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

Pallas's Warbler

There have been four Pallas's Warblers so far this autumn and probably five. However, for various reasons I have only managed to catch-up with the first one which was in Dengemarsh Gulley. Over the weekend I missed the chance of seeing two of these Asian gems in the hand. Today though I was in luck as Dave Walker the Observatory warden messaged that he'd found a ringed Pallas's Warbler in the Moat which was likely the bird ringed on Sunday (at least that is what he thought before checking the ring number) and managed to re-trap it. Back at the ringing hut it was confirmed as the same bird previously ringed and it had managed to add 0.1 grams of fat since then which given it only weighed 5 grams on Saturday is good going, especially given the awful weather conditions on Monday. Such an incredibly beautiful warbler with just about all the feather tract features you could wish for.

Many thanks to Dave for messaging and showing the bird.

Little Gulls were passing in low numbers during the morning seawatch, the early morning light was very gloomy.

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

Avocet chicks at last

At ARC it has been possible to watch five pairs of nesting Avocets amongst the islands. This is a great increase from 2024 when there were 3 nesting pairs on ARC up to the 21st June when on the 22nd this went down to only one pair which successfully fledged one young on 20th August from three chicks. Today the 26th June the first three Avocet chicks have hatched to one pair and the other four pairs remain nesting all with sitting birds.

Avocet pair with three eggs

One of the three newly hatched Avocet chicks at ARC

The female Avocet was still removing egg shells from the nest location when I watched likely meaning that the chicks could only have been hours old. What a treat.

It is still proving tricky to work out what the Common Terns are up to at ARC. I think that there are still at least 15 nesting pairs in the colony but over the past few days their behaviour has been strange. At times for no apparent reason that I can understand all the terns suddenly lift into the air and fly away from the colony area only to return after a few seconds. Whether the strong winds are causing them to spook easily as I cannot see any predators overhead, I just don't know and I wonder if we will get any chicks from this colony? Still, it does allow me to count them and this morning I had 52 in the air together. Elsewhere on the reserve there are at least four sitting common terns on Burrowes and another three sitting birds at Dengemarsh with seven to eight chicks with a couple of them near to fledging.

I wondered what this Common Tern had caught and it looks like a young Pike

Common Tern chicks at Dengemarsh

Common Tern chicks at Dengemarsh

Adult waders are starting to turn up on the reserve in low numbers, with Green, Wood and Common Sandpipers, Bar and Black-tailed Godwits and Grey Plovers.

Adult Black-tailed Godwit

Common Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

This adult Redshank is one that has successfully fledged one chick at ARC

Juvenile Redshank

A flock of six Mediterranean Gulls dropped in to ARC on the 25th June. One of them was ringed with a Yellow Darvic ATSS, and is likely to originate from Germany. 

Mediterranean Gull ATSS giving the hard stare to a 1st Summer Little Gull at ARC

Rose-coloured Starling

Another great find by Jacob of a male Rose-coloured Starling initially near the Moat and then moving around the adjacent area associating with a flock of adult and juvenile Starlings.

Rose-coloured Starling

There have been up to three Little Gulls moving between the various larger pits across the RSPB Dungeness reserve.

Little Gulls

A first for the area was a breeding pair of Red-crested Pochards. First picked up on Saturday 7th June with a female and four ducklings, the family is now down to three ducklings as of Wednesday 11th June.

Female Red-crested Pochard and four ducklings

At the front of Hanson Hide a flock of four noisy juvenile Bearded Tits gave fabulous views amongst the reed stems.

Juvenile Bearded Tit

A Weasel hunting along the bridleway at Hayfield 1, always ran away from me!

Weasel