On the local patch not much change with hundreds of Swifts coming and going over the lakes and on Saturday afternoon along the foreshore and in off the bay. There are few waders on the bay now with a typical count comprising up to 100 Oystercatchers, 30 Curlews and small numbers of Ringed Plovers and Bar-tailed Godwits. Chatting to DS yesterday on the beach, he too confirmed the absence of Sandwich Terns this spring where normally hundreds gather at low tide out on the sands to roost, preen and pair-bond. I understand that the colony at Rye Harbour never got going this year and soon cleared out, perhaps, due to a shortage of food.
More Coots, Dabchicks and Mallards were on the lakes with their offspring which in turn has seen an increase in patrolling Marsh Harriers. The two Oystercatcher chicks are still extant on the scaffold island and I suspect that the Egyptian Goose pair may have goslings nearby judging from their reaction when a Herring Gull landed nearby and received the full treatment!
Its been a week now since I`ve heard or seen a Cuckoo at Lade and I suspect the male didn`t attract a mate and has either moved on or, more likely, cleared off back south to Africa. A flock of at least 32 Long-tailed Tits around the ponds was a classic post-breeding gathering.
At home the moth trap has been idle due to the cold, windy nights, but there has been much entertainment from our local Starlings and their new born enjoying the relative sanctuary of the back garden. However, there`s always one or two on raptor lookout and more than once today the distinctive alarm call alerted the flock to an incoming Sparrowhawk.
Spent the afternoon birding around Dengemarsh, Galloways and the Ranges looking for Starling flocks, one of which hosted an adult Rosy Starling yesterday, of which there was no sign; infact hardly any Starlings were present on the sheep folds, just plenty of corvids and Woodpigeons. Several Marsh Harriers, Buzzards and Kestrels noted across the area, plus a Little Owl by the watch tower, two singing Corn Buntings and Yellow Wagtails from Springfield Bridge, three Hobbies and a `booming` Bittern at Hookers, several Cuckoos, Little Egrets, Common Terns, Bearded Tits, Shovelers, Lapwings, Redshanks and a Raven elsewhere.
David Scott has been busy with the camera and kindly forwarded on the best of his pics from last months outings around Dengemarsh (below). The wagtail pic is interesting: a spring male Flava type showing the hybrid qualities of a Yellow x Blue-headed Wagtail, known colloquially as `Channel Wagtail` and exhibiting a pale-blue head, white supercilium, throat and bib.
Putative `Channel Wagtail` Motacilla flava x flavissima (by D Scott)
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