A nice bright morning ! Rather cool strong wind !
Mick and myself started our day at Elmley, we slowly drove the track 'twice' noting
Peregrine Falcon, 1
Kestrel, 2
Common Buzzard, 1
Marsh Harrier, 1
Curlew, 15+
Golden Plover, 15+
Lapwing
Common Snipe, 1
Great Black-backed Gull, adult w, 1
Short-eared Owl, 1
Common Snipe
Pheasant
Lapwing
headed off towards Dungeness, midday, breakfast at Romney Farm, Lydd, (superb quality and cheap !) Mick loves it !
Then to Dungeness, straight out to the fishing boats by the point, meeting up with JM hoping to photograph the Gulls !
1000's of Gulls, (Mick estimated guess 4,000), a huge increase in numbers !
Following last Monday's storms and the gale force winds, lots of Shellfish had been washed up on the beach, their shells smashed by the waves leaving 'tons of food for the Gulls'.
With so much food floating on the water and spread out along the shoreline, the Gulls never really coming close !
Great Black-backed Gull, adult winter
With the light a bit harsh for photographing Gulls, i moved up the beach to spend a bit of time with two Purple Sandpipers in with the Turnstone
Purple Sandpiper
Returning to the Gulls,
Black-headed Gull, adult winter
nothing still coming close ! so back with the Purple Sandpipers and Turnstone
It's not often you get the chance to get 'up close' to Purple Sands at Dungeness, these were very confiding !
Purple Sandpiper
Grey cloud threatening, the light is changing,
Turnstone
Purple Sandpiper
Turnstone
Turnstone
Purple Sandpiper
Purple Sandpiper
Always a smashing day out at Dungeness !
Nice set of photos Richard, didn't know Purps were seen at Dunge, must get down there sometime, you can point out a Caspian for me!
ReplyDeleteGreat close up shots of the shorebirds. Nice detail.
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