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