Weather: Bright with some clouds, much milder but with a cool breeze. From 330pm.
The final destination of my birding safari is the most remote destination, Dungeness, & it was quite a drive from London, especially because I missed the turning for the M20. This part of Kent reminded me more of Lincolnshire mixed with Northumberland, rather than the 'Garden of England'; the reserve has mixed scrapes, reedbeds & plentiful gorse habitats set in pebble-strewn plains.
As usual to start, a couple of car-park sightings: Carrion Crow, Great Black-Backed Gull, Grey Heron. After dropping into the visitors' centre I headed to the nearest hide for: Coot, Cormorant, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Herring Gull, Oystercatcher, Wigeon, Great-Crested Grebe, Shoveler.
A group of gulls on one island, all resting I assumed to be the ever-present black-headed gulls so I didn't scan them initially. It took another birder to alert me that they were in fact the new ever-present, Mediterranean Gull & the biggest group I've seen yet. I counted 20 sitting with heads held high, pointing up, looking like they were enjoying the sunshine.
Other ducks also on the water were Wigeon, Goldeneye, Canada Goose, Pochard.
The other birders also confirmed what the visitors' centre had reported, a slavonian grebe showing from one of the other hides, so I made haste to the next hide & on the way saw Pied Wagtail & Meadow Pipit.
Once in the hide a detailed scan revealed Mallard, Woodpigeon in the distance, Lapwing, a lone Ringed Plover, an overflying Marsh Harrier, Shelduck, Moorhen, even a small group of Ruddy Duck, but no grebe even though other people in the hide reported they'd just seen it. I resolved to wait it out for as long as possible, not wishing to repeat my disappointment of missing the black-necked grebes at Minsmere the day before. After at least 20 minutes, everyone else left the hide & I begun a last few scans before I would also have to admit defeat. A small duck-like bird caught my notice in the distance near to the edge of the water & I almost dismissed it as another female tufted duck & deigned to even look at it through my binoculars. However I took one last, precautionary look, just in case, & there it was, the summer plumage Slavonian Grebe. Not much bigger than a little grebe but with striking red eye & yellow-orange tufts, it was very active diving repeatedly as it made its way around the circumference of the scrape. I stayed for a while appreciating a new grebe & taking as many pictures as the light would allow.
Eventually moving on, around the path passing plentiful & vocal Reed Bunting & also a Green Woodpecker undulating in the distance - the usual sighting of this bird it seems. At this point a cetti's warblers found its voice & there even may have been more than one, possibly from neighbouring territories, but it, or they, still proved impossible to see, even though at a couple of points I must have been mere yards away from an individual.
Further along the path a couple of Linnets, then from the last hide on the scrape there: Mute Swan, numerous Greylag Geese & several Little Grebe - up to seven on the water at one point. Leaving the last hide a couple of Magpie were kicking about & as dusk drew in I had a good view of a Barn Owl quartering reeds on a dyke. It then briefly perching on a post before being chased away by a persistent crow which then accompanied it for as far as it remained visible.
Towards the end of the path I flushed a Song Thrush from the gorse & came across Great Tit, Robin, Pheasant, Kestrel, & last but not least, a few Starling coming into roost.
41 species, 1 new species (& remarkably no black-headed gulls either).
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