820 Sandwich Terns!

Dungeness - mild, cloudy, sw 4 - 0915-1030hrs - A decent enough seawatch for the guests from the hide delivered scores of fishing Gannets and Sandwich Terns, plus 10 Kittiwakes, 20 Common Scoters, 10 auks, three Arctic and one Great Skua. A trickle of Swallows headed out over a choppy sea where Grey Seal and six Porpoises were noted.
  Very quiet on the land with just two Wheatears on the beach, but terrific views of a male Peregrine sallying forth from the pylons by the power station and stooping on a pair of `cronking` Ravens.
Greatstone Beach -  Superb session from the Tavern viewpoint on a falling tide yielded the full suite of ten species of waders, the highlights being 150 Knots, 50 Barwits and loads of close Dunlins, Sanderlings, Ringed Plovers and a Grey Plover. Best of all though was a record count of 820 Sandwich Terns on the sands where also note three Brents, and 10 Common Terns.

                               Part of the huge tern flock on Greatstone beach

                                Snipe, Little Egret and Little Stint from Firth hide

Burrowes/Dengemarsh - The afternoon was spent on the bird reserve where we had good views of Snipe, Dunlin, Ringed Plovers, Common Sandpipers and two Little Stints from Firth hide. All the usual egrets, raptors and wildfowl were logged, plus two Kingfishers and a Garganey on Dengemarsh and a flock of 50 Goldfinches over the sunflower field. The Cattle Egret remained elusive on the Boulderwall fields.