A passage of Whimbrels

Saturday - Lade - warm, dry, sunny, sw 4 - A blustery day made for difficult birding on the local patch with few passerines noted. A party of Swifts moved north during the morning and two migrant Wheatears were on the Desert. An evening visit to the beach in glorious sunshine delivered a party of 16 small, dark Ringed Plovers of the tundra race, plus 10 Knots, 30 Curlews, 15 Barwits and two Shelducks.
 The garden MV lamp attracted a record 10 species of moths to light last night, the best so far this spring. Silver Ys were most numerous followed by Tawny Shears and Light Feathered Rustics; Common Swift and the Shears being new for the year.
  Whilst wandering around the garden just before midnight, looking for `our` Hedgehog, I heard the distinctive call of the Seven-note Whistler amongst the clamouring of Oystercatchers flying to roost on a flood tide. Looking up into a crystal clear sky to the north I could just about make out a flock of some 30 Whimbrels passing high over the peninsula on migration. A magical sight and sound on which to finish the day.

Sunday - Lade - Once the early morning drizzle cleared it turn it a fine spring day, albeit blustery again. However, around the garden our first Painted Lady of the year paid a visit while Holly Blue, Peacock and Red Admiral were all noted.

RSPB - A late morning visit to the bird reserve with our grandson delivered good views of a Hobby on ARC and new for his life list. Burrowes was quieter than of late with a pair of Avocets in front of Firth hide and, briefly, the long staying Iceland Gull on a distant island. Elsewhere, there was plenty of Common Tern activity around the lake, although for the most part the Common and Herring Gulls seem to have taken the prime nesting sites. On the way back out a Wheatear flew over the track by the bee-hives and a male Marsh Harrier quartered the fields at Boulderwall.

Woodchat Shrike

Lade - muggy, sunny, S 2 - 0700hrs - With some welcome overnight rain (about 6mm) for once it was wet underfoot for a circuit of the local patch where the highlight were two Spotted Flycatchers around the willow swamp (scarce here in spring) and a Ring Ouzel in Mockmill. A few Swifts and House Martins drifted over while both Hobby and Sparrowhawk were noted and the first Cootlets of the spring were on the water.
  An afternoon visit for butterflies delivered our first Brown Argus and Common Blues of the year along the old railway line footpath, while a number of Silver Y moths were disturbed from long grass. In the garden several Holly Blues were active in the sun traps.

                                Common Blue, Lade

Dungeness - A visit to the Patch this morning was unremarkable apart from an immature Lesser Black-backed Gull that exhibited the hallmarks of the Baltic race. An hour from the seawatch hide this afternoon was also quiet, apart from a superb Pomarine Skua sporting a magnificent set of cutlery that came in high over Rye bay before eventually descending to sea level the other side of the Cardinal buoy. Also noted a trickle of Gannets, Kittiwakes, Common and Sandwich Terns, auks and a Little Tern. The local beach Fox paid a visit just as we were leaving, although it was a touch wary of Barney, so wandered off down the path towards B station before crossing onto the foreshore.

                                Beach Fox

                                Woodchat Shrike, Dungeness

A late afternoon phone call from DB told of a Woodchat Shrike on the beach opposite South View cottage, necessitating a sharpish return to the point - and what a cracker it was, perched on an old gorse stump and sallying forth to feed. This was a new bird for me at Dungeness; if only I was keeping a year list... Unfortunately I didn`t have much time as guests were due in this evening, so only managed some poor record shots, although I`m sure there`ll be plenty of decent pics from the long lens on site. And yet another great find by local birder Dave Bunney.

Curlew Sandpiper

Dungeness RSPB - muggy, hazy sunshine,  e 2 - 1200hrs -  News came through regarding a Curlew Sandpiper on Burrowes this morning, which was no great surprise considering that the habitat is superb for passage waders at the moment with plenty of low islands and good feeding for a tired and hungry migrant. When I arrived on site the bird was camped on a distant island, but it soon flew towards us and landed on a shingle spit just in front of the Visitor Centre affording cracking views for over half an hour. It was an adult individual coming into breeding plumage, sporting streaky flecks of red feathers down the flanks, a pale eyebrow, grey/brown blotched upperparts, a white rump in flight and a long de-curved bill.

                                Adult Curlew Sandpiper, Burrowes

  Curlew Sandpipers are mainly an early autumn migrant down here, associating with the likes of  Dunlins and Little Stints. Numbers vary annually and last year was a poor autumn for this species; a spring bird is much rarer making this little beauty most welcome. Curlew Sands are long distant voyagers (mmm, just had a Moody Blues moment...) wintering along the western seaboard of Africa and moving north-east to breed. They nest on the high Arctic tundra of coastal, central Siberia, so our bird still had a bit to go after briefly refuelling at Dungeness.
  There was also a host of other passage waders scattered around the lake, plus loads of Black-headed Gulls and Common Terns looking to nest, and a couple of Arctic Terns over the lake.
 

Waders and warblers

Lade  - 0700hrs - cool, sunny,  E 3 - A bright sunny day and a text from CE telling of a singing Grasshopper Warbler in Mockmill was a good start, where also a Whinchat noted. A steady stream of Swallows headed low over the Desert with Swifts higher up.

