Rye waders

 Lade - warm, dry and sunny, W2 - At last the strong winds of the past week or so subsided, affording the chance of finding a few passerines. Early this morning the east facing scrub line beside south lake supported a decent cast of Common and Lesser Whitethroats, Willow Warblers, tits, House Sparrows and Dunnocks soaking up the sunshine. There was no change to the wildfowl and grebe numbers on the lake, while a Common Sandpiper flew over south lake looking for somewhere to land. On the bay a few more Ringed Plovers have started to appear, while most of last weeks Mediterranean Gulls seem to have moved on.

                                 Bar-tailed Godwit on the beach

                                  Common Whitethroat, Lade

With Dungeness RSPB reserve rendered largely unwatchable due the hide closures and high water levels we took ourselves down to Rye Harbour for a wader fix. Amongst the numerous Redshanks, Oystercatchers on the beach reserve were 10 Curlews, Six Whimbrels, four Avocets, five Ringed Plovers, two Common Sandpipers, two Dunlins, two Turnstones, a Ruff and a Greenshank. Also, there was still plenty of Common Tern breeding activity in front of Denny hide, plus four Sandwich Terns, 12 Little Egrets, Kestrel, two Swifts over and a Wheatear by Gooders hide. 

                                  Discovery Centre, Rye Harbour

                                  Wheatear, Rye

This afternoon a visit to ARC from the Screen hide revealed the usual large numbers of eclipse wildfowl, including our first Wigeon of autumn, two Great White Egrets and a few Willow Warblers in the bushes. There was no sign of any tern activity on the raft.

Sooty Shearwater

Sunday Lade - warm, sunshine and showers, SW 5 - The unsettled weather conditions continue to make it pretty much a waste of time running the moth trap; although I did last night, attracting just 20 moths of ten species, including three Jersey Tigers and a late Sussex Emerald. The local patch produced a steady flow of Swifts and Sand Martins on their way south and a few more bright Willow Warblers by the ponds. Before the rain arrived a flurry of butterflies in the garden sun traps included Painted Lady and Holly Blue, plus a Hummingbird Hawk-moth on the buddleia. Viewing the bay is difficult in such strong winds, but plenty of gulls, terns and waders from earlier in the week were still present. Forays out to the Trapping Area and ARC/Tower Pits over the weekend produced little of note due to the weather.

Saturday - Sooty Shearwater

I`ve been fortunate during my lifetime to have sailed across the Seven Seas and seen countless thousands of Sooty Shearwaters, but yesterday`s lone bird was a bit special! A typical sighting of this `Greyhound of the Ocean` at Dungeness is usually in late autumn as a distant speck seen on the horizon from the fishing boats, careering down-Channel at breakneck speed on swept-backed wings, shearing and gliding wildly - a couple of minutes viewing then, if you`re lucky. However, after grandstanding in front of the regulars in the seawatch hide around 9am on Saturday (checkout: www.ploddingbirder.blogspot.com for stunning pics) one particular individual Sooty Shearwater, untypically, proceeded to settle down and feed amongst the gulls and terns at the Patch for the rest of the day, something I`ve not experienced before in my time at Dungeness. I watched it for about an hour around midday during which time it mostly sat on a choppy sea in front of the Patch hide, occasionally taking short flights back to the boil after drifting eastwards and showing off its silvery under-wing coverts; when it flew it was all elegance and control making the gulls appear almost clumsy. Born on a remote, storm-lashed, sub-Antarctic island and destined to spend most of its life roaming the world`s oceans this magnificent seabird, and a wonder of evolution, was a privilege to watch at such close quarters.  

ps: On Sunday afternoon the Sooty was seen off the fishing boats where it came to bread thrown for the gulls - extraordinary !

Glossy Ibis

Lade/Dungeness - warm, dry, sunny, SW 6 - A breezy old day made for difficult birding conditions on the local patch where the first Kingfisher sighting of late summer was the highlight. Several Willow Warblers filtered through cover in the shelter of the ponds while 50 odd Sand Martins hawked insects in the lee of the willow swamp along the causeway to the `mirrors`.

                                 High tide at Dungeness

Moving on to Dungeness (and into a near gale force wind) an hour in the seawatching hide with MC and CP et al produced a trickle of Gannets, Kittiwakes, Sandwich and Common Terns making their way up-Channel along with a single distant Balearic Shearwater. On the bird reserve the only surprise was the reappearance of the Glossy Ibis after a three week absence as it flew across Burrowes pit. With Firth and Makepeace hides now seemingly condemned for the foreseeable future, Scott hide dismantled and the two new viewpoints like wind tunnels, the only shelter is now from Dennis`s hide. This means that most of the lake is difficult/impossible to view on a day like today; how on earth has it come to this at what is one of RSPB`s Blue Riband reserves? A Common Sandpiper was the only wader on offer along with a few feeding Common Terns, hundreds of Sand Martins over the lake and a few Swifts, plus the usual Great White Egrets and Marsh Harriers across Dengemarsh, where the hide there is still closed. Over the road on the ARC it was more of the same, although it was good to see several fledged Common Terns on the distant raft. Hanson hide also remains closed though, meaning that everything on the water is miles away and pretty much a dead loss from a birding perspective. 

Gulls and terns

Lade - warm, dry and sunny, S3 - The main point of interest of late has been the bay where large numbers of gulls, terns and waders have been coming and going. This morning on the incoming short tide we counted a record 220 Mediterranean Gulls (and that was very much a minimum count) along with 240 Sandwich Terns (including plenty of juveniles) and 30 Common Terns. Most of the waders had dispersed by slack water, apart for a couple of hundred laggard Oystercatchers that soon flew to roost as the holidaymakers arrived on the beach.

