Swifts & Swallows

Lade - 1030hrs & 1600hrs - cool, cloudy, e3 - Spent most of the birding day going dizzy checking through hirundines in a fruitless search for yesterdays Red-rumper. On the afternoon visit many Swallows were hunkered down on the shingle ridges in a vain attempt to find some warmth against the brisk easterly. Nothing much else except one or two hunting Marsh Harriers, 2 Cuckoos and a Raven.
Dungeness -  1145hrs - Still a number of common migrants around the point, mostly Whitethroats and Willow Warblers, with Spot Flit, Garden Warbler and Blackcap in the lighthouse garden, a Whinchat by Lloyds and Cuckoo over. Seowl, Turtle Dove and Hobby also reported.
ARC - 1230hrs - More hirundine checking from the south end was interrupted by a flock of 18 Barwits (including one colour ringed) and 2 Whimbrels that joined 4 Dunlins, 2 Common Sandpipers, LRP and Ringed Plover. A Lesser Whitethroat sang from the willows where a Spot Flit was noted.
Burrowes - 1300hrs - Not so many hirundines here. A couple of Wheatears from the access road and a Hobby over was about it. A decent range of common migrants were reported around the reserve, plus Garganeys at Dengemarsh and `booming` Bittern on Hookers.
News from Rye Harbour this morning was positive with the Kentish Plover still present alongside a strong supporting cast of Temminck`s and Little Stints and Curlew Sandpipers. 

                                         Barwits, ARC