There was a huge element of surprise on our trip to Dungeness this year. It was relatively warm! There were four of us, myself, Roger K, Claire M and Dave B, all done up for the usual icy blast then deciding we were a bit over-dressed.

We left on time at 8 a.m., which I suppose was another surprise. We had planned a twenty-minute pit stop at Pett Levels but this elasticated itself into nearly an hour due to having Dave with us. He kept finding more birds! I have had that problem with him before. Before things got started there was yet another surprise. Claire made friends with a dog. She was the chosen one when a woman left us in charge of it while she went to her car.

So to birds and we picked out a huge flock of Lapwings, Grey Lag Geese and abundant Curlews but had to thank Dave for some superb White Fronted Geese. Birds were spooked and a small section of the White Fronts removed themselves to a grassy patch close by and showed off their striking streaky black sides and white facial markings. Roger found a Marsh Harrier and Claire latched onto some Oystercatchers while a little further off on the margins of a pond a Little Grebe swam alongside Coots and Dave noted a couple of Dunlin among the Redshanks. A Great White Egret was the first of a goodly number we came across during the day.

That’s not all folks. If you turn round on the seawall vantage point you can scan, unsurprisingly, the sea. I zoomed in on a Cormorant and some Great Crested Grebes and then Dave pointed out a couple of Red Throated Divers. O joy! I was praying we might see some. Since time was ticking inexorably by we tore ourselves away helped by the lure of coffee at RSPB Dungeness.

We were not disappointed, especially Claire, who got excited not just by a hot drink but also the first of two or three Goldeneye amongst the more usual ducks. I don’t blame her for being a Goldeneye fan. They are smart ducks even if the Dungeness ones wanted to stay as close to the far bank as possible. Tufted Duck pretended to be closer Goldeneye and there were good numbers of Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler plus the occasional Mallard. The report of a possible Great Northern Diver sent us scurrying off towards the far end of the water stopping briefly to find Gadwall and Pochards along the way. Dave had a bit of a head start as we approached the last viewpoint and by the time we arrived he had his scope up scanning for the hoped for Great Northern. “Er, Dave what’s that large bird with a dagger-like bill just a few yards off the shoreline?” Nobody expects a Great Northern that close! It swam away in a leisurely fashion giving great views and showing that it had an eye missing. We wondered if it had lost it in a territorial fight. The beak looked lethal.

I was determined to find a Snipe in the small patch of wetland beyond the main body of water. After all Lesley M had found an almost invisible one there a couple of years back. A group of Goldfinches were busy amongst the reeds and Claire doggedly tracked a greyish coloured pipit jauntily pacing the muddy margins. Just as I got onto it Mr Pipit took off but obviously gave out a call well beyond my range which enabled Dave to confirm our suspicion that it was a Water Pipit (possibly my bird of the day). Later on the beach we were to add Meadow Pipits. However, no Snipe. Pied Waggy, more Goldfinches and a couple of shouting Cetti’s Warblers were overshadowed when we witnessed a bit of an aerial ding-dong between a Crow and a Peregrine, the latter then giving us a brief flight display. We trundled on to the hide at the next expanse of water.

Marsh Harrier city! Four or five in evidence and one with Corvid aggro like the Peregrine. This time a slightly tougher opponent, a Raven. It probably ended as a goalless draw. There was a range of duck, geese with Great Crested Grebes on the water. Shelduck and the inevitable Canada Geese were added to our growing list. Gulls appeared to be mainly Black Headed although Dave found a solitary Common Gull somewhen during the day. With true grit (not the John Wayne sort) and determination I achieved my moment of glory and unearthed a Snipe although I have to admit it was pretty up close and obvious. At this point Dave pointed out that tempus was fugitting and we had mentioned a seawatch. Good point. We had a short planning meeting about the quickest way back to the centre and a clear decision that whatever the arrival time there would be a lunch break. You could sense people’s relief. A Stonechat, Wren and a couple each of Dunnocks and Robins helped us along our way and, after checking feeders to add Blue and Great Tits, we took our lunch break in a hide overlooking the main water with our list enlarged by an over-flapping Grey Heron.

To the beach! We glimpsed the Derek Jarman garden en route and were soon checking out the sea where Great Crested Grebes and fly past Cormorants seemed to dominate although I did pick out a very distant Gannet. When we all had our eye in we started to find quite a few more Red Throated Divers and Dave announced that the auks were Razorbills. “Auks!!” Crikey there are some tiny little dark blobs bobbing around on the sea over France way. Then came Dave’s most magic moment. On various premises he suggested we change our position by a few hundred yards and look beyond the spit of land to the east. First up was a large flock of roosting gulls which turned out to Herring but worth checking through. The sea was churning with swimming Cormorants obviously having found something to their liking and a Gannet came in quite close to the shore. Well that was quite fun. “These auks are all Guillemots!!” O my word another lot of bobbing blobs and these ones a bit closer. I boosted my self esteem a little by pointing out a fast-flying flock of birds just above the surface of the sea. “Razorbills” said Dave after checking through his scope. Wow what a brilliant seawatch.

Turning our back on the sea we made for the ARC pits opposite the RSPB reserve entrance. It was getting dark but we wanted to do the last planned part of the day. In the gloom we managed to find the only hide and opened the door. Humans! Lots of them taking up every vantage point. Why?! Over the shoulders of the crowd this soon became obvious. A truly memorable murmuration of Starlings pulsating over the water in an ever expending and contracting fluid shapes. People were making stabs at calculating the number of birds with estimates of between five and seven thousand generally expressed. Other water fowl were gradually coming in to roost and a Sparrowhawk made a dash at the ball of Starlings. In the developing gloom I couldn’t see any of the group so there was nothing left for it but to bellow out “anyone from the Henfield group here?” Only Claire appeared so we went outside in order to become a search party. Two barely discernible figures waved from the end of the boardwalk along the waterside. Roger and Dave were having a view of the murmuration through a curtain of tall reeds. A few Cattle Egrets flew through as they were describing to us the spectacle of a bird which had taken off from the reeds, flown out and landed in another clump a few yards further on – a Bittern! Since we were unlikely to better that we headed back to the cars for the homeward trek.

A wonderful day had provided 64 species.