Another excellent Day at Dungeness!

06.00-10.30 + 14.15-15.55 from the fishing boats with AJG who collated the numbers DW,MH,SO,

Shelduck: 11W

Great-crested Grebe: 20+ around

Fulmar: 6W

Balearic Shearwater: 50W

Sooty Shearwater: 2W

Gannet: 468W

Grey Heron: 1 out

Oystercatcher: 1W

Ruff: 2 in

Turnstone: 4 around

Pomarine Skua: 2W

Arctic Skua: 19W 2 around

Kittiwake: 2W

Mediterranean Gull: 1 juv/1w

Black Tern: 19W

Sandwich Tern: 271W

Common Tern: 223W

Arctic Tern: 1 down

Swift: 3 out 

Grey Seal: 1
Harbour Porpoise: 4+

Arctic Skua

Balearic Shearwaters

Ruff a first for me on a sea watch at Dungeness

1w Mediterranean Gull

White-winged Black Tern with Black Terns

At the ARC the 5th White-winged Black Tern of the year dropped in with c25 Black Terns after a heavy rain shower. The Temminck's Stint was still present along with a Little Stint, a Wood Sandpiper, c 50 Golden Plover, 2 Red-crested Pochards, c15 Swifts, many Hirundines and a Spotted Flycatcher. Sadly the islands are greatly diminished due to the recent rain.

 White-winged Black Tern

Sptted flycatcher from Hanson

Sickle-bearing Bush Cricket found by David Walker in The Desert

Excellent Sea watch!

Black Tern

08.15-14.20 + 17.10-18.40 from the fishing boats and Point
Common Scoter: 3E
Great-crested Grebe: 7 around
Fulmar: 10W
Balearic Shearwater: 66W
Sooty Shearwater: 8W
Gannet: 394W
Turnstone: 1 on beach
Great Skua: 3W
Arctic Skua: 18W
Pomarine Skua: 5W
Kittiwake: 13W
Black Tern: 12W
Sandwich Tern: 597W
Common Tern: 431W
Arctic Tern: 5W
Grey Seal: 1
Harbour Porpoise: 3+

Some migrant moths from the Plodland MV 

 Convolvulous Hawkmoth

 Vestal

Bordered Straws

Well it's probably a Wader!

A thoroughly miserable day at Dungeness. I joined DW and AJG at The point for a sea watch: The numbers below were kindly collated by AJG from the time he started at 05.45-08.10

Common Scoter: 18E  1W

Fulmar: 3E

Gannet: 249E

Dunlin: 25E

Arctic Skua: 4 around

Sandwich Tern: 57E

Common Tern 22 down

Black Tern: 2 around

Arctic Tern: 1W

Yellow Wagtail: 302 coasting East

From a very wet Hanson 2 Wood Sandpipers, 3 Little Stints, 3 LRPs, 28 Golden Plover(no juveniles) a Greenshank, 2 Redshank, Ruff, 3 Black Terns and 100s of Sand Martins. In a break in the weather a walk saw  to the pines a few each of Willow Warblers, Lesser Whitethroats, Common Whitethroats, Reed Warblers and Sedge Warblers with large Tit flock. From the pines the 2 Red-crested Pochards could be seen also c20 Yellow Wagtails there.

In the light house garden a Pied Flycatcher was showing quite well and more Yellow Wagtails over.

Taken at 260x Digital when the rain cleared and the light improved.

A message from Dan to say he thought there was a Temminck's Stint on the Cormorant island persuaded me to go back there. On arrival through a curtain of rain a Little Stint, Common Sandpiper and what appeared to be Temminck's Stint could be seen on the Cormorant Island. I alerted the locals, a seed of doubt was sown in my mind when when Least Sandpiper was mentioned. The bird was certainly considerably smaller than the Little Stint adding to my doubts and causing confusion over it's identity. Still it wouldn't be a proper Autumn if I didn't mess up a Peep or 2, there is plenty more time left for more mistakes.

