Left it to late, Bluethroat gets away.

We had all week to go to Landguard or Dungeness to look for the Bluethroats that had landed there but with the bad weather it never happened.
Then on Friday one is reported at Walthamstow wetland centre only a few miles away but we make another big mistake when we wait to see if it was still there on Sat morning & of course it wasn't.
So one gets reported at Dungeness on Saturday when once again we couldn't go, but we meet up on Sunday with Brian & arrive at Dungeness at first light.
Only 2 other birders were looking along the channel at DengeMarsh gully for the Bluethroat but had not seen any sign.
We spend around 3 hours looking along the Gorse bushes where we see many, many Firecrest to give us a year tick & the odd Goldcrest along with some Chiffchaff  for another tick but no sign of the target bird.
When we decide to head off a small crowd of 30 or more were searching but it turns out to be in vain with no further sign of the Bluethroat, so our own fault ,hope to be quicker off the mark next time.
A drive down to the lighthouse gets us more Firecrest. So a quick look  up on the beach gets us a year tick when we find 2 Black Redstart over the power station wall. Sandwich Terns seen but not by me.
Off home but as usual on the way we pop into Elmley where we see a single Dunlin loads of Lapwing & Redshank, Marsh Harriers,a nice pair of Peregrine display,but nothing that we needed for a tick but it's always nice to spend some time here.

One of the many Firecrest

The single Dunlin

Redshank

In the Lighthouse garden