Passage Waders

 New Romney - cool, sunny, NE 4 - The day dawned fine and bright but with a chilly northerly airflow that picked up during the day. I ran the moth trap last night which yielded a paltry five species but did include a Pale Prominent and an Eyed Hawk-moth. A walk around the Hope Lane loop proved most productive with the `white` Buzzard seen again, a Cuckoo, six species of warblers and, new for the one mile list, a Dabchick in a small sewer by the farmhouse.

                                 `White` Buzzard

                                 Eyed Hawk-moth

                                  Pale Prominent 

                                 Marsh Frog

After breakfast I moved on to the bird reserve for most of the day where a host of passage waders were noted including two very weary looking Wood Sandpipers on hayfield 2, ten Bar-tailed Godwits, five Greenshanks, five Whimbrels, a Ruff on ARC, a Blackwit, Dunlin and Common Sandpiper on Burrowes; also on Burrowes yesterdays drake Ring-necked Duck. Elsewhere, a drake Garganey on hayfield 3; Shoveler, Wigeon, Pochard, Cuckoo and three Hobbies on Dengemarsh; 10 Buzzards and Swifts (my first of the year!) over and all the usual warblers, egrets, Bittern, Bearded Tit and harrier activity.

                                  Small Copper

                                 Common Whitethroat

                                  Wood Sandpipers, Hayfield 2

                                  Bar-tailed Godwits, Greatstone beach

Finished the afternoon on the bay with a decent selection of Arctic waders including 56 close Barwits, two Sanderlings and a Grey Plover further out, making a total of 15 species of waders during the day.