With more heavy rain, we are verging on our highest ever recorded water levels here at Dungeness. The amount of island space has decreased dramatically over the last few weeks. Not only does Dungeness get it's own fair share of rainfall, it also stores water from the surrounding land. As it is so low lying, water flows underground from the hills nearby and fills up the reservoirs.
Cattle egret in Boulderwall fields - Martin Casemore
The field by Boulderwall Farm (near the entrance to the reserve) is saturated with water and we are currently seeing lots of wading birds such as ruff and black-tailed godwits feeding. Up to three cattle egrets have also been present in the field as that's where our cows are at the moment. Yesterday, over 1000 lapwing were seen flocking in these fields too.
Lapwing - Graham Parry
We are also starting to see some new goosey faces turn up. We've had white-fronted geese, brent geese and barnacle geese all turn up over the last week. These geese migrate to us for the winter. Some pass through to head to even warmer places but some stay here in and around Dungeness to feed when their homes up north freeze over. They join our already quite large groups of greylag and Canadian geese that are resident on the reserve.
White-fronted goose - Graham Parry
This weekend we are hosting optics demonstrations in our visitor centre. If you are interested in purchasing binoculars for yourself or a loved one (Christmas is coming up!!) then why not pop in between 10am and 4pm on Saturday and Sunday, to speak to a friendly member of staff about all the options we have. You are able to handle and try out all the stock we have for sale to pick the perfect pair. Wondering about telescopes? We also have a range of these for you to try out too.
Next Sunday, 8th December we are hosting our Christmas Fair. Please come along and support us and other stall holders and charities that will be present at the fair.