Bockhill and Langdon Cliffs – Saturday 10th October 2026

The White Cliffs of Dover are well placed to receive incoming migrants (using their own wings, not rubber dinghies) in Spring and Autumn, so we decided to visit the area in hope of something good turning up, as well as catching up with the reintroduced Chough. The Group used to visit the area, based around St Margaret’s at Cliffe and South Foreland, some years ago, but not recently.

As now seems to be the case, there was some drama about travel arrangements. The evening before, one of our driver’s had to pull out and there were hasty discussions about how everyone would get there. As it happened, eight of us gathered by the Dover Patrol Memorial, St Margaret’s at Cliffe for what promised to be a fine day weather wise. Part of the plan had been to explore Bockhill Farm and go along the cliffs towards Hope Point and Kingsdown, but we were going to play this one by ear.

We started by checking the area around the monument and had our first views of House Martins and Swallows and a Kestrel was on show. (It was around again, hovering this time, as we got back.)

We set off along the path and had already decided to head along to Hope Point as there had been a Yellow-browed Warbler there yesterday, ignoring tracks off onto the farm for now. As we went along more hirundines passed by. It became apparent that there were Stonechat around, sometimes showing themselves off on fences.

The fields held good numbers of corvids and a few gulls (mainly of the Herring kind). There were also plenty of Skylarks around, but smaller birds were proving trickier to find. Then a large raptor flew past being harried by a couple of corvids. After a bit of a debate (some of us could hear a Raven cronking while this was going on) we settled on it being a Marsh Harrier being pursued by two Rooks.

Further along, a small flock of passerines along the field edge turned out to be House Sparrows.

As we approached Hope Point a small bird showed from time to time. When seen (and heard) clearly it was ‘just’ a Chiffchaff. Sorry to demean it, but it wasn’t our hoped for Yellow-brow. We continued through the well vegetated area, checking regularly. At this juncture it is probably worth pointing out (as one of our gaggle told us quite frequently) that Yellow-brows are often best located by their call. We should really have been much quieter in our quest. By now it was already getting towards time for our nose bags, so we started the return trek again checking the fields thoroughly; Grey Partridges are apparently seen there. As well as the occasional Yellow-legged Gull. The best addition to the lists of some of the group was a Lesser Black-backed Gull. And checking through photographs later confirmed that there was at least one Stock Dove in the fields with Woodpigeons.

You can’t win them all. To make matters worse, we heard that the warbler had been reported earlier in the morning and that a Quail had been seen somewhere in the vicinity!

Back at the cars, we grabbed our lunches and sat by the memorial. As we were finishing up, the call went out that there was a flock of Gannets feeding offshore.

I should have checked that all my lunch bits were packed away properly before going to watch the Gannets. When I got home I realised that my lunch box and the cup for my flask were awol; I suspect I left them by the memorial. It wasn’t all bad though; as well as the Gannets there were a few gulls flying in the distance and then a lithe, dark bird came into view. After much scrutiny, Arctic Skua joined the meagre list of birds seen so far.

In order to find facilities, we drove down to the White Cliffs Visitor Centre on the outskirts of Dover, rather than hoping to be able to park near South Foreland Lighthouse. The decision was also taken as there seemed to be few migrating birds around for us to catch up with at the lighthouse.

I just hope that when our members used the facilities here they obeyed the signs in the cubicles!

Unsurprisingly, the area was busy with weekend visitors, but we set off in hope (but not necessarily expectation) of finding another target bird for the day. The recent reintroduction of Choughs into the area had led to sightings of flocks up to 29 birds near the Langdon Cliffs. We caught sight of a Peregrine, always a good bird to see. We wee constantly checking out every corvid and looking for whatever small birds we could find. At one stage, some of the group had a couple of Siskin fly over and there were Linnets around. Also, the butterflies were part of the attraction with a pair of clouded yellows (the female seemingly of the form helice) and a listless small copper.

Among the smaller birds we came across a few Blackbirds, one of which did not look that well, and there were a couple of Blackcaps still around.

We headed to the cliff top and did some seawatching. This included watching a procession of ferries heading across the Channel, mainly to France, but at least one turned starboard and set off for Belgium.

On the way back we initially kept to a lower path. Unfortunately, the car park was higher up and we had some hill climbing (at least not scaling the cliffs) to get there.

And from here we could look down into Dover Harbour.

Sadly, this was not one of our better trips. We failed to get any of our target species. Perhaps we should have eschewed the warbler and checked the farm more thoroughly. And a busy weekend with a latish start cannot have helped. What was agreed was that this was a scenic venue. We could see France (and some people’s phones told them that they were in France), but the birds were not as conspicuous.

Species lists

We finished the day with just 38 bird species recorded

Stock Dove, Woodpigeon, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Arctic Skua, Gannet, Cormorant, Little Egret, Marsh Harrier, Buzzard, Kestrel, Peregrine, Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Raven, Blue Tit, Skylark, Swallow, House Martin, Long-tailed Tit, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Wren, Blackbird, Robin, Stonechat, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Meadow Pipit, Pied Wagtail, Chaffinch, Linnet, Goldfinch, Siskin

Mammal species

Rabbit, Harbour Porpoise

Butterfly species

Clouded Yellow (including female of form helice), Small White, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Small Heath

Others

Carder bee, solitary bee/wasp sp