Elusive Migrants

On the ARC Pit and New Diggings this morning Hundreds of Swallows, House Martins, Swifts and a few Sand Martins. At the south end 2 Little Ringed Plovers, a Wheatear, 4+ Yellow Wagtails and at least 1 Channel Wagtail. An hour and half in the sea watch hide produced very little of note apart from a Black Tern on The Patch. After hearing that a Nightingale had been seen in the lighthouse garden I made my way there. Shortly after arriving at the garden I heard the Nightingale and got a very brief view of it. While trying to get a better view a male Pied Flycatcher briefly appeared and then disappeared as soon as I called DW and DB. While waiting for it to reappear, a bird flew out of the hedge at the back of the garden straight towards us over our heads out into a patch of Gorse. A Wryneck! Which disappeared completely. In the same patch the "Rubicola" Stonechat and mate were flit6ting around. In the lighthouse garden the Pied Flycatcher showed several more times briefly right at the back. Also seen 2 Willow Warblers, a Blackcap, a Common Whitethroat, a Lesser Whitethroat and male Common Redstart flew out to the Gorse. 

 4 Pomarine Skuas which I missed looking for the Pied gave TG the incentive to sea watch from the fishing boats. Shortly after arriving at the boats he called to say to more Poms had just gone past. A few minutes later I joined him 15.25-16.55:
Black-throated Diver: 1E
Fulmar: 22W
Gannet: 80W
Common Scoter: 7W
Avocet: 4E
Bar-tailed Godwit: 174E
Whimbrel: 1E
Great Skua: 1E
Pomarine Skua: 3E  2 of which I missed!
Arctic Skua: 14E
Little Gull: 1E
Common Tern: 226E
Kittiwake: 114E
Swallow: 5 in off

Cute Killer

Trawling through thousands of pictures today, came across this one I missed first time round taken in Antarctica last year. Got to be the cutest Killer!

Channel Wagtails of Blue Headed Wagtails

With the rain battering the bedroom window when the alarm went this morning, I could not raise my spirits high enough to get up. When I did rise the rain got heavier with strong NE winds  I was going nowhere today. Besides Mondays forecast looks good with a return to southerlies.
Sorting through yesterdays pictures I came across the 2 below. Pit about the quality the heat haze was terrible yesterday honest.

 Record of Channel or Blue Headed Wagtails 3of at least 5 present

Record of Channel or Blue Headed Wagtails 3 of at least 5 present yesterday. The left hand bird was displaying.

Nightingale Survey and Dungeness

05.00 at the Military Canal at Warehorne plodding around the tetrad looking for Nightingales. Two hours  and no Nightingales, but seems to be more Blackcaps, Whitethroats and Lesser Whitethroats.
Joined TG in a full sea watch hide at 07.30. These are the totals recorded by TG from 05.30-09.30 and from the fishing boats 14.15-16.45:
Red-throated diver: 5E
Black-throated Diver: 2E
Fulmar: 5W
Gannet: 207W
Brent Geese: 14E
Common Scoter: 139E
Whimbrel: 12E
Bar-tailed Godwit: 12E
Turnstone: 7 on beach
Little Gull: 1 off shore
Kittiwake: 14W
Common Tern: 593E
Sandwich Tern: 61E
Great Skua: 32E
Arctic Skua: 29E
House Martin: 2 in off
Swallow: 12 in off
At the south end of the ARC Pit 5 Channel Wagtails, 6 Yellow Wagtails, 1 White Wagtail, 2 Little Ringed Plovers and 3 Swifts over.

 At Scotney 3 Little Gulls,6 Whimbrel, 8 Dunlin, 1 Redstart, 2 Willow Warblers, 1 Cuckoo and 2 Marsh Harriers. At Boulderwall Farm 10+ Tree Sparrows, 9 Swifts overhead, 4 Whimbrel beside the entrance track and 4+ Marsh Harriers.

Another Great Days Sea Watching

Another great days sea watching. Not as busy as yesterday but certainly alot more comfortable.
06.00-11.45 from the sea watch hide and 14.00-17.00 from The Point:
Red-throated Diver: 10E
Black-throated diver: 16E
Fulmar: 27W
Manx Shearwater: 2W
Gannet: N/C some off shore
Brent Goose: 62E
Pochard: 4E
Goldeneye: 2E
Common Scoter: 675E
Red-breasted Merganser: 3E
Merlin: 1 in off
Whimbrel: 21E
Bar-tailed Godwit: 45E
Dunlin: 2E
Sanderling: 5E
Oystercatcher: 6E
Great Skua: 66E
Arctic Skua: 44E
Kittiwake: 16 W
Mediterranean Gull: 4+ off shore
Yellow-legged Gull: 1 off shore
Little Tern: 6 off shore
Commic Tern: 148E + c250 on The Patch
Sandwich Tern: 95E
Tawny Pipit: 1 in at The Point and flew west (TG,MC)
This evening 2 Blue-headed Wagtails at south end of the ARC Pit per TG 

Superb Dungeness Sea watch

A superb pink blushed Little Gull

Black Tern

06.00-16.00 from a very soggy sea watch hide:
Red-throated Diver: 3E
Black-throated Diver: 25E
Fulmar: 153E    Blue Fulmar: 2E
Manx Shearwater: 3E
Gannet: 1493E  416W
Common Scoter: 272E
Velvet Scoter: 2E
Bar-tailed Godwit: 34E
Whimbrel: 4E
Grey Plover: 2E
Black Tern: 9E
Little Tern: 19E
Common Tern: 1702E
Arctic Tern: 37E
Sandwich Tern: 843E
Great Skua: 123E
Arctic Skua: 41E
Pomarine Skua: 1E
Kittiwake: 20W
Little Gull: 82E
Yellow-legged Gull: 2 off shore
Auk sp.: 35W
Swallow: 1 in off
An excellent days sea watching in great company.

