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Louise Kelly

This is the time of year we love. A whole range of birds are now making Dungeness their home for the summer! We've had a huge increase in the amount of wading birds seen on the reserve over the last week as well as smaller birds such as whitethroat, nightingale, yellow wagtail and warblers such as sedge, reed and willow warblers. 

Whitethroat - Vera Carpenter

Although the lack of rain we have had over the past month has made some parts of the reserve suffer a bit, it's been great for views out of the visitor centre as islands are visible and lots of birds are using them. Yesterday, 13 different species of wader were counted on Burrowes pit alone! These included; oystercatchers, lapwing, whimbrel, little ringed plover, greenshank, dunlin, ringed plover, bar-tailed godwit, redshank, grey plover, turnstone, little stint and common sandpiper. 


Turnstone - Graham Parry

Over the weekend we also had 2 wrynecks spotted along the trail. Whitethroats, slavonian and black-necked grebes, pintail and garganey have also been seen. 2 male bitterns have also been heard booming which is promising!

Wryneck - Mike Langman

Slavonian grebe - Graham Parry

We've also had an influx of seabirds in at the reserve over the last couple of days. Iceland, common and little gulls are all here and pairing up. The terns are here! We've had black, little and over 50 common terns all appear on the reserve. Time to get the rafts out! 

Cuckoos are still about and can be heard frequently. A visitor on one of our bittern breakfast walks took a fantastic picture of a cuckoo as it obligingly sat in a bush eating the brown-tailed moth caterpillars which are its favourite delicacy. 

Cuckoo - by Vera Carpenter

Fancy experiencing the joys of the dawn chorus here at Dungeness? Then join us on a walk on Saturday 13th May at 6am to listen and learn what the birds are that you are listening to. Please call the reserve on 01797 320588 for more information and to book! New to birdwatching? We have a beginners bird watching walk at 11am on Sunday 28th May. Come along and learn something new about the world of birds and our amazing nature reserve!