Warm , dry and sunny, SW 4 - A buffeting wind whipping up-Channel made for difficult birding conditions across the peninsula this morning; although it did mean that we had the place to ourselves! The hayfields were bone-dry and bird-less, but there was plenty of activity on Dengemarsh with up to 20 breeding Common Terns on the new islands, including four well-grown fledglings, and where there was an adult bird with a yellow colour-ring (more of which anon when I get the details from the ringers). Also noted on the wetlands hundreds of eclipse diving ducks, gulls, feral geese and a Great White Egret. There was a distinct lack of harrier activity (as there has been for the past month or more) and I can only assume that they failed to breed. On the farmland section several Corn Buntings, Skylarks and Yellow Wagtails was about the sum total. Moving onto Burrowes from Hanson hide and more Common Tern action from 40 odd birds on the distant shingle island and where at least two fledged juveniles had somehow avoided the privations of the large gulls. Several raucous Sandwich Terns came and went, as did a Greenshank, a Curlew and a Whimbrel over calling, a dusky Spotted Redshank that landed for all of 10 minutes before heading north, two Common Sandpipers and a Ringed Plover. Also noted: a trickle of Sand Martins and Yellow Wagtails overhead and two Marsh Harriers over the Oppen pits. A check of Kerton quarry and Lade revealed little else apart from a flock of c200 Black-headed Gulls from the lookout point at the quarry.
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