American Golden Plover

My day started with a 2 hour sea watch from the fishing boats both of which had gone to sea but the westerly wind was light F3-F4 so missing the usual shelter provided by the boats wasn't too bad. As expected there were far fewer birds moving off-shore however I still recorded 3 Balearic Shearwaters and 11 Arctic Skuas plus 9 Little terns amongst the lower numbers of Sandwich and Common Terns moving west.

On reaching home for a cuppa a message came through that Owen had found a Wryneck in the Desert so back to the Dungeness Estate and wandering the Desert only revealed a handful of Whitethroats and the odd Chiff and Willow Warbler despite there being a lot of warblers being seen at the top of the Long Pits. However, a radio call from Martin led me back to a large gorse clump where the Wryneck was showing occasionally and after a brief but good view it disappeared despite quite a bit of searching. Whilst watching the Wryneck a couple of Honey Buzzards flew south and out to sea over the Power Station which were picked up by Jacob and Charlotte and missed by the rest of us. we did have a total of 7 Buzzards over the Point which were also probably migrating as two were seen heading north-east over Lade Bay.

In the afternoon I headed on to the RSPB Reserve and had only been there for about 20 minutes before a call from Martin told me that he had found an American Golden Plover near Jury's Gap. On arriving a short while later it was feeding and roosting with a flock of 59 Golden Plovers in a field opposite the MOD Ranges.

Thanks to Martin for the call and early heads up.

Once again the heat haze and gusty breeze made photography challenging.

I went back for more views of the American Golden Plover in the early evening hoping for less hazy conditions but it was a bit further away this time.