Plenty of good birds

A day of light rain showers until at least late afternoon was a very welcome experience after months of hot dry weather. I started the day off at the top of the Long Pits and it was mostly quiet until I came across a couple of foraging tit flocks amongst which were several Willow Warblers and Lesser Whitethroats but only 16 of each, also 10 Swifts SE over.  I then moved on to Hanson hide, where Martin and Colin had earlier seen a couple of Wood Sands and Green Sands. One of the Wood Sands was close.

Wood Sandpiper

In addition to Martins sighting there were five Garganey in front of the hide.

Garganey

Several Snipe were visible from Hanson, the VC and Firth Lookout.

Snipe

The Pintard (hybrid Pochard x Pintail) was feeding.

Pintard

Whilst watching the Common Tern colony from Firth, an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull predated one of the tern chicks. I wanted to know how many chicks there were as I knew of at least two other predation events by gulls on the colony, so I stomped to the back of Burrowes and was able to get a better view of the colony.

I counted at least 12 chicks, one of which was a week old and the others mainly three weeks old. When I returned to Firth I could see another four chicks from that side, so a total of at least 16 chicks. Lets hope some survive the gull onslaught! There are six chicks in this photo and what looks like a dead Sand Martin on the shingle to the right of the standing adult Common Tern.

Both Black Terns and the White-winged Black Tern were still showing from Firth.

Black Tern

Black and White-winged Black Terns

White-winged Black Tern

Three Bar-tailed Godwits appeared on the mud in front of Firth along with over 30 Dunlin and Ringed Plovers.

Bar-tailed Godwits

Mostly adult Dunlin, I think there is one juvenile in the shot, Ringed and Little-ringed Plover.

Redstart and Osprey

A lone seawatch for an hour between 7:00 and 8:00 at the Point resulted in not much, in fact I think the Sandwich and Common Terns were just flying around in a large circle. A radio message from Jacob resulted in me heading to the trapping area as the ringers had caught a Redstart which I had not managed to see so far this autumn.

1CY Male Redstart

I then decided to wander up to the top of the Long Pits and back staying on the east side. A juvenile Osprey which is possibly the same bird that was seen on the 20th and also earlier this morning at Galloways was soaring low over the Long Pits before heading over the trapping area and gaining height flew NE out to sea and over Lade Bay.

Juvenile Osprey

I then moved on to the RSPB Reserve where there was a good collection of waders if you spent time checking the various muddy edges on distant islands. 11 Ringed Plovers, 1 Little Ringed Plover, 3 Dunlin, 3 Snipe, Black-tailed Godwit, 35 Golden Plovers, Wood Sandpiper, 4 Common Sandpipers, 6 Ruff and a Curlew.

There are still 3 Common Tern chicks in the colony out from Dennis's Hide, although 2 look like they are near fledging.

Golden Plovers

Ringed Plovers

Ringed Plovers

Juvenile male and female Ruff

This Great White Egret seems to have an odd resting posture!

Great White Egret

The Perils of Nesting Ringed Plovers

Nesting Ringed Plovers get a rough time on the peninsular. A small number of pairs still attempt to nest on the shingle at the point and in the desert areas but visitors and especially those with dogs on and off-lead cause significant levels of disturbance and can destroy nests, despite the best efforts of the estate wardens to protect the nesting birds. Foxes, badgers and the increasingly large numbers of corvids in the area also take their toll. Sometimes it is not until a second or even third nesting attempt that a small number of chicks might successfully fledge. So, it was great to be able to monitor three nesting pairs of Ringed Plovers at ARC from Hanson Hide. 

However, today a tragedy unfolded and one that was not totally unexpected.

In ten minutes she will have her nest trampled and lose an egg and chick

Sounding the alarm

Her partner arrives and the Egyptian Geese move on having narrowly missed the nest

The Egyptian Geese return not giving the Ringed Plover any peace

The adult goose narrowly misses the nest again amidst a frantic defence

The geese wander away and then return yet again, this time the Ringed Plovers don't stand a chance

The moment of destruction

Once the geese had wandered away, I watched the female return to the nest and she immediately picked up a smashed egg within which a fairly well developed chick was still attached to the egg casing. She flew off with the smashed egg and dropped it away from the nest. On returning she settled on the remaining eggs, I wonder if she will still be sitting tomorrow?

Ringed Plover

A wander around part of the reserve recorded the female Smew still on ARC and the Long-tailed Duck still on New Diggings. Waders are starting to pair up with noisy Oystercatcher pairs on ARC, Burrowes and New Excavations and also a pair of Ringed Plovers on the shingle, certainly the right habitat for them to potentially nest.

Ringed Plover

Ringed Plover

Ringed Plover

Smew

The highlight of the month so far has been the female Smew found by Alan Parker and Peter on 12th Feb at Dengemarsh.

Female Smew

It preferred to presumably forage within the reed edge out of sight and occasionally appeared in open water but never for very long. It remained on Dengemarsh until 14th Feb.

On the 17th Feb, I was doing the WeBS count at ARC for the RSPB and found it (presumably the same bird) there and it was much closer.

Female Smew

On the 13th Feb 19 White-fronted Goose were in Boulderwall Fields or in the adjacent Lydd Fields.

White-fronted Goose

Richard picked out J16EY a Great Black-backed Gull in its 3rd calendar year. According to my records it was last recorded in the Dungeness area on 14th Sep 2024.

Great Black-backed Gull

In recent days a couple of Ringed Plovers have been on Hayfield 1 and 2, hopefully the new shingle islands that have been created across the RSPB Reserve will tempt them to nest.

Ringed Plover

Weather in recent days has been cold with a south-east wind but sunny and bright. The wind was creating havoc with the Tufted Ducks, giving them a very bad hair day as they slept in front of Dengemarsh hide.

 

Tufted Duck

After being absent from the 12th, the Long-tailed Duck re-appeared on New Diggings on the 16th Feb.

Female Long-tailed Duck