Tuesday 26 July 2016

A few more waders

Lade - warm, dry and sunny, sw 2 - Pebble Prominent was the best of the bunch in the garden moth trap this morning, plus five of the pyrale, Cynaeda dentalis, a south coast speciality. Over the pits two Common Sandpipers, 50 Lapwings over and a Whimbrel. On the beach all the usual Curlews and Oystercatchers, 10 Dunlin, 10 Ringed Plover, five Sanderling and two Barwits.
Tower Pits - The walk down to the pines produced plenty of Sedge and Reed Warblers around the pit margins, Common Whitethroats on the dry scrub and several Willow Warblers around the car park. At the pines a Cetti`s Warbler, Long-tailed Tits, Chaffinches and two each of Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers. On ARC hundreds of eclipse ducks, Common Terns, feral geese and Sand Martins.

                                Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker

                                Vigilant

Dungeness - 1400hrs - From the boardwalk at least 10 Porpoises were offshore, plus the Dutch research vessel Vigilant.

                                Blackwit on Burrowes

Burrowes - An afternoon visit turned up a few waders on the ever increasing islands: Lapwings, Oystercatchers, two Ringed Plovers, two Common Sandpipers, Dunlin, Sanderling, Redshank, Greenshank and Black-tailed Godwit. Duck numbers had dramatically increased since my last visit a week ago.

2 comments:

  1. Autumn movement continues here on an increasingly dry Swale NNR as well. This morning (Weds) I had 1 Greenshank, 6 Green Sandpiper, 4 Common Sandpiper, 1 juv. Wheatear and a regular W. stream of juv. swallows and martins.

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  2. As the dry weather continues to lower the water levels at Dungeness we could be in for a good August of waders. Be interesting to see how the breeding season further north has gone once the juveniles start arriving though.

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