Honey Buzzards

A good seawatch this morning with passing Sooty and Balearic Shearwaters heading west along with a good total of Arctic Skuas and more Little Terns. Less Common, Sandwich and Little Terns moving than yesterday but many distant tern flocks on the horizon. 

By about 09:45 the movement showed signs of slowing down so I went home for breakfast and then headed to the RSPB Reserve. On arriving I checked the islands from Dennis's picnic tables and picked up part of a radio message conversation between Charlotte and Jacob which sounded interesting. On enquiring I was told that there were at least 3 Honey Buzzards over the trapping area. I managed to watch them from the picnic tables and after a short while 5 Honey Buzzards were soaring over the area together and gradually gained height before moving off high north east. Jacob picked up another 2 following the coast which appeared to join the 5. A little later Kev Else picked up another Honey Buzzard moving south east between Lade and Kerton Road. I think this is likely to be an eighth bird. As far as I know this number of Honey's in the area on one day is quite unprecedented, at least since I've been living in the area.

The 5 Honey Buzzards had first been picked up by Keith Cutting over the Dungeness RSPB car park heading east who kindly put out a message which was picked up by the locals.

I managed to some extreme distant photos from Dennis's of 4 Honey's over the trapping area in the haze and then 3 as they gained height.

   

Terns and Waders

The islands at the Firth viewpoint at Dungeness RSPB reserve have been attracting flocks of Common and Sandwich Terns including several juvenile and 2CY birds.

Juvenile Sandwich Tern

These days i'm on the lookout for ringed birds and came across two ringed Common Terns both of which originated from different ringing schemes in Holland.

Yellow ringed, Adult Common Tern from Holland

White tagged, Adult Common Tern from Holland

Finally the last 3 juvenile Common Terns that were on the small island in front of Dennis's hide have fledged. The smallest of them is very cute and barely has any primaries compared to the other two. I expect the short flight from the nesting island to the Firth lookout was a major leap of faith for it.

Despite the increase in the numbers of islands appearing across the reserve due to the lack of rain, the number and diversity of waders has been relatively low, which is odd given the numbers of shorebirds being recorded at Lade Bay. However, perseverance and multiple visits to the reserve during the days and weeks eventually pays off.

Juvenile Spotted Redshank

Juvenile Spotted Redshanks

Four Knot and a Dunlin

Golden Plovers

Ringed Plovers

Male and female juvenile Ruff

Black-tailed Godwits

Black-tailed Godwits

Adult and juvenile Little Stints

Juvenile Sanderling