First Willow Warbler

Folkestone - 0800hrs - wet - We were on grandparent duty in Folkestone last night and following 14 hours of rain, during which time around an inch fell, the clouds cleared and the sun broke through. The sheltered garden which backs onto a thickly wooded railway embankment was soon alive with tits, Blackbirds, Robins and Dunnocks looking to feed, plus a fresh, yellowy Willow Warbler, my first of the return passage.
Lade - Back home by mid-morning the northerly airflow had lowered the temperature somewhat and a search of the water and willows yielded very little apart from a lone Common Sandpiper on the margins of south lake.
ARC - On the way home from the allotment (first pick of runner beans) we called in at Screen hide where there was plenty to see amongst a myriad of wildfowl, grebes, Coots, Little Egrets, Grey Herons, Lapwings and Common Terns, including yesterdays Curlew Sandpiper, plus two Dunlins, several LRPs, a Blackwit, Common and Green Sandpipers. During an hour on site several different sub-adult/adult Marsh Harriers came and went, but there was still no sign of any juveniles out of the nest yet, although I guess there`s still time.
  A check of the bay from the Tavern, just in case a stray yellow-billed tern had decided to cross the Channel, delivered a flock of 15 Sandwich Terns, c500 Black-headed Gulls, the usual Oystercatchers and Curlews and a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull amongst the Herring Gulls.
  Out in the bay the S&R chopper was plucking a windsurfer from a choppy sea.