Dungeness surprises
17th March 2008, Monday
In yesterday’s cold mist and drizzle, 6 of us did the circular walk around the RSPB reserve at Dungeness. Despite the weather there were plenty of visitors, most of them keeping warm and dry in the information centre. Great Crested Grebes and a male Goldeneye were displaying and a Sparrowhawk dashed past, but there wasn’t a great deal of note until Bob spotted an unfamiliar shape high above Christmas Dell – gull? heron? No, a Bittern, slowly coming down into the reeds! We heard later that one had been seen heading that way from the ARC pit across the main road. Soon after, on the path we found the newt shown in Mike Prince’s photo, which we think was a Smooth Newt, Triturus vulgaris – only a couple of inches long, so probably not fully grown.