Curlew Sandpiper

New Romney - mild, cloudy NW2 - First job of the morning was to empty the garden moth trap which held a meagre 21 species of macros with Obscure Wainscot being the pick of the bunch and Scalloped Oak new for the year. Moving onto Lade Bay where a wader count from the Varne and Tavern watchpoints produced: 780 Oystercatchers, 410 Curlews, 10 Dunlins and three Bar-tailed Godwits, plus 25 Mediterranean Gulls and 12 Sandwich Terns. It was then onto the Kerton Road cafe to do the moth traps with DB where 40 species of macros included 14 Sussex Emeralds, a Pale Grass Eggar and a Drinker, as well as a Roesel`s Bush Cricket.

                                  Scalloped Oak

                                  Male Sussex Emerald

                                 Roesel`s Bush-cricket

                      Adult Curlew Sandpiper with Dunlin and Ringed Plover, ARC

On the bird reserve the ARC lake from Hanson hide is currently looking superb for waders and wildfowl with plenty of mud and low islands showing. The highlight was a stunning adult Curlew Sandpiper, one of my favourite Arctic waders and rarely seen here on passage when still in its full red, breeding plumage. Other passage waders included 12 Ringed Plovers, eight Dunlins, two Black-tailed Godwits and two Little Ringed Plovers, plus two Avocets (one still sitting), Lapwings and Oystercatchers making for a decent morning of waders. Also noted my first juvenile Marsh Harrier of summer on the wing, two Glossy Ibises and the usual host of common ducks and grebes. At Lade a count of 15 juvenile Little Grebes on south lake hinted at a good breeding season.

    ARC lake from Hanson hide