Warm, dry and sunny, SW3 - This morning`s Ted walk took us on a long, looping walk around the Dungeness peninsula which initially appeared to be largely bird-less apart for a couple of flyovers from a Greenshank and a Great Spotted Woodpecker. The bushes in the Trapping Area yielded very little other than a few Common and Lesser Whitethroats, Blackcaps and Chiffs as confirmed by Jacob at the Obs who`d been trapping since dawn without much joy apart from a Tree Pipit. Anyhow, we then wandered back via Long Pits to give Ted a swim followed by a check of the wigwams where a small flock of passerines comprised mainly Linnets, Lesser and Common Whitethroats, plus two Stonechats and a smart Whinchat. Further along the willow scrub an immature Redstart flicked down to feed on the shingle and a Clouded Yellow basked in the sunshine. It was then on to ARC and a walk down to the pines where a few more common warblers were noted but not much else.
Yesterday a tour of the reserve produced lower numbers of Common Terns than earlier in the week and just singles of Common Sandpiper and Little Ringed Plover on the passage wader front. However, the bay was heaving with shorebirds on a rising tide enabling the following counts, and very much a minimum for each species: Oystercatcher 720, Curlew 380, Bar-tailed Godwit 10, Black-tailed Godwit 2, Dunlin 4, Little Egret 6, Sandwich Tern 50, Common Tern 20 and a thousand plus Black-headed, Common and Mediterranean Gulls.
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