Drift migrants

Lade - 0600hrs - warm, dry, sunny, e 3 -With an overnight easterly sea breeze it was no surprise to find the first drift migrants of the season on the local patch and elsewhere around the peninsula this morning. The highlights were two Whinchats and five Wheatears on the desert, plus 10 Common Whitethroats in the scrub and a trickle of Yellow Wagtails and Mipits over.
The garden moth trap delivered too with a late Sussex Emerald and the seasons` first Pale Grass Eggar, a Dungeness speciality, amongst 35 species of macros which also included Dark Sword-grass, new for the year.

                                Pale Grass Eggar

Galloways - With the ranges silent we walked the road down to the sea and back where more drift migrants were grounded in scrub and turf, mostly by the half-way gate and near the gatehouse entrance. Totals as follows: five Whinchats, 10 Wheatears, 10 Stonechats, 20 Common Whitethroats, two Lesser Whitethroats and a Garden Warbler, plus numerous Mipits, Linnets, Blackbirds, Wrens, Dunnock and Robin.
Dengemarsh - From Springfield Bridge two Great White Egrets and a Raven over, plus the usual wildfowl and harriers.
ARC - Single figures of Wood, Common and Green Sandpipers, Golden Plover, Redshank and Dunlins amongst 100 Lapwings viewable from Hanson hide.
Dungeness - 1400-1530hrs - A seawatch from the fishing boats produced very little apart from a few Common and Sandwich Terns, Kittiwakes, three Common Scoters, a Med Gull and several Porpoises.

                                Not more seawatching ...