Quiet Times

Warm, dry, cloudy, W2 - Spent the day guiding for Mark and Maria commencing at the point where nothing much was happening on the sea during a half hour watch, apart from a dozen Gannets and three Common Scoter through. On the land we eventually located a smart male Black Redstart on the power station along with a Peregrine perched atop a pylon; Wheatear, Stonechat, Whitethroat, Meadow Pipit, Linnet and Skylark were also duly logged. Moving onto Lade bay for the incoming tide produced 150 Oystercatchers, five Ringed Plovers, six Curlews, two Bar-tailed Godwits, a Whimbrel and a Sandwich Tern.

                                   Common Gull, Burrowes

It was just as quiet around the bird reserve where the highlights were five Hobbies on the wing over Hookers reedbed and three slumped on the shingle by the bend in the access road; a few Common Terns on Burrowes (where, depressingly, all the tern rafts and islands have already been occupied by nesting Herring Gulls); a `booming` Bittern, a Cuckoo and several Marsh Harriers at Dengemarsh, plus all the common warblers around the circular trail along with a few Swifts and hirundines over and the usual breeding waders on the hayfields, including a pair of Avocets.