DUNGENESS BLUETHROAT 21ST MARCH 2018

 There have been a lot of pictures on the internet of a couple of bluethroats at Dungeness, which arrived recently courtesy of some strong easterly winds. 

I'm not an avid twitcher, but I'd never seen one before and sometimes i'll make the effort for a particularly nice bird. This male bluethroat is a particularly nice bird.

I arrived at Dengemarsh gully at about 10am and after negotiating what is laughingly referred to as a road (it's more like collateral damage from the adjacent MOD firing range), I walked along to the assembled crowd of fellow twitchers. For some reason I always feel uncomfortable in this situation, like a gatecrasher at a party. I always think they all know each other and are wondering who invited me. Maybe I should get some counselling.

Anyway, I was told that said bird popped out of the gorse bushes about every ten or fifteen minutes or so. I must say I do like reliable birds who think about their audience. So after about twenty five minutes, during which time I was entertained by more firecrests than i'd ever seen in one place, I was getting nervous (or twitchy) and thinking that maybe the bluethroat would turn into a wild goose.
I needn't have worried though, it soon made an appearance to the accompaniment of what sounded like machine gun fire from the aforementioned military range, but was actually all the cameras clicking in unison. 

Despite sometimes being referred to as a skulking species this bird appeared to be very comfortable with all the people (some of whom were getting much too close I think) and the noise of the cameras.