Swifts

A couple of hours sea watch 08.00-10.00 was rather slow this morning with:

Diver sp.: 1E

Gannets: N/C but small numbers mainly moving west

Common Scoter: 26E

Merlin: 2 in off

W£himbrel: 4E

Arctic Skua: 2E

Little Tern: 1E

Arctic Tern: 1E

Common Terns: c170 off shore

Mediterranean Gull: 1W

Swift: 5 in off

Black Redstart: 1 Singing behind the hide.



 On the reserve 6 Whimbrel by the entrance track. On Burrowes of note 9 Swifts, 20+ Swallows, 10+ House Martins and 2 Wigeon. A northern Wheatear at Christmas Dell. On Dengemarsh 2 Garganey, 1 Ruff, 1 Black-tailed Godwit and the Bittern could be heard booming.

 Another hours sea watch this afternoon produced 4 Arctic Skuas in one flock, and a few Kittiwake, Gannets, Common and Sandwich Terns.

At the south end of the ARC Pit this afternoon 2 Ringed Plovers, 2 Little Ringed Plovers, 2 Oystercatchers, 14 Yellow Wagtails, 5 White Wagtails and a Little Egret.

A Soggy Dungeness Seawatch

From the seawatch hide 07.00- 15.00:
Black-throated Diver: 6E
Diver sp: 3E
Fulmar: 3E 16W
Manx Shearwater: 7E  9W
Gannet: 224E  248W
Brent Geese: 20E
Common Scoter: 342E
Shelduck: 6E
Oystercatcher: 2E
Knot: 1E
Bar-tailed Godwit: 243E
Whimbrel: 10E
Arctic Skua: 30E
Great Skua: 58E
Kittiwake: 24W
Little Gull: 22E 1 flock
Black Tern: 4E
Sandwich Tern: 122E
Common Tern: 1194E
Guillemot: 1 on sea
Razorbill: 1 on sea
Auk sp.: 129W
Swallow 1 in off
Harbour Porpoise: 3+ off shore

Another Plod

I arrived at the Military Canal at Warehorne at 05.00 for a dawn start of this tetrad which drew a blank for Nightingales yesterday. By 08.00 I had plodded around all the suitable habitat and still no Nightingales. I did find my first Lesser Whitethroat of the year, but for some reason the dawn chorus was very quiet and short lived. I feel sure I will find Nightingales there some time next week.
A sea watch from the hide 10.00-11.15 was very poor:
Gannet: 17E  6W
Common Scoter: 48E
Bonxie: 2E
Swallow: 1 in off
Linnet: 4 in off
Harbour Porpoise: 2 off shore.

At the ARC Pit a drake Garganey at the south end with a pair of Teal.
In the car park several Tree Sparrows, a Common Whitethroat and a Sedge Warbler. From Hanson the Long-tailed Duck, 1 Little Ringed Plover, a singing Reed Warbler, 2 Marsh Harriers and a Sparrowhawk.
In the Willow Trail a Chiffchaff, 2 Cetti's Warblers and 4 Speckled Wood butterfly's.
By the track to the reserve 6 Whimbrel and 2 Marsh Harriers. The car park at the centre was packed, so I drove round to Dengemarsh Road and walked the path round the flooded fields, where little was seen but to more Garganey on Dengemarsh.
Driving back across Walland 2 Marsh Harriers, 2 Common Buzzards, several Tree Sparrows, 4 Corn Buntings and 3 Yellowhammers by the rubbish pile.

Nightingales

I arrived at Orlestone Forest at 04.15 in the dark this morning to do the first offical visit for the Nightingale survey. As I opened the car door Nightingales could be heard along with a couple of Tawny Owls. I made my way to the furthest end of my tetrads slipping and tripping in the mud and streams that were the clean dry footpaths a week ago. As dawn broke the forest came alive with bird song Mistle and Song Thrushes, Blackbirds, Robins, Wrens, Blackcaps, Nuthatches, Green Woodpeckers, a Cuckoo called from the top of conifer in the growing light and most importantly Nightingales. I arrived back at the car at 07.15 after covering the first tetrad having located 18 singing Nightingales. The second tetrads habitat is not nearly as good for Nightingales but I was still very disappointed not to find any Nightingales. I will have to go back for another go round it at dawn another day.
At Dungeness a seawatch from the hide 09.30-12.00 was not very productive:
Red-throated Diver: 1E
Black-throated Diver: 1E
Manx Shearwatewr: 1W
Fulmar: 1W
Gannet: 22E  7W
Brent Geese: 5E
Common Scoter: 182E
Guillemot: 1 off shore
Mediterranean Gull 1st W: 1W
Bonxie: 1E
Arctic Skua: 3E
Common Tern: 200-300 off shore
The only other birds of note were 8 Whimbrel by the reserve entrance track.