Friday 22 July 2022

Common Sandpipers

 Greatstone - warm, dry, cloudy, SE5 - After the excitement of earlier in the week the past couple of nights have witnessed a drop in numbers and variety in the garden moth trap, mainly due to the brisk wind, although Cabbage, Turnip and Pebble Prominent were all new for the site. Following on from yesterdays Swallowtail sighting in the sand dunes I decided to check it out this morning but to no avail, apart from several Yellow Wagtails flushed from cover. Most of the bay waders were roosting at the back of Lade where a large flock of Curlews and a few Bar-tailed Godwits were on the desert at Mockmill, while hundreds of Oystercatchers settled at Kerton quarry, along with 50 Lapwings, two Redshanks, a Dunlin, a Common Sandpiper, five Mediterranean Gulls, two Sandwich Terns and two Little Egrets; more Yellow Wagtails and Sand Martins drifted over heading south. On the bird reserve six Common Sandpipers were noted on ARC along with five Little Ringed Plovers, two Ringed Plovers, 10 Mediterranean Gulls, a Kingfisher, two Marsh Harriers and the usual egrets, ibises, gulls and wildfowl. There was very little of note on Burrowes apart from a couple of Yellow Wagtails in front of Firth and a steady passage of Sand Martins overhead.

                                 Common Sandpiper, ARC

                          Oystercatcher with fully fledged chick, Kerton quarry

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