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Dungeness and Rye


As illness had prevented me from taking a holiday last summer, and as I had to use up some leave before the end of the financial year I took a few days down on the South Coast starting with a visit to Dungeness.

The most obvious attraction is of course the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway but that is only one aspect of this remarkable ecosystem.

From a birding point of view there was a lot of interest. Without making any effort I quickly saw black redstarts and wheatears. I didn't have time for serious birding and didn't manage to see the serin that I was told was around.

The shingle landscape and the architecture are both fascinating. Look closely at the right hand hut in the photo, the central section is clearly an old railway carriage.


The power station dominates of course, show here behind the formeer Trinity House experimental station.The Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond, to give them their full title has a long association with Dungeness with two lighthouses on the headland. The old lighthouse shown here is now redundant, the shingle just behind the buildings was where I saw both the wheatears and the redstart.

Suprisingly I also saw a fair sized flock of house sparrows, far more than I see at home or in London these days. Staying in Rye we saw more, so now we know where they have moved to.

The Rye Harbour nature reserve is an area of marsh and grassed over shingle with Camber Castle sitting in the middle. The transition from marsh to shingle when walking from the Royal Military Canal isn't immediately obvious until you come across a badger set with mounds of shingle thrown up. The castle itself has a severe dose of jackdaws who are audible long before you can see that there are any birds on the building at all. On the nearby lagoons we saw more gadwall than I have seen in one place as well as shelduck, tufted duck, mallard, coot, moorhen and oystercatchers. The gulls included herring, black headed and lesser black backed. Suprisingly I saw no herons on the lagoon but did see one in flight.

A second walk in the countryside and marsh around Winchelsea didn't show much in the way of visible birds but we were mocked by green woodpeckers who "yaffled" away but never showed themselves. A great spotted could be heard drumming but again wasn't seen.

Along the Royal Military Canal the Environment Agency has placed regular "elf 'n' safety" notices. Apparently the Great British Public are unable to realise that they are in the countryside.

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