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

Bee-eater

Early morning on the 23rd May, I decided to go back on to the RSPB reserve to see if the Red-footed Falcon was still around. It was cold and the hobbies I could find were all still sitting in willows. A message came through that a Bee-eater was sitting on wires at the Point, in two minds whether to try and see it as they are notorious for staying all too briefly before flying off, I decided to go for it. On arriving, I was lucky, because the Bee-eater was still perched on the wires and calling infrequently. It stayed for a further two or three minutes before flying high and to the south, still occasionally calling and I lost it as it became a dot disappearing into high cloud.

Bee-eater

After then spending a couple of hours completing a couple of monads for the BTO Heathland Bird Survey, I returned to the reserve as the temperature had warmed up and news had confirmed that the red-foot was still around. There were plenty of Hobbies foraging across Boulderwall Fields, Hookers and Dengemarsh and the numbers just seemed to increase as the morning went on with my finally tally being 23, plus the female red-foot. 

Female Red-footed Falcon

Female Red-footed Falcon

One of the great aspects of the area is the diversity of wildlife and I always love seeing ruby-tailed wasps, this one was on one of the many seats across the reserve no doubt checking the area for mining bees.

Ruby-tailed Wasp

Wader passage across the reserve has resulted in views of beautiful adult summer plumaged Knot, Turnstone and Temminck's Stint, plus there have been good numbers of the Tundra form of Ringed Plover. The Temminck's Stint was found by Jacob, initially on Burrowes but then relocated on ARC.

Tundra form of Ringed Plover

Red Knot

Ruddy Turnstone

Temminck's Stint