ARC/Tower Pits - With a day in Canterbury beckoning with guests, and having to drop Barney off in Lydd, we spent a couple of hours birding the pits and along the railway line by the pines. The weather was glorious first thing with light airs and warm sunshine, ideal for warbler activity of which there was plenty, particularly in the scrub by Tower Pits where 10 each of Willow Warbler and Common Whitethroat, 2 Lesser Whitethroat and a Spotted Flycatcher, while the reed and willow scrub was alive with Reed and Sedge Warblers. A Cuckoo broke cover by the water tower and 2 Wheatears were out on the Desert, plus Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard and Marsh Harrier, Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers.
On ARC all the usual waders, so a scattering of LRP, Dunlin, Common and Green Sandpipers, 2 Greenshank, Wood Sandpiper, Ruff and Snipe, while a pair of Oystercatchers have successfully fledged their chick against all odds. As a Marsh Harrier flushed the waders in front of Hanson a Spotted Redshank called and headed towards Dengemarsh. Out on the mill-pond like lake hundreds of wildfowl, Coot and grebes, 50 Sand Martins and 3 Swifts.
News from Dungeness today included Balearic Sheawater and Roseate Tern, while Curlew Sandpiper and Great White Egret were reported from the bird reserve.
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