Bits and Pieces

This morning a Manx Shearwater west past The Patch was of note. News of pallet with 1,000s of Goose Barnacles attached being washed up near the fishing boats was definitely worth seeing. The pallet must have come from warmer climes and been adrift for good while for so many of these beautiful filter feeding crustaceans to be attached.

Goose Barnacles

 Around the ARC Pit not much change from yesterday. With 2 Garganey, 6+ Common Sandpipers, 6+ Little Ringed Plovers, 2 Black-tailed Godwits, 1 Redshank, 1 Common snipe, c50 Lapwing and 3 Willow warblers.

Harbour Porpoise

 This afternoon a couple of hours from the fishing boats in the glorious Dungeness sunshine, c40 Common Terns feeding off shore, a few Sandwich Terns, 2+ juvenile Arctic Terns and a real south coast rarity nowadays a juv Little Tern, also 6+ Harbour Porpoises and a Grey Seal

Record of juvenile Little Tern

Arctic Terns

At The Patch this morning 2+ juvenile Arctic Terns with c40 Common Terns and a single juvenile Mediterranean Gull were of note.(DW had a Balearic Shearwater through before I arrived)

Juvenile Arctic Tern

At the ARC Pit 12 wader species, 3 Avocets, 3 Black-tailed Godwits, 5 Little Ringed Plovers, 2 Ringed Plovers, 2 Dunlin, 6 Common Sandpipers, a Juvenile Redshank, 2 Turnstone, 8 Golden Plover, 4 Oystercatchers, 2 Common Snipe and c50Lapwing. Also 2 Garganey, 17 Common Terns, 2 Sandwich Terns, 2 Marsh Harriers, 3 Little Egrets and 2 Reed Warblers still singing .
A plod around the reserve this afternoon was made worthwhile by 2 families of Bearded Tits, 2 more Marsh Harriers, still at least 6 Common Tern chicks on the rafts and 4 Little Egrets .

Gloomy

An hour at The Point this morning in gloomy conditions was rather slow, with a highlight of a single Balearic Shearwater W, 1 adult Little Gull W, 31 Common Scoter 2W 29E. Off shore Common and Sandwich Terns were feeding along with 100+ Gannets and 3+ Harbour Porpoises, also 6  Sand Martins and 5 Swifts flew south.
Around the ARC Pit 2 Garganey, 4 Common Sandpipers, 1 Green Sandpiper, 4 Dunlin, 2 Black-tailed Godwits, a Peregrine c100 Swifts, c150 Sand Martins, c50 House Martins.
Another sea watch from the fishing boats this afternoon produced 2 Manx Shearwaters W, 34 Common Scoter E, at least 1 juvenile Arctic Tern W, with more Gannets Common and sandwich Terns.
The Harwich Lifeboat The Albert Brown was an impressive sight powering by off shore from The Point this afternoon.

Harwich Lifeboat Albert Brown

On The Beach

There were 3 Wheatears on the approach road at Jarmans. A stroll down to The Patch this morning and round The Point with DB was uneventful, apart from 3+ Harbour Porpoises there was nothing of note on the sea and only a single Willow Warbler at Lloyds.
I spent most of the day on the beach around the fishing boats where  there were at least 6 Harbour Porpoises off shore, also a single Arctic Skua flew west  along with c100 Common Terns including 30+ juveniles, some of which were feeding close in shore allowing me to while away the day trying to photograph them.

 Late afternoon at the ARC Pit. As I got out the car a Hobby flashed over chasing one of the 100s of Sand Martins that were all over the pit. From an empty Hanson Hide 6+ Common Sandpipers, 3 Little Ringed Plovers, 6 Dunlin, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Snipe, 4 Garganey among all the other eclipse ducks and 1 of the ever present Marsh Harriers.

Balearic Shearwater

A drive around Walland this morning found good numbers of Tree sparrows in the usual spots, 2 Marsh Harriers but little else in the strong wind.
At the ARC from Hanson hide 5 Garganey, 4+ Common Sandpipers, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Little Ringed Plovers, 2 Dunlin, 1 Golden Plover and many Sand Martins. At the Tower little of note and at the south end 4 Little Egrets and 2 Common Sandpipers.
An hour and half from the fishing boats produced relatively close views of Balearic Shearwater which was plunge diving off shore, some thing I have not seen before. Also a single Arctic Skua flew west, 3 Common Scoter east, 127 Swifts south and a few Common and Sandwich Terns and Gannets off shore.