Black Tern bathing at the ARC

Pied Flycatchers!

First thing this morning lots of Yellow Wagtails in the fields in front of the garden with many more over, also many Hirundines and c30 Swifts.

At the ARC from Hanson this morning 4 Wood Sandpipers, 6 Ruff, a Little Stint, 60+ Golden Plover (no juveniles), 4 Common Snipe, 3 Little Ringed Plovers, 2 Redshank, c200 Lapwing all the usual wildfowl including the 2 Red-crested Pochards. 

A walk down Galloways with CP found 2+ Pied Flycatchers, a brief Redstart, 4+Whinchats, 4+ Stonechats, more Yellow Wagtails, Common Whitethroats, Meadow Pipits and a Marsh Harrier. 

 Pied Flycatcher, Galloways.

When the rained cleared I joined AJG who kindly collated the numbers at the fishing boats:

14.10-16.20:

Common Scoter: 5E

Fulmar: 2W

Balearic Shearwater: 1E

Gannet: 27W

Greenshank: 4W

Redshank: 5W(in flock with above)

Pomarine Skua: 1E

Arctic Skua:  c12around

Kittiwake: 2E

Sandwich Tern: 174W

Common Tern: 31W

Arctic Tern: 1W

Swift: 82 out

Sand Martin: 4 out
This evening a Pied Flycatcher still in the Light House garden, also c30 Yellow Wagtails around.
In the Desert in the company of DW,OL,AJG and DB the newly discovered Tree Cricket colony gave part of the Desert a Mediterranean feel as the Crickets were singing all around us.
Last nights moth catch was poor by recent days but still had a Small Mottled Willow and 62 Setaceous Hebrew Characters.

Busy MV

A fairly quiet day on the peninsular avian wise. Very few migrants around the trapping area this morning per AJG. A sea watch this afternoon left the notebook empty. Fortunately there were at least a dozen Harbour Porpoises and Grey Seal to entertain us. (at least there were 2 Balearic Shearwaters yesterday).

An afternoon visit to the ARC thanks to a tip off from SO, saw 2 elusive Pied Flycatchers near the Screen Hide and Spotted Flycatcher at the pines. Hanson Hide was packed and with the temperature in the high twenties I gave it a miss. Yesterday from Hanson among all the usual birds that have been around for a while I counted 68 Golden Plovers, which is not unusual, what was remarkable was that there was only 1 juvenile among them, which does not bode well.

This evening from Springfield Bridge 2 Great White Egrets, a Bittern, 3 Marsh Harriers, 6 Swifts and c40 Yellow Wagtails of note.

At Galloways this evening 2 Pied Flycatchers on the bend, also 3 Whinchats, 2 Wheatears and several each of Willow Warbler and Common Whitethroat.

 Grey Seal

 Pied Flycatcher

 Ni Moth

A very busy MV this morning with 344 macros of 54 species including Ni Moth and Gem both new for me, another 5 Small Mottled Willows, a Bordered Straw,double figures of Noctuella and a whopping 111 Setaceous Hebrew Character. 

Gem

All at Sea!

With the paucity of passerine migrants on the peninsular, thank god we have the sea to watch. This morning I joined AJG(who collated the numbers) for a very entertaining watch, we were later joined by MH,DW and BC

07.30-10.10 from the fishing boats:

Common Scoter: 22E   61W

Fulmar: 3W

Balearic Shearwater: 1W

Gannet: 83W

Oystercatcher: 4W

Ringed Plover: 2W

Grey Plover: 17W

Knot: 111W

Turnstone: 3 on beach

Dunlin: 15W

Bar-tailed Godwit: 110W

Whimbrel: 2W

Arctic Skua: 2W (both light phase)

Little Gull: 5W

Kittiwake: 8W

Little Tern: 7W

Sandwich Tern: 108W

Common Tern: 204W

Arctic Tern: 11W

Black Tern: 44W

Sand Martin: 31 out 

Swallow: 2 out

Common Seal: 1

Harbour Porpoise: 3+

No migrants around the observatory but I did see the superb Bedstraw Hawkmoth that DW found in the observatory MV last night.

