on the reserve this week with over 30 counted at the ARC yesterday. Interestingly, we had a report of a pair of Bewick’s Swans with white neck bands on our reserve with a 4 letter alpha/numeric code ending in X in December. Our Warden did some research and found out that these swans had been tagged by the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and have journeyed to Dungeness from Belgium for the winter. These swans are part of a project which monitor the migration routes of Bewick’s swans, so if you see any with bands on their necks, please report them to a member of staff or volunteer.
Other sightings on the reserve include a kittiwake 4 purple sandpiper and a leucistic lapwing on Burrowes pit before Christmas. More recently we have seen goldeneye, pintail and a female scaup, a hen harrier, buzzard and peregrines, bittern, great white egrets, ruff and snipe.
Yellow-legged and caspian gulls have been spotted amongst the herrings and common gulls on Burrowes.
The gorgeous little goldcrests and firecrests have been seen more frequently, which is a lot later than normal for the reserve. Willow warblers, chiffchaffs, bearded and long tailed tits have also been seen around the reserve.
Goldcrest by Graham Parry
Our first male smew was reported on the 4th January, but hasn't been seen since, so keep an eye out if you are visiting! The long-eared owl was last seen by the dipping pond on the 4th also.
Today's sightings on the reserve have been; ring-necked duck, goosander, smew (redhead), snipe, great skua, egyptian geese, water rail, snipe and bearded tits.
An exciting rarity has been seen on Dungeness recently - a Stejneger's stonechat. This is possibly only the third of these stonechats whos sightings have been confirmed in the UK!! The beautiful photograph of it below was taken by Graham Parry.