During the very hot weather this week I have been a little lazy, not putting in the time especially in the mornings. I spent the afternoons on the beach at the fishing boats sea watching in the sun and the cooling sea breeze, not seeing a great deal today was no exception.

14.50-16.30 from the fishing boats joined by PT & MH

Great-crested Grebe: 2 around

Gannet: 13 up    25 down

Cormorant: 4 around

Oystercatcher: 3 down

Black-headed Gull: 9 down

Mediterranean Gull: 2 up

Common Gull: 1 up

Herring Gull: c25 around

Great Black-backed Gull: 11 around

Kittiwake: 1 down

Little Tern: 2 down

Sandwich Tern: 6 up   42 down

Swift: 19 out

Grey Seal: 1

Harbour Porpoise: 3

I have spent the evenings wandering around the fields at the back of Scotney hoping to hear some Quail without any success. However the Barn Owls have been showing well catching lots of voles for their young, also the Little Owls have been on show every evening, add to that Yellow Wagtails, Corn buntings, Skylarks, Avocets, Hares and a family of Foxes they have been very interesting evenings.

The warm weather has also kept me very busy in the mornings with a bulging MV, being still new to mothing, it takes me along time to go through the traps and as far as I know I have not found anything exceptional for the area. Barry Banson had a superb Splendid Brocade yesterday.

 Little Owl, Lydd Ranges.

 Common Buzzard, Lydd Ranges

 Barn Owl, Scotney farm

 Little Owl, Scotney Farm

 Obscure Wainscot

 Shore Wainscot

Shoulder-striped Wainscot

 Avocet at Scotney

It's been a very quiet the last few days in the glorious summer weather. I have spent a couple of evenings looking for Quail on the marsh without success, though a couple each of Barn Owls and Little Owls were nice. Around the reserve the resident species are getting on with breeding, Little Ringed Plovers look as though they may on Burrowes and the ARC. A young Redshank on the ARC this morning was probably hatched locally, also 6 Black-tailed Godwits there.

 Starling keeping cool in the garden.

Dungeness beach to myself this afternoon

A sea watch/sun bathe this afternoon from the fishing boats was predictably slow but very pleasant sitting in the cool on shore breeze.

14.00-16.00:

Common Scoter: 16 up

Great-crested Grebe: 2 around

Gannet: 3 up   15 down

Cormorant: 3 around

Oystercatcher: 3 up   1 down

Black-headed Gull: 16 around

Mediterranean Gull: 1 x 1s up    3 x ad down

Common Gull: 2 down

Herring Gull: c50 around

Great black backed Gull: c10 around

Sandwich Tern: 6 up       32 down

Common Tern: 3 up

Grey Seal: 2

Harbour Porpoise: 2+

 White Spot an uncommon visitor to my MV

Moth numbers have much improved over the last few days and I am expecting large hauls over the next few days and hopefully a goody or two.

Barred Red a fairly frequent visitor

Quiet Times!

A very quiet morning around the reserve with most the resident species busy with breeding, a Little-ringed Plover was on show from Firth, in the hay fields a pair of Redshanks had 3 young, a Lapwing and at least 1 chick also an Oystercatcher with a chick. Over the reed beds 5+ Hobby's feasting on a glut of Dragonfly's and Damselfly's, the Herring Gull on Tern raft now has 2 young so time will tell if they demolish the Terns, though the Terns were frequently white washing the adult Herring Gull.

The 3 Mediterranean Gulls

A sea watch from the fishing boats this afternoon 14.30-16.00 in the company of MH & PT:

Great-crested Grebe: 1
Fulmar: 1 down
Gannet: 40 down
Cormorant: 16 around
Black-headed Gull: 14 around
Mediterranean Gull: 3 down
Herring Gull: c50 around
Great Black Backed Gull: 10+ around
Kittiwake: 2 down
Sandwich Tern: 53 down
Common Tern: 2 down
Swift: 2 in
Harbour Porpoise: 4+
Grey Seal: 1

Beautiful Hook-tip a first for the Plodland MV last night

 Young Kestrels at Pigwell

This morning I  spent some time wandering around Pigwell and the eastern side of Scotney, a pleasant walk but nowhere near the amount of birds as the western side of Scotney where the farmer is more sympathetic to wildlife leaving 5 mt margins and several rough areas, whereas the farmer responsible for Pigwell and the eastern side of Scotney has  ploughed right up to the fences and sprayed the hell out of the fields. On the bright side in an old open barn a pair of Kestrels have 3 young in a box. In the quarry there are at least 7 House Martin nests on the weigh bridge offices.