 Juvenile Arctic Tern

Another sea watch this afternoon 13.55-16.30 with BM,AJG and MH was not as good as this morning, but the good light did allow me to take a few snaps:

Common Scoter: 9E

Fulmar: 3E

Balearic Shearwater: 1E

Gannet: 21W

Cormorant: 12 around

Grey Heron: 1 out

Oystercatcher: 1E  2W

Kittiwake: 2W

Sandwich Tern: 58W

Little Tern: 2W

Common Tern:  86W

Arctic Tern: 2W

Sand Martin: 77 out + c150 over beach as we were leaving

Grey Seal: 1

Harbour Porpoise: 6+

 Juvenile Common Tern

 Juvenile Sandwich Tern

 Balearic Shearwater honest!!!!

 Red Underwing by the entrance to Hanson 

At the ARC from Hanson there was very little change from yesterday, 5 Wood Sandpipers, Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Ruff, 3 LRPs, 20 Golden Plover and the usual 150+ lapwings.

Jersey Tiger and a late Elephant Hawkmoth in the Plodland MV last night 

Quiet Day!

A very quiet day around the peninsular today. Early morning at the ARC 5 Wood Sandpipers, a Ruff, 2 Common Snipe, 3 Little Ringed Plovers and 15 Golden Plovers among the c150 Lapwing, so basically the same birds as the as the last few days also many Sand Martins and Swallows.  The trapping area was virtually bird less, DW only caught 2 birds in 4 hrs.

At Scotney, the 2 Spoonbills still, 3 Egyptian Geese among the hordes of other feral geese, a flock of c60 Yellow wagtails north of the farm, 6+ Common Sandpipers around the complex and large numbers of Sand Martins.

 Dunlin and Sanderling roosting by the fishing boats

This afternoons sea watch from the boats was also slow, a single Balearic Shearwater the highlight, though it was nice to see the roosting Dunlin and Sanderling until they were flushed by a Herring Gull.

13.45-16.00 joined by AJG:

Common Scoter: 2W
Balearic Shearwater: 1W
Gannet: 1E    3W
Cormorant: 9 around
Oystercatcher: 2W
Dunlin: c20 on beach
Sanderling: c25 on beach
Sandwich Tern: 53W
Commic Tern: 45W
Sand Martin: 124 out
Swallow: 2 out

Harbour Porpoise: 8+

 Dunlin and Sanderling

 Herring Gull with Whiting

 Great Black Backed Gull with a large Whiting

 Late afternoon back at the ARC Wood Sandpiper numbers had risen to 7 and a Garganey appeared.

Scarce Chocholate Tip(3rd this year) 

The MV was much quieter than of late with only half the number of macro's as yesterday. Though my 3rd Scarce Chocholate Tip was a surprise.

A Gloomy Damp Day!

This morning from Hanson in the rain 5 Wood Sandpipers, 3 Green Sandpipers, a Common Sandpiper, 15 Golden Plover, 2 Common Snipe, c150 Lapwing and c1,000 Sand Martins were the highlights.

 Juvenile Arctic Tern at the fishing boats this P.M.

14.40-16.40 from the fishing boats:

Common Scoter: 10E   4W
Great-crested Grebe: 3 around
Gannet: 87W
Ringed Plover: 1W
Dunlin: 2W
Sandwich Tern: 148W
Commic: Tern: 44W
Arctic Tern: 2W
Grey Seal: 1
Harbour Porpoise: 3+

 Another very good night for the Plodland MV 228 macros of 54 sp + 24 micro sp

 2 Jersey Tigers, Bordered Straw, 4 Small Mottled Willows, 2 Pine Hawkmoths, Noctuella and more.

Maidens Blush the first for the Plodland MV

White-winged Black Tern! (4th this year at Dungeness)

First thing this morning I assisted Barry Banson with the RSPB MV at Boulderwall Farm, a very good 60 species were identified mainly by Barry, but I am learning from him. 