                                 Mediterranean Gulls, Greatstone beach

                                  Sandwich and Common Terns on the beach

                                  Oystercatchers flying to roost

With a southerly airflow and the smell of rain on the way we joined MC and TG at the fishing boats for an hour staring at the Channel this afternoon. A few Gannets and Kittiwakes drifted by, plus 20 Sandwich Terns, two Common Scoters, a Common Tern and several pulses of Sand Martins out. A Grey Seal gave us the once over but best of all was the brief emergence of a Thresher Shark leaping out of the sea.

Passerine flock

ARC - warm, dry, cloudy, light airs - Following overnight rain we elected for a change of scene this morning so walked down to the pines where a large mixed flock of warblers and tits was busily feeding around the canopy and lower down in the buckthorn bushes; infact, it was probably the best such flock I`ve encountered here for a while. The majority comprised Willow Warblers, Common and Lesser Whitethroats, Blue and Great Tits, plus several Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, a few Long-tailed Tits, two Great Spotted Woodpeckers, a Garden Warbler and a Spotted Flycatcher. There was about 50 birds in all and it was one of those occasions when you thought just about anything could pop its head up.

                                  Backless Screen hide

                                  ARC pit looking towards Hanson hide

                          One of several diseased Rabbits seen this morning

There was plenty of activity on the lake too which was full of waterfowl spread right across the still waters in the calm conditions, probably a couple of thousand strong, mostly eclipse ducks such as Pochard, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Shoveler and Gadwall, along with Mute Swans, Greylags, Great Crested and Little Grebes, Cormorants,  Black-headed Gulls and Common Terns, two Great White and Little Egrets, Grey Herons, Oystercatcher, a Garganey and a Black-necked Grebe; a veritable bio-mass of birds. The only down side was that with Hanson hide still closed the shallows in front could not be seen from the bund by the now backless Screen hide, although with high water levels everywhere in this wettest of summers, there didn`t appear to be any islands visible.  

Rye Waders

Rye Harbour NR - warm, dry and cloudy, light airs - Had to go to Rye this morning, so called in at the beach reserve early on where a superb suite of waders was on offer. Passage waders included 10 Common and two Wood Sandpipers, five Whimbrels, three Red Knots, 60 Dunlins and a flyover Spotted Redshank, plus the expected Curlews, Oystercatchers, Redshanks and Ringed Plovers. A Peregrine flying over Flat Beach caused mayhem amongst the breeding Common Terns with over 150 in the air screaming their heads off. A few Little and Sandwich Terns also noted, plus five Little Egrets, Grey Heron, Teal, Shelduck, a Wheatear and several flocks of Linnets and Goldfinches.

                                  Rye Harbour

                                 Barney on the beach

Following a report of a Caspian Tern seen briefly over Dengemarsh this afternoon I checked the bay and lakes just in case, but there was no sign. Wader numbers on the sands were similar to yesterday, although Sandwich Terns were up around 150 in number. The only other oddity today was a Jay flying in off the sea about noon time.

A Brace of Tigers!

Lade - warm, showery, W 2 - A weekend of sunshine and showers, some of them this morning on the hefty side, but mercifully delivering the wet stuff just as we`d returned home from our circular walk of the local patch. A single Common Sandpiper flying across south lake was the only passage wader noted, but with the highest summer water levels since I`ve lived here it looks like being a lean autumn for these birds. Thankfully the bay waders are unaffected with several small parties of Dunlins widely scattered amongst the Curlews, Oystercatchers, gulls and Sandwich Terns yesterday afternoon, plus an Avocet flying across the bay at high tide which was a first for me here. Also this morning a Great Spotted Woodpecker and three Willow Warblers by the ponds.

                                  Hedge Brown

                                  Common Blue

                                  Small Copper

However, moving onto Lepidoptera. Yesterday morning we had a mooch around the Trapping Area at Dungeness and as birds were largely absent spent some time searching for butterflies in the many sun-traps amongst the bushes and grass swards; and there was plenty on offer, nothing particularly unusual, just lots of good old trusty, bread-and-butter wayside species. Amongst the numerous Large and Small Skippers, Meadow and Hedge Browns were a number of smart second brood Small Heaths, Common Blues and Small Coppers, several Marbled Whites and a single Brown Argus, while higher up on the sallows and bramble flowers a few Red Admirals, Painted Ladies, Peacocks and a Small Tortoiseshell. Thinking back to the 80`s (in my twitching days) I spent several summers charging across Britain attempting to photograph (with an Olympus OM2n on Kodachrome 64 film) all our butterfly species (I never did catch up with that darned Mountain Ringlet!) and at the time it seemed so important. Funny how you mature and change in life; now I`d consider such a challenge frivolous and pointless and get far more enjoyment now out of rummaging around and find my own stuff, just as we did yesterday, even if Barney did disturb the Brown Argus just as I was about to capture it in the Box Brownie!

                                  Poplar Hawk-moth

                                 Garden and Jersey Tigers

                                  Sycamore - new for the trap site

The garden moth trap was also full of interest this morning with plenty of quality on offer including a splendid Sycamore, new for the Plovers trap site; even after 15 seasons the new `uns still keep trickling in. Also, a migrant Dark Sword-grass and 10 Silver Ys, a Poplar Hawk-moth and two each of Garden and Jersey Tigers.   

                                 Red Knot from 2015 on Burrowes

Finished the weekend counting the bay waders on the incoming tide this afternoon, with additions from Dave Scott who was counting towards Greatstone: Oystercatcher 410, Ringed Plover 2, Red Knot 6, Sanderling 15, Dunlin 110, Bar-tailed Godwit 2, Whimbrel 1, Curlew 335, Turnstone 1. Also noted: Sandwich Tern 85, Common Tern 5, 2 Little Tern, a Shelduck and five Grey Seals. There was no sign of any Med Gulls.