Desert Wheatear - Neil Burt

As calmer and more sunny weather arrived, this week proved excellent for finding rare and scarce birds in the county. Best was a beautiful male Desert Wheatear that was found at South Swale NR on the 8th. It showed well till late in the afternoon, but could not be found the next day. A typicaly late autumn vagrant, this is the 16th record for Kent and the first since the Joss Bay bird in 2021.

The Pallid Swift of Foreness/North Foreland remained into this week, and was joined by a second on the 8th, while a third was discovered flying over Dover Harbour that day. On the 7th, two Dusky Warblers were found, one at Foreness Point and one at Margate Cementery. This was only the start of what proved an excellent day for Phylloscopus warblers on the 8th. Another Dusky Warbler was discovered, at Westbrook a little further west along the coast from the Foreness bird which was still present that day. Particularly the Westbrook bird showed extremely well and stayed till the 12th. An amazing five Pallas's Warbler were seen on the 8th, with yet another at King George IV Park, two at Dungeness, of which one was trapped and ringed and lingered for the remainder of the week, one at Langdon Hole and one at Hope Point. This followed a single bird at Sandwich on the 7th. Surely the best week for this species in Kent in a long time. At least a dozen Yellow-browed Warblers were also seen during the week, while a Siberian Chiffchaff was at Bough Beech.

 Dusky Warbler - Andrew Lawson

As a bit more windy and wet weather arrived after the weekend, sea-watching picked up with two Leach's Petrel and two Sooty Shearwater past Dungeness on the 10th. Several Velvet Scoter were seen, while a Black-throated Diver was offshore at Sandwich and a Great Northern Diver flew past Dungeness. A group of around 45 Pink-footed Geese was tracked along the East coast of the county on the 8th.

Further highlights included two Shore Lark on Shellness Beach on the 12th, a Serin that flew north over Dungeness on the 13th, a Lapland Bunting south over Sandwich and two Ring Ouzels at Bockhill. A few Short-eared Owls were seen coming in off the sea, while a Long-eared Owl was back roosting at Elmley car park. Two Glossy Ibis remained at Sandwich/Worth. The Snow Bunting was seen at Takerton with a couple flying past Foreness and Reculver. Three Red-crested Pochard were at Bough Beech on the 11th, as the Black-necked Grebe remained at Lade GPs.

Pallas's Warbler - Jamie Partridge

With the mild weather, there were some interesting sightings of late summer visitors. A Common Whitethroat was at Westbrook, a Lesser Whitethroat at Stodmarsh, a Wheatear at Reculver, a Garganey at Dungeness, an Osprey at Dover and a Purple Heron flew over Weddington.

The Starling murmeration at the ARC, Dungeness continued to grow, reaching an estimated 11500 birds on the 9th.

After all the mild weather, temperatures look to drop in the coming week, which may make for a change in the birding. Enjoy.

Peter Eerdmans

(Thanks to all the observers who posted their records on the KOS Sightings website, BirdGuides, eBird and/or the main Kent Birding WhatsApp groups, Thursday-to-Thursday. Apologies for any omissions. If anyone has any photos they think may be useful for the weekly, please send to me by Wednesday. All records of rarities are still subject to official confirmation by the relevant rarities committees)

Pallid Swift - Nigel Jarman