An early afternoon walk from Springfield Bridge to the viewing ramp saw a couple of young Bearded Tits, a nearly fledged Lapwing and Oystercatcher. 7+ Hobby's were hawking over the reed beds some stratospheric, the Herring Gull on the Tern raft has 2 chicks so I guess the Tern eggs will rapidly disappear, all the usual warblers were just about seen though they are now getting elusive as they get on with breeding.

 Sandwich Tern at the fishing boats this afternoon

14.45-17.00 from the fishing boats:

Common Scoter: 4 up
Great-crested Grebe: 3 around
Fulmar: 1 down
Gannet: 118 up   17 down
Cormorant: 6 around
Kittiwake: 14 up
Sandwich Tern: 51 up    18 down
Common Tern: 11 up
Guillemot: 1 down
Harbour Porpoise: 4+
Grey Seal: 1

Cynaeda dentalis a gorgeous micro that is regularly found in my MV 

Elegant Tern!

Squacco Heron

An early morning visit to the reserve before going twitching found the Squacco Heron still present. 

 Elegant Tern

A day away from Dungeness yesterday twitching the Elegant Tern in Pagham Harbour in the company of DW,GH and AJG. The Tern was showing almost as soon as we arrived and showed relatively well on several occasions while we there. It was good to see an apparently thriving Little Tern colony alongside the Sandwich and Common Terns.

 Little Tern

 1s male Red-footed Falcon

On our way home we stopped off at Frensham Common to see the 1s male Red-footed Falcon which showed well, the heat haze there made any chance of decent images impossible. While there a Woodlark sung from atop a tree a pair of Common Redstarts were feeding young.

 Common Redstart

Silver Studded Blue on Frensham common

Yellow Wagtails, Corn Buntings and a Squacco Heron!

 Yellow Wagtail

This morning despite the wind and cloud I spent 5 hrs wandering around Scotney counting birds. I was not expecting much but was amazed at the number of birds around the fields and ditches. 57 Corn Buntings, 40+ Yellow Wagtails, Skylarks seemed to fill the sky in some of the fields and Linnets bouncing around all over. However despite plenty of suitable habitat no Partridges of any description were seen or heard and only 3 Pheasants. 3 pairs of Tree Sparrows were located, also 2 pairs of Little Owls. The wet ditches held Reed and Sedge Warblers, Reed Buntings and even a couple of Cetti's Warblers were shouting from cover, Whitethroats were well represented and several Brown Hares were seen.

 Little Owl 

 Tree Sparrow

 Corn Bunting

 Yellow Wagtail

 Yellow Wagtail

 Brown Hare

 Yellow Wagtail

This afternoon a call from PT informing me that a day visitor  to the reserve had reported seeing a Squacco Heron at Hookers. I joined MH there and Sue Capewell from Middlesex showed us the Heron roosting well hidden inside the Sallows, apparently it had been perched on the outside of the bushes when she found it. The bird eventually roused itself and showed briefly before flying off towards Denge Marsh and becoming very elusive.

 Squacco Heron

 Squacco Heron

 First Evergestis limbata of the year for me

 Vapourer

Pine Hawkmoth

Bee-eater!

First thing this morning I took a walk around Scotney out to the wind turbines, the strong winds made birding near impossible. The Avocets on the back lake seem to have suffered badly in the gales, there were at least 18 pairs either with eggs or young, there are now no sitting birds and I could only find 3 well grown young birds and 1 very recently hatched bird. The rest of the walk was very quiet due to the wind.

Bee-eater

Leaving Scotney I went to Galloways which was equally windswept, just a family of Stonechats, a Red-legged Partridge and few Whitethroats. I stopped at Lydd Camp to check on the Little Owls which were both showing and taking food to the nest, as I pulled away the unmistakable silhouette of a Bee-eater landed on telegraph wires some 50 yds in front of me, I grabbed my camera off the passenger seat leaned out of the window and took a couple of record images, then pulled the car a bit nearer and took some images from the car as it flew high grabbed a Bee and returned to the same spot, after eating the Bee it flew to the wire across the road showing its beautiful colours to full effect in the bright sun light. After alerting a few locals and tweeting the news out I watched the bird for a few minutes as it hawked off the wires inside the camp, just as BH pulled up it flew over the pines in the camp not to be seen again despite searching.  

