Ray O' Reilly, KOS Field Trip organiser and leader, writes:-

 ‘It’s funny how quickly our monthly KOS outings seem to come around and it is sobering that the last field trip of 2023 took place on Sunday 17th December.  We had an excellent day.

 A Woodcock flying in front of the car on route was a good start to the day but did not feature on our group list which finished with 80 species  - one of our best for many a month. 

 We met on the beach at a windy Dungeness after seeing a small flock of Cattle Egrets in the horse paddocks near the ARC Pit.

From the beach many Northern Gannets were fishing offshore and auks (mainly Common Guillemots) were flying hither and thither and sometimes landing on the choppy sea. A couple of Red-throated Divers and Great Crested Grebes were spotted before we walked up to the patch - where the warm water outlet from Dungeness Power Station used to be.

 We were greeted by a phalanx of gulls and Chris Gillard picked out a 1st Winter Little Gull that was buoyantly picking morsels off the bubbling sea before another swiftly joined it. A Peregrine Falcon caused havoc above the power station before we left for a look at Burrows Pit on the RSPB reserve. 

There we immediately found two Great Northern and a single Black-throated Diver. They were close and gave excellent views. Amongst our other sightings were several elegant Common Goldeneye, Great White Egret, Common Chiffchaff and a Eurasian Sparrowhawk.  We then drove through Lydd and out onto to Walland Marsh where we successfully found and watched 47 Bewick's Swans and a Cape Shelduck in with some Egyptian Geese.  In addition there were large flocks of Fieldfares with some Redwings mixed in with them feeding on the hedgerow berries and on the ground in the stubbled fields.

 We then left to drive to Oare Marshes NR in time for lunch, and 

admired six Eurasian Spoonbills on the East Flood. The Swale estuary gave us most of the commoner waders including Black-tailed Godwits and Pied Avocets and, in addition, Eurasian Skylark, Meadow and Rock Pipits, Reed Bunting and Eurasian Green Woodpecker.  They all showed well.

The flooded field where  - on the previous day -  I had seen an adult Lesser White-fronted Goose contained just a Dark-bellied Brent Goose today.

This close to the winter solstice the light was starting to go and we watched the last three species of the day  - Eurasian Golden Plover, Common Snipe and Green Sandpiper, a lovely final flourish.

A certain member of the group whose grandfather worked and wrote with Eric Hosking had at least three lifers. It is always really good to share that experience with a group of birders. For me one of today's highlights was hearing the Godwits chattering to each other on the foreshore.

It was a splendid day, taking in two of Kent’s premier birding spots and providing all of us with a fitting end to the 2023 Field Trip programme.  We look forward to 2024………………

Many Thanks again to Yuti Chernajovsky for his images and allowing us to use them.

 A very Happy Christmas to you all,

 Ray.”