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

Night Heron

An adult Night Heron was found by a visitor flying out of the willows near the viewing ramp at Hookers/Dengemarsh, RSPB Dungeness and landing back in the willows a little further along. Luckily it remained where it had perched by the time locals arrived and initially showed reasonably well but then became harder to see as it moved deeper in to cover. 

In Between the Showers

Of the 3 Great White Egrets on ARC this afternoon, this one was getting too close to the well developed Avocet chicks.

Also on the RSPB Reserve, over 20 Common Sandpipers, Green and Wood Sandpipers. A few Whimbrel are also starting to appear on their return migration, this one on Burrowes Pit.

On ARC this drake Pochard has a beak tag which is so old that any remnant of an ID or colour has disappeared. We've recorded Pochard marked in this way before but have not been able to find any recent tagging operation to inform of the controls.

A Lesson in Identifying a Little Stint

I was checking the various islands that have appeared on Burrowes Pit near Dennis's Hide at RSPB Dungeness for any interesting waders and counting the distant Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers and Common Sandpipers when I came across a small wader that looked odd. It was smaller than the nearby Little Ringed Plovers and I couldn't identify it, bugger! I thought it looked like a small sandpiper and just as I was grabbing my camera it flew. Luckily it landed on a group of closer islands and I took a load of poor photos. I thought it might be a Baird's Sandpiper but it wasn't quite right and I still couldn't make an identification. There was no one else around and I was panicking, I tentatively put out a message on the Locals group. Shortly afterwards locals arrived and opinion on the identification was still unsure, made even trickier as the bird had disappeared. 

After a short while, I picked up a small wader distantly on islands out from Dennis's Hide and we started to check out what features we could see but still nothing seemed to make sense to clinch an id. The features that were confusing were the rufous tones to the scapulars and the dull brown/grey breast band. There was plenty of discussion and features mentioned such as mantle tramlines and a split supercilium  should have drawn us to a positive identification but I think it is fair to say that the colour and appearance of the breast band drew us away from the fact that it is a moulting adult Little Stint, likely the first returning adult of the autumn.

To be honest, I was expecting to see more reddish tones around the head and breast not the dull looking brownish/grey (or at least that's what the colours look like to me) and that one expectation blocked out the fact that it was a Little Stint, until after going around and around with other possible id's, that's all it could be.

Looking at the photos now, it is so much more obviously a Little Stint but even checking photos at the time when the bird was in view it just wasn't obvious. 

It had been one of those occasions when I had to make a decision on whether to take time trying to identify the bird before informing others and risk losing it or having a quick go at identification and then making a call.  

The photos below of the moulting adult Little Stint are cropped images taken from outside Dennis's Hide shortly after I first found the bird.   

Later in the afternoon, I was standing at the Firth Lookout when the same adult Little Stint suddenly appeared and this time much closer.

However, 682 miles to the north a moulting adult Baird's Sandpiper turned up at Houb, Baltasound on Shetland, oh well!

Common Sandpipers continue to increase with 12 at ARC and at least 3 on Burrowes. MC and RW had 4 Green Sands at ARC whilst I could only locate 1. Whilst standing at Firth Viewpoint a flock of 6 LRP's (2 adults and 4 juveniles) appeared and after a few minutes moved on to be replaced by 3 Ringed Plovers. Also from Firth Viewpoint were 3 Greenshanks, a 2CY Little Gull and a Wood Sandpiper.

Adult Greenshank

Adult Greenshank

Juvenile and adult, 2 of the 3 Greenshanks from Firth Viewpoint

2CY Little Gull

Wood Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

Moulting Ducks and Returning Waders

In July and August duck numbers on the RSPB Reserve increase, especially Pochard and Gadwall as males visit the pits on the reserve to moult and obtain their eclipse plumage. I've been making counts on behalf of the RSPB for a few years now and this year noticed the numbers of males arriving at the reserve start to significantly increase from about mid-June. 

So it was a busy day today as I tried to do a duck count across the reserve and managed to reach a total of 1,006 Pochard and 636 Gadwall. An additional 180 Pochard were counted on Lade Pits which is also part of the RSPB Reserve. I think that makes the second highest count (1,186) of Pochard on the reserve since I moved to the area back in 2019.

3 Garganey are now in residence with two preferring ARC and the third on Burrowes. The female Red-crested Pochard and duckling remain on ARC with an eclipse male Red-crested Pochard on Dengemarsh.

The remaining Common Tern colonies on Dengemarsh and Burrowes are still producing chicks with 8 on a very noisy colony from Dengemarsh Hide today and hopefully more than the one I saw back on the 12th July at Burrowes.

Returning wader numbers are gradually increasing with 4 Wood Sandpipers, 1 Greenshank, 1 Redshank, 18 Little-ringed Plovers, 2 Ringed Plovers and 10 Common Sandpipers.

Almost fledged Common Tern chicks at Dengemarsh

Plenty of squabbling when an adult makes an appearance

Common Sandpiper

Kestrel at the Hayfields

Greenshank at Firth Viewpoint

Wood Sandpiper from Hanson Hide

Whimbrel on Burrowes Pit

Garganey from Hanson Hide

Small Red-eyed Damselfly in tandem

When there were 3 Avocet Chicks back on July 8th, now sadly only 2

It is always very frustrating to come across people wandering over sections of the reserve where they are not permitted and even more so when they have a dog either on or off the lead. I don't blame this couple as the signage at ARC is (or rather was) pitiful. It is now more obvious as after encountering several dogs on sections of the reserve where they are prohibited I have put up more obvious temporary signage. No excuse now and I'll continue to be on the lookout.

The Common Tern colony on Burrowes Pit, so wonderful to have so many terns nesting compared to last year.

A trip with Martin and Richard out of the area in search of Purple Emperor butterfly ended with us not seeing that but enjoying woodland bird species that are rare or tricky to see on the peninsula.

Nuthatch, a rarity on the peninsula, this one in woodland near Hamstreet

Song Thrush, can be tricky to catch up with on the peninsula. This one giving a snail a headache using its anvil to bash the living daylights out of the snail!