Afternoon Tern Fest

Dungeness - 0730hrs - cool, cloudy, sw4/5 - With rumours of large shearwaters, and more, in the Western Approaches and a weather front moving up-Channel it seemed appropriate to commence with a seawatch this morning; well, that theory quickly foundered, as there seemed to be very little on the move after an hour. Gullman and the Joker, however, did have a couple of Manxies just after I left, typical...
From Hanson on the bird reserve 2 Wood Sands remained on the shingle ridges along with a collection of common waders.
Concrete Road - 1500hrs An hour and half seawatch in the company of the Joker (and not one gag, he must be losing it!) proved most fruitful with a slackening south-westerly and warm sunshine (BBC weather forecast wrong again). A steady westward movement of Gannets and Kitts further out with increasing numbers of terns feeding just offshore, comprising mainly adult Common and Sandwich Terns. Towards the end of the watch we bagged singles of Arctic and Little, plus the icing on the cake a Roseate Tern feeding amongst the riff-raff. Single juv Med Gull and 4 Common Scoters east, plus Grey Seal and Porpoise made for a decent session.
Moths - White-line Dart, Nutmeg and dagger sp. new for the year in the Plovers trap, along with a pristine Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing (a pale specimen of one of my favourite moths) and Marbled Coronet. Yesterdays Dotted Rustic at the Kerton Road Cafe continues to attract admirers (it seems they`re a lot rarer that we first thought) with one M`other travelling down from the Midlands to pay homage.

Marbled Coronet - Found on a wall by the Plovers trap. A localised resident that regularly comes to light.