Official Hand Over

At lunch time today EDF formally handed over the new hide that over looks The Patch, replacing the one that disappeared in a storm last winter.

Barney and friends at the hand over

When I arrived at the old lighthouse garden Dungeness this morning it was cold and grey and getting greyer and foggier as the morning progressed. A few birders were already watching the Pallas's Warbler darting around the garden, also a Firecrest, Goldcrest and Chiffchaff. A plod around The Desert found c30 Redwing, c30 Song Thrushes, c15 Blackbirds, 7 Common Snipe, a Black Redstart, a Merlin having a Goldfinch for breakfast and a Golden Plover high overhead repeatedly flying round the area.
 At the fishing boats the 3w Glaucous Gull and adult Yellow-legged Gull, 2 Red-throated Divers on the sea with 2 Guillemots.
 A wander round the moat flushed a Woodcock and 2 Goldcrest there.
At the ARC a Great White Egret and a couple of Cetti's Warblers of note and another Great White Egret on New Diggings.
TG found another Pallas's Warbler in the trapping area and recorded it calling.
After the hand over of the hide I had another look at the Pallas's Warbler in the garden, but with the fog getting worse and the appalling light there was no chance of any decent pics, I consoled myself at the chip shop with pie and chips.

Couldn't resist a couple more shots of this stunner