Swallows and egrets

Lade - 0900hrs - mild, wet, sw 2 - Started the day with a right good soaking when we got caught in a deluge walking back from the pits, where there was nothing much of note apart from three Kingfishers around the willow swamp and a couple of Chiffchaffs. Very mild though, with masses of midges by the ponds.
ARC - After a change of clothing, and a rub down for Barney, we headed out again. Scanning the beach from the Lade boardwalk for waders turned up five species, but all a bit distant, although a late Swallow feeding along the tideline was a bonus. From the causeway road two Slavonian Grebes, a redhead Smew and a Great White Egret on ARC, plus another GWEgret on New Diggings.
Scotney - We wandered through the farmyard, where four Corn Buntings noted amongst Chaffinches, House Sparrows and Starlings, to the pits at the back which had a flock of 23 Shelducks (never very numerous down here) amongst the Wigeon, Teal and Lapwings, plus another Great White Egret and 21 dark-bellied Brent Geese in a field. The roadside pits and grass had all the usual wildfowl and waders, including four Redshanks, five Dunlin, 10 Pintail and a Goldeneye.
Burrowes - Another three Great Whites on the pit, all the usual common ducks, including three Goldeneyes, plus several Little Egrets and Marsh Harriers, while SB reported three Cattle Egrets in association with stock on the Dengemarsh hayfields.
Lade North - A scan from the school slope this afternoon turned up another Swallow sighting over north lake, while a large mixed flock of Goldies, Lapwings and Starlings swirled over the fields at Romney Salts and a Buzzard perched on a distant straw stack.
Dungeness - Finished off with an hour at the fishing boats where nothing much was happening apart from a few distant Gannets and Kittiwakes passing down-Channel. However, a Grey Phalarope put in an all too brief appearance on the sea, but then drifted/flew back east, so we trudged down the beach and after half an hour eventually relocated it well offshore opposite the lifeboat station. Presumably, this is the same bird that`s been seen on and off over the past week or so.