It's Warden Wednesday, so here's an update from our Warden, Craig, on what his team has been up to recently to get ready for the seabird season:

The warden team have been busy installing bamboo canes on our seabird rafts across the reserve, in an attempt to help some of our breeding seabirds.

David Tipling (rspb-images.com)

RPSB Dungeness is a really important area for breeding seabirds, which nest at different…

Friday morning I was ready to start my big garden bird watch count. I thought it would start my first day off on a positive. I had been SO excited all week leading up to it. Yet, the weather didn’t want to play ball. Rain, rain and more rain . A bit like the weather on winterwatch in wales. The poor Iolo Williams. I also spotted a female sparrowhawk in the woods that back onto my garden. Which may have explained…

This year has certainly been a year to remember (or forget – the choice is yours!). I’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve closed, re-opened then closed again, but that doesn’t mean the RSPB Dungeness team haven’t been busy working to make Dungeness a fantastic home for nature. We thought we would look back at the events of 2020 and celebrate some remarkable successes.

Coronavirus

We are delighted to welcome visitors back to our reserve at RSPB Dungeness! It feels like it's been a very long four months when we weren't able to welcome visitors to our reserve, but we are now finally open!

The reserve is currently operating on reduced hours, so we are open:

• Main nature trail, main car park and toilet block - open Thursday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm
• ARC car park for easy access to the Public Rights…

It's been a very surreal couple of weeks. The nature reserve is still closed and will be for the foreseeable future, so please do not make any attempts to visit us and stay at home where possible. We are all doing our bit to help try and slow the spread of coronavirus so the team are working remotely. We've been maintaining our social media channels to provide a bit of joy to people through the wonders of nature. Please…

Visitors this winter may have noticed the yellow excavator working around the reserve, particularly around some of the ponds. One of the tasks this excavator is the removal of reed rhizomes (roots) from the ponds for the benefit of great crested newts.

Excavator works - Craig Edwards

Great crested newts are found at Dungeness in nationally important numbers. It is believed that one of the reasons they are so prevalent…

Between the storms, their are signs of spring. February is a strange month, we are most likely to be battered by the worst weather; storms, snow, wind and hail. But it teases us, with glimpses of spring time activity. Our bulbs in our gardens are starting to emerge, the days are slowly growing longer, the sunshine seems a bit warmer and birds are starting to gear themselves up for the busy breeding season ahead. 

There…

It's been a little while (sorry!), but I'm here to give you an update on the wildlife currently at Dungeness. The highlight is the beautiful male smew that has been on the reserve for most of January. The only smew here currently seems to favour the more 'hard-to-see' areas of the reserve. He seems to favour the Tanners pool which is viewable from the track just past Boulderwall Farm by the gate to Denge Marsh hide or…

This weekend is the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch and we are asking as many people in the UK to take part as possible! What's great is that you don't even need a garden, just a small local green space like a park or copse of trees or hedgerows near where you live. Sit for an hour, and count how many different species of bird visit you within that time and the highest number of one species you see in one go.

Firstly, thanks to everyone who supported and visited our Winter Fair on Sunday. We had an amazing day with almost 200 visitors come through our doors. The raffle was a huge success and we raised £262 for the nature reserve. The cake table gave us an additional £60 too! Thank you to all who donated prizes and cakes and for those who bought a ticket. Also thanks to those who volunteered on the day, I couldn't have ran…

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…

Another wet month so far! But that hasn't put us all off enjoying what nature has to offer. We've been splashing about in puddles during our Nature Tots activities, enjoying the views of rainbows over the nature reserve and of course being warm and cosy in our visitor centre and still being able to watch the wildlife on the lake outside whilst the rain lashes down.

Our reserve volunteers are are a hardy bunch…

This month has brought us a lot of wet weather and a few different bird sightings. We've had a red-throated diver that's taken up residence on Burrowes Pit for the last couple of weeks. These divers are the UK's smallest and are usually found out to sea, except for when they come on land to breed. Although these birds aren't particularly rare with over 17,000 overwintering birds and 1,300 breeding pairs in the UK, these…

What a difference from last week! We've had some wet and windy weather this week at Dungeness and we are now fully realising that Autumn really is upon us. Anyone else finding it difficult to get up in the mornings now?!

Do not despair! Dungeness still has plenty of wonderful birds and wildlife to offer you! This week has seen a huge increase in the number of swallows and martins swooping over the lakes and filling…

We have been basking in sunshine all week, but the wildlife seem to realise that winter is round the corner, even if we haven't been able to admit it to ourselves yet! Many birds are on the move, gathering in large numbers or appearing for a day at a time here at Dungeness ready to head back to warmer parts of the world.

Thousands of martins have been seen across the peninsular and these house martins were captured…

There's been a noticeable change in our weather this week. Mornings and evenings are a lot cooler and the wind has a small bite in it again. Last week, the school holidays came to an end and we rounded it off with an event about bees and butterflies for the children. We had a great day out on the reserve identifying bees with help from Izzy at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and our knowledgeable volunteer, Dave. The…

A volunteer confirmed two juvenile bitterns being fed by the adult from Hookers Pit yesterday, which shows we have at least two fledged chicks from one nest here on the reserve. We are certain there were two nests so we hope any more chicks have fared just as well! After our volunteer reserve team spent the best part of two days clearing vegetation from in front of Hanson hide, a visitor was rewarded with an exceptional…

Over the last few weeks we have been seeing a great number of wading birds and beat a record for number of redshank counted at once. We had 328 redshank last week which beat the previous record of 151 in 1977. 60 greenshank were seen and approximately 30 spotted redshank were recorded over the reserve too. About 10 or so wood sandpiper are currently on the reserve as well as little ringed plover, black- and bar-tailed…

Last weekend, it decided to rain. Of course it did, that was the weekend of our Big Wild Sleepout! I spent days watching (and dreaming about!) the weather forecast and it looked like it might just dry up in time for us to pitch the tents and enjoy an evening of activities out on the nature reserve. Luckily for us, the weather stuck to it's forecast and just as people were arriving at 4pm, the rain eased off.

Our nature…

Get up close and personal with nature and pop along to the Binocular and Telescope Open Weekend at RSPB Dungeness on Saturday 3rd August. 

The event runs from 10am-4pm at our visitor centre, when a variety of binoculars and telescopes will be on display for visitors to try out, as well as friendly, impartial advice from the knowledgeable team of staff and volunteers.

Heather Stuckey

Not just for wildlife experts, RSPB reserve…

The school summer holidays are imminent & for people looking for "stuff to do" this summer what better way to spend the day than at the RSPB Dungeness. Approximately 300m from our Visitor Centre, on the main trail, is a grassy area we call the Discovery Area. You can walk straight through this area heading back to the Visitor Centre however why not turn left, leave the trail and spend a few extra minutes to take a closer…

Summer is arriving - in fits and starts - but the variable weather we have had of late doesn't stop the wildflowers from blooming. Wildflowers are appearing all over Dungeness, with an amazing display on the seaward side of The Parade rolling into Coast Drive down to the point. Wildflowers are extremely important for our pollinating insects and without them, nothing would survive. 

White-tailed bumblebee on Vipers…

This week we've been enjoying visits from families during half-term. They've been taking part in some of our pond dipping sessions. We've found lots of exciting creatures under the water including; water scorpions, medicinal leeches, newts and their tadpoles, marsh frog tadpoles, great diving beetle larvae, lots of nymphs and water boatmen. 

Many of our summer birds of prey, the hobby have been seen over…