I then went to Hanson where 2 Wood Sandpipers and 4 Dunlin could be seen among several 100s of Lapwing. Overhead 100s of Sand Martins and Swallows with a single Swift were feeding very high.

A walk up to the pines saw c20 Willow Warblers, 6 Common Whitethroats, 4 Lesser Whitethroats, 8 Reed Warblers, 3 Sedge Warblers and 2 Cetti's Warblers.

At the north end of the trapping area 4 more Willow Warblers, 2 Common Whitethroats and a Cetti's Warbler.

 Poor heavily cropped images of this afternoons juvenile White-winged Black Tern

A relatively slow sea watch this afternoon was enlivened by a brief appearance of juvenile White-winged Black Tern and a Pomarine Skua.

13.50-16.00 from the fishing boats:
Common Scoter: 5E
Great-crested Grebe: 3 around
Gannet: 5W
Cormorant: 7 around
Dunlin: 4W
Pomarine Skua: 1E
Kittiwake: 2W
Little Gull: 1 juvenile around
Little Tern: 2 around
Sandwich Tern:  35W
Commic Tern: 30W
Arctic Tern: 1W juvenile
Black Tern: 1W
White-winged Black Tern: 1E  Rubbish pics.
Auk sp: 1W

Common Whitethroat ARC

Lesser Whitethroats ARC

Scarce Chocholate Tip in the Plodland MV this morning 

In the Plodland MV a good 185 macros of 50 species + 17 species of micro and still counting.

With the Scarce Chocholate Tip was 3 Small Mottled Willows, 2 Pine Hawkmoths, 9 Rush Veneer, 3 ferrugalis and  6 xylostella. 

Tigers in the trap!

A net round with DW this morning found a Reed Warbler, a Wren, 2 Willow Warblers and the superb Lesser Whitethroat below.

 A superb juvenile Lesser Whitethroat at the D.B.O.

Next a walk with AJG  around the Lighthouse, Station, West beach and Lloyds saw of note 5 Willow Warblers, (2 more in the Heligoland) 2 Common Whitethroats, a Lesser Whitethroat, a brief male Common Redstart and a Peregrine. 

On the ARC from Hanson 2 Wood Sandpipers, 2 Knot, 2 LRPs, c200 Lapwing, a Sparrowhawk, 2 Marsh Harriers and a Black-necked Grebe. Also many high flying Hirundines mainly Sand Martins and Swallows but 2 Swifts were seen.

 1 of c20 Yellow Wagtails opposite the watch towers in Galloways 

Driving down Galloways Road, c 20 Yellow Wagtails, 6 Pied Wagtails and c15 Linnets around the puddles. On the corner by the barrier a Common Buzzard could be seen being harassed by a Raven., also a Whinchat and Wheatear on the fence.

At Dengemarsh 2 Great White Egrets, a Cuckoo, a Hobby, another Whinchat and Wheatear, also 3 Willow Warblers in the road side hedge and many more Hirundines.

In the gully a spotted flycatcher, more Willow Warblers another each of Wheatear and Whinchat.   

 A sleepy juvenile Willow Warbler in Dengemarsh Gully, a bit like the photographer who also fell asleep there in the car, to be awoken by the appearance of Mr Brown. 

An hour at the fishing boats this afternoon produced 3 Black Terns,, 2 Little Gulls,a few Sandwich and Common Terns and  2 juvenile Little Gulls all feeding along the colour change.

 The Scotney Spoonbills viewed from the Camber road this afternoon

A quick look at Scotney where the Spoonbills seem to have a new roosting place on the causeway of the eastern lake, where they can easily be seen among the many 100s of feral Greylag, Canada, Barnacle and other Heinz 57 geese as you drive by if you feel so inclined.

These 5 Jersey Tigers were the highlights in the Plodland MV this morning