Wood Sandpiper

Lade - warm, dry, cloudy, N2 - A cloudy, still night produced another bumper moth catch in the garden trap that included two Sussex Emeralds and five Plumed Fan-feet. On the local patch two Avocets flew over south lake calling but failed to land and eventually headed back towards the bird reserve. The pair of Black Swans performed a fly past in front of Lydd church, otherwise there was no change in the wildfowl from yesterday.

                                Black Swans over All Saints Lydd

                                Plumed Fan-foot, probably bred locally

                                Sussex Emerald - note the double pointed hind wing

Dungeness - A guided walk this morning concentrated on Burrowes where a cracking Wood Sandpiper on the mud in front of Firth hide was the first of the year and the return passage. Also from Firth hide, three Little Ringed Plovers, two Ringed Plovers, two Dunlins, a Curlew, two Avocets and a Grey Plover over calling, while a party of 20 Swifts moved through, plus 10 Sand Martins and a Yellow Wagtail. Elsewhere, five Mediterranean Gulls on the shingle amongst a large gull flock and a Marsh Harrier at Boulderwall.

                               Avocet from Firth hide

                                Wood Sandpiper, first for the autumn

  An hour at the fishing boats this afternoon was predictably quiet with just a few fishing Sandwich Terns, distant Gannets and a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull of note, plus several Porpoises off shore.