Arctic Skua

ARC - sunny, dry, nw 3 - After yesterdays deluge the sunshine and wind soon dried the shingle out and by midday you wouldn`t have known near 2" rain had fell a short time ago. A wide selection of waders on offer from Screen and Hanson hides included 100 Lapwings, five Dunlins, four LRPs, three Ringed Plovers, Blackwit, Greenshank, Knot, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Common and Green Sandpipers. Also present the long staying immature Little Gull and several Common Terns, while a Hobby swept through sending the Sand Martins skywards.
  DB alerted us to an orchid he`d found by the track down to Hanson hide, which we deliberated over at length, but on later reflection was probably a Southern Marsh Orchid past its prime.

                               Southern Marsh Orchid, ARC


Dungeness - 1600hrs - From the fishing boats this afternoon in the company of SO we had a decent enough hour seawatching with a steady flow of west bound Gannets, Common and Sandwich Terns, plus several Kittiwakes, a Fulmar and 20 Sand Martins. Thirty Common Scoters passed east, along with five Dunlin and a Sanderling, and just as we were about to pack up a cracking adult light phase Arctic Skua, cruised offshore. Several Harbour Porpoises were also noted.