Plenty of good birds

A day of light rain showers until at least late afternoon was a very welcome experience after months of hot dry weather. I started the day off at the top of the Long Pits and it was mostly quiet until I came across a couple of foraging tit flocks amongst which were several Willow Warblers and Lesser Whitethroats but only 16 of each, also 10 Swifts SE over.  I then moved on to Hanson hide, where Martin and Colin had earlier seen a couple of Wood Sands and Green Sands. One of the Wood Sands was close.

Wood Sandpiper

In addition to Martins sighting there were five Garganey in front of the hide.

Garganey

Several Snipe were visible from Hanson, the VC and Firth Lookout.

Snipe

The Pintard (hybrid Pochard x Pintail) was feeding.

Pintard

Whilst watching the Common Tern colony from Firth, an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull predated one of the tern chicks. I wanted to know how many chicks there were as I knew of at least two other predation events by gulls on the colony, so I stomped to the back of Burrowes and was able to get a better view of the colony.

I counted at least 12 chicks, one of which was a week old and the others mainly three weeks old. When I returned to Firth I could see another four chicks from that side, so a total of at least 16 chicks. Lets hope some survive the gull onslaught! There are six chicks in this photo and what looks like a dead Sand Martin on the shingle to the right of the standing adult Common Tern.

Both Black Terns and the White-winged Black Tern were still showing from Firth.

Black Tern

Black and White-winged Black Terns

White-winged Black Tern

Three Bar-tailed Godwits appeared on the mud in front of Firth along with over 30 Dunlin and Ringed Plovers.

Bar-tailed Godwits

Mostly adult Dunlin, I think there is one juvenile in the shot, Ringed and Little-ringed Plover.

More Tern action

I was doing a duck count on the reserve this morning and picked up the juvenile Little Gull at ARC that Martin had seen yesterday. There was another or the same juvenile seen on Burrowes during the morning. After some rain during the night the early morning felt very humid and it was quite tiring going around the reserve. The White-winged Black Tern was still showing in front of the Firth lookout and was a bit closer than yesterday although the hazy conditions made for tricky photography. 

I didn't think it was worth taking any shots of it in flight due to the hazy conditions.

Whilst standing at Firth a flock of seven Black-tailed Godwits flew in and landed on the exposed mud.

Black-tailed Godwits

At Dengemarsh and almost at the end of the duck count, I met up with Martin who had just left Dengemarsh hide but decided to join me back in the hide. It wasn't too long before Martin located a juvenile Caspian Gull that he had found earlier. I think this might be the first juvenile Caspian Gull that I have seen. Needless to say it was about as far from the hide as it could get.

Juvenile Caspian Gull

After finishing my duck count I would come back to Firth around late afternoon, when hopefully the light conditions might be better.

By early afternoon it had clouded over and a SW breeze was blowing through the screen at Firth however, the White-winged BlackTern and a Black Tern were sat on the mud at Firth.

Dave Scott shot this excellent video of the White-winged Black Tern.

After a while a second Black Tern appeared and at times all three marsh terns were feeding together and relatively close, best observed from Makepeace hide. I couldn't get all three in one shot but did manage two.

Juvenile White-winged Black Tern and Black Tern

Two juvenile Black Terns

White-winged Black Tern

Sort of co-found a juvenile White-winged Black Tern on Burrowes this morning with Peter Eerdsman who thought he had seen it earlier from the visitor centre. This is the fourth one I have found/co-found since moving to the peninsular in 2019. When Peter and I were checking the id it had landed amongst the resting Common Terns on the muddy area in front of the Firth lookout. Once the news was put out it moved towards the back of Burrowes and began feeding, never coming too close.

Juvenile Black Tern on Burrowes too.

Juvenile White-winged Black Tern

Juvenile Black Tern

Juvenile Black Tern

Almost a wader fest

On the RSPB reserve during the evening and a great couple of hours watching a selection of waders in front of the Firth lookout. It is so easy to flush the birds feeding and resting in front of the lookout, real shame the hide couldn't be replaced but i've got used to the lookout now, taken a while.

Greenshank

Snipe

Little Stint

Snipe and Greenshank

Green Sandpiper

Wood and Green Sandpipers

Starting the day at ARC, I could hear Green Sandpiper calling as I walked towards Hanson Hide. On looking out there was a loose flock of seven birds with five together on the closest island.

Green Sandpipers

I could also hear a Wood Sand calling and after a short while it landed close to the hide amongst the recently cut reed.

Wood Sandpiper

On August 10th, I went to the Fishing Boats in the afternoon as an easterly breeze had picked up and you never know a few birds might be going past. However, it was not to be but  luckily Martin turned up with a loaf of bread and we were soon enjoying the gulls tearing the pieces of bread apart and joined by a lovely juvenile Yellow-legged Gull.

Juvenile Yellow-legged Gull

Turnstone at the Fishing Boats

On Aug 10th, three juvenile Black Terns were on Burrowes Pit.

Juvenile Black Tern

On Aug 5th, I picked up this fledged juvenile and adult female Shoveler still together at ARC. I reckon that they had bred on the reserve as I find it unlikely that they would have flown in from elsewhere and stayed together. I think this is the second Shoveler brood at ARC this year as previously in July I had seen four well grown juvenile Shoveler but couldn't find an accompanying adult.

Juvenile and Adult female Shoveler at ARC