Yesterday I went to Dungeness with my wife and younger sister for a barbeque on the beach. Although this wasn’t a birding trip at all, it is difficult to sit on the beach at Dunge in spring and not see something.

From 1-6pm only a few birds were seen but all afternoon two Cormorants were performing a synchronised diving session in the sea directly in front of us. Lots of gulls were around, most of which seemed to be Herring Gulls but a few Black-headed Gulls glided past. I’m sure there were other species if I’d had the time to look properly. However, we did see 4 Swallows come in off the sea and a group of 36 Whimbrel also arriving.

Most of the day was spent eating shrimps, beef, squid and salmon, but when we got back to the car there was time for a brief look around. Along with the usual Meadow Pipits, Starlings, House Sparrows and Linnets was a female Ring Ouzel foraging outside the old lighthouse. Just as I said, almost impossible to fail to see something of interest at Dungeness at this time of year.

This afternoon I went, with my wife, to Hornsea Mere to feed the ducks – hardly the cutting edge of ornithology but enjoyable anyway. We took some bread and proceeded to be mobbed by a gang of about 20 Mute Swans with a few Canada Geese trying to get into the act. It was quite funny to see the swans pecking any geese or ducks that got near, not to mention pecking each other quite violently at times. My wife and other duck feeders spent most of their time running away from the swans whilst throwing bread down to divert the unwanted attention.

Once the bread was finished we sat in the car to watch other people feeding the birds. Then I remembered some bird seed that was in the car, so I put this out for them to feed on. The seed was full of high energy grains and seeds – what should be high quality food – but it seems the ducks and swans prefer junk food as they continued to chase the bread-weilding duck feeders.

Eventually they worked out that the grain was good and it was interesting to watch swans, geese, ducks, coots and Jackdaws feeding side by side.

Sitting watching the birds for some time revealed a surprising number of species: Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Greylag Goose, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Coot, Moorhen, Oystercatcher, Cormorant, Grey Heron, Herring Gull, Common Gull, Black-headed Gull, Magpie, Jackdaw, Pied Wagtail, Starling, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Mistle Thrush and House Sparrow.

It was very amusing to watch Greylag Geese taking a bath in the lake – flapping in the water, followed by a dive and then popping up back onto the surface like a cork.

One bird was most noticeable by its absence: a Whooper Swan that is usually resident at Hornsea Mere was nowhere to be seen.