Lade - overcast, mild, W2 - For the second day running the weather continued to be humid and stormy with thunder (which sent Ted into meltdown) lightening and, at times, heavy rain; certainly in NR yesterday it was torrential around midday. Great conditions then for grounded migrants and during the course of the morning we rattled up a fair old list across Kerton quarry and Lade wetlands. Hundreds of Sand Martins swarmed over all the waters, along with a few House Martins and Swallows, picking off emerging insects amongst two juvenile Black Terns, plus several Common and Sandwich Terns coming and going with fish. At least 500 Pochards and Tufted Ducks, 200 Coots, 30 Great Crested and 20 Little Grebes were counted on south lake as well as two large flocks of Shovelers totalling around 100 birds that flew in from the bay. More wildfowl were present on Kerton quarry, plus a Whimbrel and a Greenshank, and north lake where a Black-necked Grebe was reported at the school end this afternoon. The ponds yielded a few tits, Chaffinches, Blackcaps, Common Whitethroats, Willow, Reed and Cetti`s Warblers and a Great Spotted Woodpecker all scattered by a Sparrowhawk.
On the walk back along the main track I noticed a few gulls, Cormorants and ducks on the shingle island at the south end of Lade, plus a tiny wader that had just landed. It was obviously a phalarope, but as I didn`t have my scope it was down to pics enlarged on the camera back to confirm its identity as a Red-necked Phalarope in 1st winter plumage (my first for the site): note the needle thin bill, white stripes on a greyish back and downward infliction on rear face mask. Over the course of the next hour it became more active and eventually did its trade mark swimming on water. As the local birders arrived to see the phalarope a juvenile Cuckoo broke cover rounding off a very satisfactory mornings birding on the local patch. Feeling that my luck was in we then headed down to Dungeness, in the rain, for brief views of a Wryneck in gorse scrub at the southern end of the Trapping Area, plus a Spotted Flycatcher, several Common Whitethroats and Willow Warblers, two Whinchats and a Wheatear.
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