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.

Wood Sand and Pied Fly

Finally a close Wood Sand at ARC this morning although trying to get photos was made difficult due to the height of the reeds in front of Hanson hide.

At midday, Owen made a quick 10 minute check at the top of the Long Pits and found three Pied Flycatchers and later Martin found a fourth. By the time I could get there I could only find one but it was a showy individual.

I called in to ARC on the way home after the RSPB had cut the reeds in front of Hanson and whilst the islands were still relatively bird free resulting from the disturbance there was a flock of three Green Sandpipers and two Wood Sandpipers which you could easily see now the view from the hide was less obscured.

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

Moulting Ducks and Returning Waders

In July and August duck numbers on the RSPB Reserve increase, especially Pochard and Gadwall as males visit the pits on the reserve to moult and obtain their eclipse plumage. I've been making counts on behalf of the RSPB for a few years now and this year noticed the numbers of males arriving at the reserve start to significantly increase from about mid-June. 

So it was a busy day today as I tried to do a duck count across the reserve and managed to reach a total of 1,006 Pochard and 636 Gadwall. An additional 180 Pochard were counted on Lade Pits which is also part of the RSPB Reserve. I think that makes the second highest count (1,186) of Pochard on the reserve since I moved to the area back in 2019.

3 Garganey are now in residence with two preferring ARC and the third on Burrowes. The female Red-crested Pochard and duckling remain on ARC with an eclipse male Red-crested Pochard on Dengemarsh.

The remaining Common Tern colonies on Dengemarsh and Burrowes are still producing chicks with 8 on a very noisy colony from Dengemarsh Hide today and hopefully more than the one I saw back on the 12th July at Burrowes.

Returning wader numbers are gradually increasing with 4 Wood Sandpipers, 1 Greenshank, 1 Redshank, 18 Little-ringed Plovers, 2 Ringed Plovers and 10 Common Sandpipers.

Almost fledged Common Tern chicks at Dengemarsh

Plenty of squabbling when an adult makes an appearance

Common Sandpiper

Kestrel at the Hayfields

Greenshank at Firth Viewpoint

Wood Sandpiper from Hanson Hide

Whimbrel on Burrowes Pit

Garganey from Hanson Hide

Small Red-eyed Damselfly in tandem

When there were 3 Avocet Chicks back on July 8th, now sadly only 2

It is always very frustrating to come across people wandering over sections of the reserve where they are not permitted and even more so when they have a dog either on or off the lead. I don't blame this couple as the signage at ARC is (or rather was) pitiful. It is now more obvious as after encountering several dogs on sections of the reserve where they are prohibited I have put up more obvious temporary signage. No excuse now and I'll continue to be on the lookout.

The Common Tern colony on Burrowes Pit, so wonderful to have so many terns nesting compared to last year.

A trip with Martin and Richard out of the area in search of Purple Emperor butterfly ended with us not seeing that but enjoying woodland bird species that are rare or tricky to see on the peninsula.

Nuthatch, a rarity on the peninsula, this one in woodland near Hamstreet

Song Thrush, can be tricky to catch up with on the peninsula. This one giving a snail a headache using its anvil to bash the living daylights out of the snail!