Belated Post - SLATE-COLORED JUNCO
April 14, 2008
Just after 0700 hours this morning, Dungeness resident and birder David Bunny located a SLATE-COLORED JUNCO feeding in his back garden at ‘South View Cottage’. After realising the magnitude of his sighting, he quickly informed other local birders (Dave Walker, Ray Turley, Barry Banson, etc) and at 0830, this news was relayed to Birdline South East. Being only the second for Kent - the first was trapped and ringed at Dungeness Bird Observatory on 26th May 1960 - news disseminated rapidly and by early afternoon, the crowd had swelled to about 75 and had included many of the keen listing Kent birders.
The bird was favouring the gravel area immediately behind the cottage, where David had seeded the area. Observation was difficult, with most views partially obscured by flowers or shrubs, but with patience, the bird perched occasionally in taller Laurel bushes or small Leylandii, allowing for a more detailed and prolonged view. The bird was a first-summer, with much brown in the mantle and brown in the upperwing coverts and tertials.
The Dungeness area also held a trickle of migrants, with a super male COMMON REDSTART at Westbeach, several Willow Warblers and Common Chiffchaffs, an early COMMON WHITETHROAT (in the Lighthouse Garden) and 2 FIRECRESTS. At the nearby Hanson ARC Pit, both transitional-plumaged SLAVONIAN and BLACK-NECKED GREBES (2) remained, along with a pair of GARGANEY, 45 Shoveler, female Marsh Harrier, 2 Eurasian Curlew, WHIMBREL, 2 LITTLE RINGED PLOVERS, 2 WHITE WAGTAILS, 2 male YELLOW WAGTAILS and 2 TREE SPARROWS.