Balearic Shearwater

Balearic Shearwater plunge diving

Wood Warbler

A late start this morning after watching the fantastic Olympic opening ceremony last night.
As I got out of the car I could hear a Willow Warbler calling and saw 3 more on the track to an empty Hanson Hide, also 3 Reed Warblers still singing by the track. From the hide 4+ Common Sandpipers, 2 Little-ringed Plovers, 2 Garganey, 1 Black-tailed Godwit. Mick, Richard and Kevin arrived and we put the world to rights. I decided to wander round to the Screen Hide and then up to the Tower. On the way there were a couple more Willow Warblers in the sallows also 2 Green and a Great Spotted Woodpecker. Up at the pines Lesser Whitethroat, Common Whitethroat, Blackcap another Willow Warbler and a superb Wood Warbler.

Wood Warbler

 The Lighthouse Garden held at least another 3 Willow Warblers and at The Patch little of note.

Willow Warbler



 Late this afternoon back at Hanson 4 Garganey, 4 Black-tailed Godwits, 5+ Common Sandpipers, 5+ Little Ringed Plovers, 2 Dunlin and Marsh Harrier. But no sign of the reported Kentish Plover.

Garganey

A Fishermans Victim

Condemned to a lingering death

 A half hour sea watch in the rain at The Point this morning was virtually bird less. With rain stopping I wandered down to The Patch, where by the old hide stood a second year Herring Gull with fishing line hanging from its bill. It had obviously swallowed the hook and attached to the line was
at least 1 more hook. Just another victim of some of our caring fisherman who discard there equipment and pollute the beaches with discarded beer cans, supermarket bags and even faeces.
Also seen at there a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull and a Grey Seal.  

Grey Seal

 At the ARC from Hanson 3 Green Sandpipers, 4 Common Sandpipers, 3 Black-tailed Godwits, 3 Little-ringed Plovers, 4 Dunlin, 5 Common Terns, 4 Little Egret and 3 Garganey among all the other eclipse duck.
On the reserve 2 Common Sandpipers on Burrowes, from Dengemarsh Hide at least 10 Common Tern chicks could be seen, 2 Marsh Harriers over the reed bed and near Springfield Bridge a Corn Bunting, 2 Stonechats, a Peregrine flew through and several Black-tailed Skimmers were on the path.

Black-tailed Skimmer

Butterflys

A day out in Surrey and Sussex today with GH and DW looking for Purple Emperors. We started at Botany Bay and had superb views of Wood Whites, Silver-washed Fritillaries, White Admirals and several other species but no Purple Emperor. We also so several family parties of  Marsh Tits and heard Treecreepers, Nuthatches, Bullfinches and a Tawny Owl.

Wood White

White Admiral

 We moved on to Southwater, where shortly after arriving at a spot I have seen Emperors before GH decided to have sit down and rest on the grass while DW and myself walked on. Seconds later GH called out after seeing what she thought was an Emperor high in the canopy. A short while later it reappeared and we manged great scope views at 60x. We then spent well over an hour with at least 2 Emperors in virtually constant view all be it high in the canopy hence the dodgy highly cropped images.

Purple Emperor

Purple Emperor

Purple Emperor

The Doldrums

At The Patch this morning a juvenile Mediterranean Gull and little else of note. On the perimeter wall a juvenile Wheatear with another by the car park.

An hour at the fishing boats in a refreshing breeze produced nothing of note.

At the ARC from Hanson Hide 2 Garganey, 3 Common Sandpipers, 2 Little Ringed Plovers and singles of Hobby, Sparrowhawk and Marsh Harrier.

Late afternoon an entertaining hour in a wonderful breeze on Springfield Bridge 3+ Marsh Harriers, 30+ Common Terns, a flyover Black-tailed Godwit, a Yellow Wagtail and a singing Corn Bunting. Also a huge Pike laying just below the surface of the ditch by the bridge and an assortment of Dragonfly's and Damsels.



2 Garganey

More of the same

A drive around Walland on my way to Dungeness found plenty of Tree Sparrows in the usual spots, but I found only 1 Corn bunting and no Yellowhammers. A few Reed warblers were still singing in some of the ditches and 2 Marsh Harriers were at Midley.

At the ARC 3 Common Sandpipers, 1 Green Sandpiper, 1 Greenshank and 2 Little ringed Plovers. Today was probably the first day since early May that i have not seen any Hobby's there.

Most of the afternoon was spent at the fishing boats sitting in cool breeze watching Harbour Porpoises.