                               Avocet and Whimbrel from Firth hide

Dungeness RSPB - 1000hrs - A circular walk around the reserve for 13 visitors delivered a wide range of birds from waders on Burrowes, raptors over Dengemarsh and warblers in between. Burrowes looks superb at the moment with large numbers of Common Terns and Black-headed Gulls appearing as though they may well nest on the myriad of shingle islands. A Little Gull was also in the mix. Waders here included a pair of Avocets, 10 Grey Plovers, several Whimbrels, Ringed Plovers, Turnstones, Dunlins, a Ruff, two Little Ringed Plovers and a Common Sandpiper. Three Hobbies hawked low over the lake by the Cormorant colony with five others over Dengemarsh, plus three Marsh Harriers, a Peregrine and a Common Buzzard elsewhere that got the full treatment from the gulls. We also had good views of Sedge and Cetti`s Warblers, Common Whitethroats, Reed Buntings, Linnets and a steady northwards passage of Swifts.
  During the three hour walk we noted 68 species of birds.

Breeding birds

Lade - cool, sunny, e 3 - These past couple of mornings have been mainly spent ranging across the local patch surveying the breeding birds. The warbler tribe are now well ensconced on territories with seven species present in their usual numbers, apart from Sedge Warblers which have increased by five pairs from last year and Lesser Whitethroat now on two pairs. At least two males and one female Cuckoos were active around the willow swamp and reedbeds, where their host species, Reed Warblers, are busily constructing nests and egg laying.

                                A good spring for Sedge Warblers

  As for wetland birds it looks as though the last of Shoveler, Teal and Pochard have deserted the lakes, although both Great Crested and Little Grebes are both nesting in good numbers. Other species in single pairs breeding around the site include, Oystercatcher, Shelduck, Green Woodpecker, Song Thrush and Stonechat.
  A visit to Dungeness this morning yielded very little apart from the usual gulls and Common Terns at the Patch, two singing Black Redstarts in the power station complex, plus two Hobbies and 10 House Martins inbound.

Poms and Swallows

Saturday - cool, sunny, ENE 5 - Due to the strong wind land birds were hard to come by on the local patch at Lade this morning, although the Cuckoos were active around the willow swamp. Spent most of the day gardening and planting out at the allotment in Lydd, but on the way home this afternoon we called in at the fishing boats for an hour staring at the sea.

                                Nest building Woodpigeon, Plovers

  Several locals were already well ensconced in comfy chairs, staring across a misty, bird-less sea and regaling one another with jokes and anecdotes from seawatches past. It was apparent that nothing much was happening - but then after 15 minutes, at 1530hrs, a flock of 11 Pomarine Skuas hove into view out of the murk, followed by 20 Grey Plovers, and powered up-Channel!
  For the rest of the watch, there was nothing, such is the unpredictable nature of Pomarine Skua  occurrences at Dungeness.

Sunday - cool, cloudy, NNW 2 - Dungeness - 0630-0830hrs - A much calmer day and as a consequence a few land birds were noted on the walk down to the Patch including several Wheatears, Willow Warblers and a singing Black Redstart. We joined a couple of Ashford birders in front of the Patch hide where up to 20 gorgeous Black Terns were feeding along the scum line and over the boil along with 100 Common Terns and a melee of gulls, while the second year Iceland Gull gleamed like a beacon amongst a motley collection of gulls on the beach.
 An hour staring out to sea revealed seven Pomarine Skuas, an Arctic Skua, two Eiders, 15 Common Scoters, 20 auks, 30 Gannets and 12 Whimbrels moving up-Channel, plus three Porpoises and a Grey Seal. A decent return for so short a time period.

                               Roosting Barwits, Lade bay

Lade - 1100hrs  - A circuit of the local patch delivered a couple of hundred hirundines over south lake, mostly Swallows, but none with red-rumps. Common Sandpiper, Greenshank, Cuckoo and Hobby noted, while the wader count on a falling tide on the sands comprised 180 Oystercatchers, 75 Barwits and 15 Curlews.

                                Mostly Swallows, Lade

  We returned to the local patch this afternoon to give the Swallows a further grilling. Infact, within the flock of 210 birds there were only five each of Sand and House Martins, plus 10 Swifts high over the water. Their routine was to feed over the lake for a while and then settle on power cables and wire fence lines on the shingle ridges, twittering away merrily and preening, a fabulous sight and sound. I ended up watching them for over an hour before, as one unit, they departed northwards to goodness knows where.
  Bon voyage, you little beauties!

131 species!

Dungeness - cold, cloudy, e 5 - 0845hrs - Another unseasonably cold morning with a blasting wind coming in off the sea. With news of some early Poms we spent a couple of hours in the seawatch hide but it was pretty quiet apart from a steady passage of small groups of Grey Plover, Sanderling, Barwit, Knot, Whimbrel and Dunlin, all of which passed inside the Cardinal buoy. The obligatory Gannets, Common and Sandwich Terns, plus a distant skua and diver was about it.
  On Burrowes more of the same with a scattering of Turnstones, Ringed Plovers, Dunlins, Grey Plovers and Barwits on the islands, plus Hobby, a pair of Wigeon and Pintail and two Ravens.
  We finished the five day Birdwatching Break for Tony, Jill and John on 131 species. The highlights were the passage seabirds and waders, the farmland birds at Scotney and songsters in the woods, two decent rarities in the form of Surf Scoter and Common Crane, plus Slavonian Grebe and Iceland Gull.
  A memorable weeks birding in excellent company.