Its been a bit quiet on the bird front

Recently sea watching has been mostly just that, watching the sea and hoping that a bird just might appear. On the 4th August, amongst the few Common and Sandwich Terns moving offshore this adult Little Tern appeared.  

There have been a few Mediterranean Gulls also moving off shore, this one is a smart juvenile.

Today, another very quiet day on the peninsular, a couple of juvenile Black Terns appeared on the RSPB reserve, one on Burrowes and a second on ARC.

It did land amongst a flock of roosting Common Terns and started to preen before lifting off again.

At the dipping pond an adult Little Grebe was feeding its 3 Littler Grebes,

Here the adult has caught a froglet, presumably a Marsh froglet. 

Next week, the temperatures are forecasted to be up in the high twenties and even thirty degrees but the wind is going to have some east in it. Fingers crossed for some migrant arrivals.

Little Terns

Yesterday 17th June, I was sitting in Hanson Hide at RSPB Dungeness, trying to find the nesting Avocets, Common Terns, Ringed Plovers, Oystercatchers, Black-headed Gulls and Lapwing at ARC. Amongst the cacophony of Common Tern sound I picked up the call of Little Tern and saw two that had landed on one of the islands with a covering of stones they immediately started to behave as if they were looking for a suitable nesting location and started to wander the island and on several occasions started to form a nest scrape. Even when they were chased off by a Common Tern they appeared to be reluctant to leave and returned to the island only to the be chased off by a Little Gull. This time they departed towards Burrowes Pit and it seemed didn't reappear and have not bee seen since.

Whilst a brief visit, this is the first time that attempted breeding by Little Tern has been recorded on the peninsula since 1976 when a pair were hanging on at the Point. 

A pair of Little Terns at ARC

Elsewhere on the RSPB Reserve at Dengemarsh both Oystercatcher and Common Terns have chicks.

Common Tern with three chicks

Oystercatcher and chick