Its been a bit quiet on the bird front

Recently sea watching has been mostly just that, watching the sea and hoping that a bird just might appear. On the 4th August, amongst the few Common and Sandwich Terns moving offshore this adult Little Tern appeared.  

There have been a few Mediterranean Gulls also moving off shore, this one is a smart juvenile.

Today, another very quiet day on the peninsular, a couple of juvenile Black Terns appeared on the RSPB reserve, one on Burrowes and a second on ARC.

It did land amongst a flock of roosting Common Terns and started to preen before lifting off again.

At the dipping pond an adult Little Grebe was feeding its 3 Littler Grebes,

Here the adult has caught a froglet, presumably a Marsh froglet. 

Next week, the temperatures are forecasted to be up in the high twenties and even thirty degrees but the wind is going to have some east in it. Fingers crossed for some migrant arrivals.

Juvenile Gulls

You can get great views of Gulls at the point, especially when you tempt them with bread.

Yellow-legged Gull juvenile

Yellow-legged Gull juvenile

Yellow-legged Gull juvenile

Lesser Black-backed Gull juvenile

Yellow-legged Gull juvenile

Yellow-legged Gull and Herring Gull juveniles

Yellow-legged Gull juvenile

Two Yellow-legged Gull juveniles with four Herring Gull juveniles

Pectoral Sandpiper

I ran my moth trap at Boulderwall Farm, Dungeness RSPB last night to allow Ella, the outgoing assistant warden and the interns a chance to trap any Marshmallow Moths as they had recently been involved in planting 700 Marshmallow plants on the reserve. On arriving just after 8:00am they hadn't checked the trap so I headed up to Burrowes to give them time. As I was the first person at Burrowes I wandered very carefully towards the front of Firth Screen so as to hopefully not flush any close waders and picked up the adult Pec Sand that was feeding on the closest island. It was very wary so I just stayed to the edge of the screening vegetation and enjoyed great views of this charming Nearctic wader. Unfortunately, it did fly to a set of islands further out on Burrowes just as other birders arrived but remained in view albeit at distance. In a few short minutes I had taken over 700 photos of the Pec!! Bonkers.....

Duck Counting and a Good Wader

I decided to count ducks and coot on the RSPB reserve today as I was interested to know if the numbers of moulting duck had changed significantly from earlier in the month. I counted the main pits on the reserve ARC, New Diggings, Burrowes, Dengemarsh and New Excavations, I didn't get to Kerton or Lade.

The numbers at the end of the day were:
Pochard 798
Gadwall 769
Tufted Duck 361
Mallard 111
Shoveler 75
Pintail 2
Teal 42
Red-crested Pochard 1
Garganey 2
Coot 833

Pochard numbers are down from the mid month count but Tufted and Shoveler are up and Gadwall is about the same.

On approaching the far end of ARC, I managed to flush all the duck and Lapwing roosting in the vegetation at the muddy patch there but that did make the duck easier to count as they swam further out in to more open water. As the Dungeness road can be quite dangerous to walk along, I decided to count New Diggings from inside the fence on the ARC side but then considered counting from the eastern end of ARC. As I wandered back to my car I glanced at the muddy patch and noticed a couple of waders at the waters edge which I hadn't noticed previously. On looking through my scope I was surprised to see an adult Pectoral Sandpiper and less surprised to see a Common Sandpiper.

Adult Pectoral Sandpiper with Common Sandpiper

Adult Pectoral Sandpiper

Adult Pectoral Sandpiper

The Common Tern colonies on Burrowes and Dengemarsh still have growing chicks, with 4 visible at Dengemarsh and 5 at Burrowes. There is a significant age difference between the visible chicks at Dengemarsh with one chick not far from fledging whilst others look to be less than a week old and adults seem to still be displaying. 

Common Tern chick maybe less than a week old

Common Tern chick getting close to fledging

One of the 2 Pintail on the Reserve today an odd July record

Dungeness Area - 28th July

My day started at ARC and the usual hour or so spent looking out from Hanson hide. The two Avocet chicks now well grown and soon to fledge (hopefully) are still present with their ever attentive parents. A Bittern flew over and landed in the far reedbed and a supporting cast of 2 Garganeys, Common Sandpipers, Little-ringed Plovers, 4 Cattle Egrets and 4 Great White Egret meant that the hour went by quickly. On wandering to the Pines another visitor had located a juvenile Cuckoo and there were probably 7 Cattle Egrets on the reserve yesterday.

On checking the Common Tern colony on Burrowes, I was pleased to record 7 surviving chicks, although this colony is becoming a gull snack shack. Hopefully, some tern chicks will be able to fledge. Also on Burrowes, 7 Common Gulls, 10 Common Sands, 2 Dunlin, 2 Wood Sandpipers, one of them being very confiding, 3 Greenshank, Little-ringed Plovers and my first adult Yellow-legged Gull of the autumn. Also good comparison views of juvenile Herring and Lesser-black Gulls. 

The Dipping Pond just beyond the Visitor Centre now has a surface layer of floating vegetation which has attracted Small Red-eyed Damselflies. 

Around midday I went to Kerton Pit and enjoyed watching the roosting Sandwich Terns, Black-headed Gulls and Mediterranean Gulls along with 4 Whimbrel and c.200 roosting Curlew with 320+ Oystercatcher and a juvenile still being fed by its parents. At least 143 Sandwich Terns along with a handful of Common Terns. I managed to read one of the ringed juvenile Sandwich Terns which led me to contact an old acquaintance from Hampshire, Peter Potts.

Small Red-eyed Damselfly

Juvenile Sandwich Tern number 258 from Lymington

Whimbrel at Kerton Pit

Sandwich Terns at Kerton Pit

Cattle Egrets

Preening!

Juvenile Cuckoo

Common Gulls

Wood Sandpiper

Juvenile Herring Gull

Juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull

Adult Yellow-legged Gull