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.

Dunlin

An early-ish morning visit to ARC revealed two Dunlin, one in almost full breeding plumage and the other moulting in to winter plumage!

Dunlin moulting in to winter plumage

The Caspian Tern was unusually still present and preferring to rest on the islands at Burrowes and flying off for short foraging trips before returning to Burrowes.

Terns and Waders

The islands at the Firth viewpoint at Dungeness RSPB reserve have been attracting flocks of Common and Sandwich Terns including several juvenile and 2CY birds.

Juvenile Sandwich Tern

These days i'm on the lookout for ringed birds and came across two ringed Common Terns both of which originated from different ringing schemes in Holland.

Yellow ringed, Adult Common Tern from Holland

White tagged, Adult Common Tern from Holland

Finally the last 3 juvenile Common Terns that were on the small island in front of Dennis's hide have fledged. The smallest of them is very cute and barely has any primaries compared to the other two. I expect the short flight from the nesting island to the Firth lookout was a major leap of faith for it.

Despite the increase in the numbers of islands appearing across the reserve due to the lack of rain, the number and diversity of waders has been relatively low, which is odd given the numbers of shorebirds being recorded at Lade Bay. However, perseverance and multiple visits to the reserve during the days and weeks eventually pays off.

Juvenile Spotted Redshank

Juvenile Spotted Redshanks

Four Knot and a Dunlin

Golden Plovers

Ringed Plovers

Male and female juvenile Ruff

Black-tailed Godwits

Black-tailed Godwits

Adult and juvenile Little Stints

Juvenile Sanderling

Sea Watching Spectacular

After a seemingly long spell of cold strong winds from the north there was at last a few days of warmer easterlies of which migrating Dark-bellied Brent Goose and Common Scoter took advantage. Large flocks of Brent Goose sometimes totalling 600+ birds heading east, kept close to the coast with a small number even flying over the shingle beach. The patterns of the flocks as they flew low over the sea were constantly changing with wonderful V's and U's forming and altering in shape. We cold hear the Brents calling as they went by, just a wonderful spectacle.

The Scoter movement tended to occur much further out and sometimes we were picking out flocks in the hazy murk waiting for them to cut in a little more to the point, only occasionally would a flock come past closer although never as close as the Brents.

With over 9,000 Dark-bellied Brents and one Pale-bellied Brent and just over 2,000 Scoter on the 19th and over 7,000 Dark-bellied Brents and just over 3,000 Scoter all migrating east on the 20th it has been a great couple of days down at the Point.

Dark-bellied Brent Goose beyond the Bouy

Red-breasted Merganser

Dark-bellied Brent Goose inside the Bouy.

Dark-bellied Brent Goose

Dark-bellied Brent Goose

Garganey

Dark-bellied Brent Goose high in the distance and heading our way

Pale-bellied Brent Goose (back row, 9th bird in from the right)

On the RSPB Reserve a flock of Dunlin and four Redshank which I think were migrants based on their behaviour of sticking together when feeding were at the Hayfields.

Dunlin on Hayfield 1

Redshank on Hayfield 1