Gulls and the Purple Sandpiper at Dungeness, 10/11/2013

Dungeness 

08.30 hours, the tide is out and so is the sun, 

NW wind, rather cool, blue sky forecast for all day.

A walk out on the mud !

Great Black-backed Gull, 4th winter ?

Great Black-backed Gull, 1st winter

Common Gull, adult winter

Early breakfast at Romney Farm then heading out to the fishing boats at the point

a half hour with the Gulls drinking and bathing in the pools.


Great Black-backed Gull, adult winter

 Great Black-backed Gull, 1st winter

at the fishing boats

Common Gull, adult winter

Common Gull, 1st winter

Kittiwake, adult winter

Great Black-backed Gull, 3rd winter

Kittiwake, adult winter

Turnstone

Purple Sandpiper

Good to see the Kittiwakes back !

Elmley and a Purple Sandpiper at Dungeness, Kent, 5/10/2013

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 ! 

Little Gull, Dungeness, Kent, 12/10/2013

Dungeness, 08.30 hours, sunny blue sky, the forecast is for cloud later in the day !

First, a circuit of the RSPB Reserve

Great White Egret, 7
Little Egret, 5
Grey Heron, 12+

Marsh Harrier

Ring Ouzel, 7+
Redwing, 10 +
Stonechat, a pair

Kestrel, 1


Great White Egret

This Marsh Harrier was hanging around close to where 2 Great White's and 2 Grey Herons were feeding !  Swooping down to come up with a fish ! The MH must have stole the fish from the Great White Egret !


Marsh Harrier

Next stop breakfast, (for us), then

Early afternoon, down by the fishing boats, the light is perfect, blue sky,
the wind is in the wrong direction, to many fishermen, the Gulls stay away !

Herring Gull, 1st winter

We move on, to stop on the roadside on the causeway,
The light is still good !

a 1st winter Little Gull was feeding on the ARC Pit, sometimes coming fairly close !

Little Gull, 1st winter

Something put up the c100 Lapwing and c50 Golden Plover

Lapwing

A superb day at Dungeness.

Caspian Gull, 1st winter, Dungeness, 6/10/2013

An afternoon 'by the fishing boats', blue sky, very warm for October !

Mick giving me another lesson on GULLS !      Late afternoon we were joined by DW

For the first two hours, not much happening,
also with the light being a bit to harsh, nothing gave photo opportunities,

however, 16.00 hours, things livened up !

Herring Gull, 1st winter

Black-headed Gull, 1st winter

Common Tern, 1st winter

Lesser Black-backed Gull, 1st winter  ?  ?  ?  is it / isn't it ?

This Lesser B-b caused big discussion between Mick and Dave as to being 'odd'. (a bit heavy for me to understand, but i got the gist !).


The sun is now low, the shingle beach is in shadow, I pack up the camera and am now ready to call it a day !


In unison, both Mick (who never gives up !) and Dave call   'Caspian Gull', their camera shutters 'popping' !

My camera was out rapid, fortunately for me the Caspian then flew in close to land on the beach not 10 meters away.

Caspian Gull, 1st winter

 

Mick and I have had already two sightings of a Caspian Gull this September,
BOTH the ''SAME GULL'',
I had asked Mick for a bit of assistance on 'how same' ?

His reply was the two images below ! !

21/9                                                                            28/9

The Caspian photographed today is again the same Caspian Gull !

This lesson understood, leading to another question ?

Is it possible that this 1st winter Caspian Gull now photographed three times is the SAME Caspian that we photographed as a CASPIAN GULL, JUVENILE on 18th August   ?  ?   ?

A 'Wow' ending to a brilliant day !