Waders & Raptors

Scotney - 0900hrs - Mild, sunny, w3, cloudy by late afternoon - En-route to Rye we stopped off at Scotney where a flock of 110 Goldies and 50 Lapwings contained 4 Barwits, 3 Redshanks, Knot and Curlew. Pulled over at Jury`s Gap where a passage of raptors included 5 Common Buzzards, 4 Marsh Harriers and 2 Sparrowhawks.

                                          Goldies & Barwits, Scotney

                                          Rye Sluice

                                          Bar-tailed Godwit, Rye

                                          Greenshank, Rye

Rye Harbour - 1030hrs - A good session here, and thanks to Barry Yates for site access for the group. The new sluice by Lime Kiln Cottage afforded cracking views of a Greenshank, 5 Little Egrets and a Curlew snapping up tiddlers. On Flat Beach an enormous flock of 300 or so Ringed Plovers and Dunlins swirling around eventually disappeared out on to Camber Sands. Also here, 6 Shelducks, 2 Goldies, 4 Barwits, 4 Redshanks, 2 Knots, 4 Turnstone, Ruff and another Greenshank.
Passerines included Skylark, 10 Yellow Wags, 5 Mipits, 2 Wheatears and a steady passage of Swallows out. Ternery Pool was predicatably quiet with just 9 Dabchicks and a Merlin of note.
Pett Pools - 1330hrs - Very little of note on the pools apart from a few Dabchicks and common wildfowl, a juv Marsh Harrier, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk.
Walland Marsh - 1600hrs - Drove across Walland searching for farmland birds with little success apart from 20 Tree Sparrows on the usual feeders, plus Goldfinches, Chaffinches and Greenfinches. A few flocks of Lapwings and corvids on the recently harvested spud fields and that was about it.