Waders and warblers

Lade  - 0700hrs - cool, sunny,  E 3 - A bright sunny day and a text from CE telling of a singing Grasshopper Warbler in Mockmill was a good start, where also a Whinchat noted. A steady stream of Swallows headed low over the Desert with Swifts higher up.

                               Avocet and Whimbrel from Firth hide

Dungeness RSPB - 1000hrs - A circular walk around the reserve for 13 visitors delivered a wide range of birds from waders on Burrowes, raptors over Dengemarsh and warblers in between. Burrowes looks superb at the moment with large numbers of Common Terns and Black-headed Gulls appearing as though they may well nest on the myriad of shingle islands. A Little Gull was also in the mix. Waders here included a pair of Avocets, 10 Grey Plovers, several Whimbrels, Ringed Plovers, Turnstones, Dunlins, a Ruff, two Little Ringed Plovers and a Common Sandpiper. Three Hobbies hawked low over the lake by the Cormorant colony with five others over Dengemarsh, plus three Marsh Harriers, a Peregrine and a Common Buzzard elsewhere that got the full treatment from the gulls. We also had good views of Sedge and Cetti`s Warblers, Common Whitethroats, Reed Buntings, Linnets and a steady northwards passage of Swifts.
  During the three hour walk we noted 68 species of birds.