Bar-tailed Godwits

Dungeness - warm, dry and sunny, E2 - In warm, spring sunshine a cracking morning for a Ted walk along the foreshore at the point from the lifeboat station to the power station and back across the Desert. At least four pairs of Wheatears were on territory along with several pairs of  Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Stonechat, Linnet, Whitethroat and a Reed Bunting. A steady trickle of Swallows came in off the sea, with some briefly settling on overhead power lines before pushing inland. Two male Black Redstarts were singing around the old light and A station while a male Peregrine was perched atop a pylon. A cursory look across a hazy sea from the hide produced a few distant Gannets and Sandwich Terns, plus five Curlews up-Channel. Two Brown Hares, Red Fox, Common Lizard and Harbour Porpoise also noted as well as plenty of Small Copper butterflies on the wing.

                                 Wheatear, Dungeness

                                  Swallows, Dungeness

                                 Linnets, Dungeness

With high tide beckoning we moved to Kerton quarry where a large mixed flock of waders was already at the roost site. The spring migration of Bar-tailed Godwits through Dungeness is one of the highlights of the year for me, but it varies annually in quantity depending upon the weather. While we get small numbers wintering on the bay, at the end of April and early May we receive thousands of godwits on passage from the south, mostly seen passing off Dungeness and heading up-Channel en-route to their breeding grounds on the Arctic tundra. These birds are record-breaking long-distance migrants capable of flying thousands of miles in one go, having wintered along the western seaboard of Europe and Africa. This morning`s flock of 95 comprised the usual mix of non-breeding birds, adult females and gorgeous males resplendent in their brick-red breeding plumage. Also present: 210 Oystercatchers (inc an aberrant bird), five Whimbrels over, 10 Lapwings, four Redshanks, a Ringed Plover, a Black-tailed Godwit, a pair of Red-crested Pochard and the usual wildfowl. 

                                  Red-crested Pochards, Kerton quarry

                                  Aberrant Oystercatcher, Kerton quarry

    Bar-tailed Godwits, Kerton quarry