Watch our reporter Chris
Denham exploring the reserve and its inhabitants.

It is not often you get to talk
about blood-sucking leeches and rare birds in the same breath
but Dungeness RSPB reserve features them all.

Chris Denham went down to the
collection of old gravel pits and marshland to learn about the work
going on to encourage rare birds such as the bittern to the
site.

A "booming" bittern is one of the
rarest sounds in the UK and Dungeness has only very recently become
a viable place to have a listen.

You can also hear machine guns, but
more of that later.