Bee-eater

Bee-eater

Little Owl with prey

Most of the rest of my day was taken up with domestic stuff, though I did manage an hour at the fishing boats this evening, where it seems the Storm Petrel influx has petered out.

18.30-19.30

Fulmar: 2 down
Gannet: 28 down       7 up
Oystercatcher: 1 up
Kittiwake: 1 down
Sandwich Tern: 12 down
Common Tern: 2 up
Swift: 1 in

Storm Petrels and Manx Shearwaters!

 Some of yesterdays Manx Shearwaters

 Storm Petrel from today (a little imagination required)

A minimum of 26 Storm Petrels past The Point last night with another 34 today making an excellent total of 60 so far from this influx.

A long and productive days sea watching from the Fishing boats with AJG who collated the numbers,MH & DW.  04.30-12.30 & 14.30-17.30
                                                                   
Common Scoter: 231 up  10 down                                
Great-crested Grebe:  13 around                                
Fulmar: 78 down                                                              
Manx Shearwater: 33 down                                            
Storm Petrel: 34 down                                                    
Gannet: 947 down    45 up                                                        
Cormorant: 95 around
Oystercatcher: 3 up
Hobby: 1 behind beach
Kestrel: 1 behind beach                                                
Great Skua: 2 down    
Arctic Skua: 2 up                                                    
Mediterranean Gull: 1 around                                      
Kittiwake: 95 down                                                    
Sandwich Tern: 88 down
Common Tern: 7 down                                                
Guillemot: 35 down
Razorbill: 5 down
Auk sp: 33 down
Swift: 4 out    5in
Swallow: 1 out
Skylark: 1 singing behind beach
Pied Wagtail: 2 around
Raven: 1 behind beach
Grey Seal: 1
Harbour Porpoise: 2+

1 of many Swifts over the New Diggings at lunchtime

 Little Owl Lydd Camp

A quick stop at Lydd Camp at lunchtime saw 2 Little Owls enjoying the sunshine, hopefully soon they will joined by their owlets.

Hare Dungeness Beach

As we left the beach this evening a Hobby flew over the beach and AJG spotted a Hare which is becoming a rare sight around The Point.

Manx Shearwaters!

With strong wind being SSW 7-9 early this morning I had high hopes of a very productive sea watch and possibly a Storm Petrel or 2, but as is often the case I was wrong and very poor visibility didn't help. When the rain stopped I tried again and the first hour was quite productive, then the wind veered to westerly and visible passage seemed to cease.
05.25-07.25 &11.10-14.00 with AJG & MH

Common Scoter: 15 up
Fulmar: 20 down
Manx Shearwater: 44 down
Gannet: 67 down       122 up
Cormorant: 12 around
Kittiwake: 4 down
Sandwich Tern: 31 down
Common Tern: 11 down
Auk: 2 down
Swift: 37 out

The strong winds continued all day making general birding virtually impossible. Over the lakes 100s of Swifts and House Martins also 2 Spoonbills put in a brief appearance on the ARC and Burrowes.

0545-0845 from the sea watch hide with AJG who kindly collated the numbers:
Common Scoter: 61 up
Great-crested Grebe: 3 up
Fulmar: 5 down
Manx Shearwater: 12 down
Gannet: 284 up
Peregrine Falcon: 2 around
Oystercatcher: 1 up
Ringed Plover: 5 up
Black-headed Gull: c60 at The Patch
Herring Gull: c350 at The Patch
Lesser.B.B.Gull: 5 at The Patch
Great.B.B.Gull: 16 at The Patch
Kittiwake: 30 up
Sandwich Tern:  34 around
Auk sp: 14 up
From the southern end of the ARC scanning over Lade to Lydd Airport and the reserve c800 Common Swifts most of which seemed to move south, also c100 House Martins and c50 Swallows.
From Hanson hide of note 6 Hobby's, 2 Marsh Harriers, a Ringed Plover, a Little Ringed Plover, 51 Lapwings, 6 Oystercatchers, 3 Cuckoo's and a Little Egret.
Apart from the Swifts the rest of the reserve was very quiet with most birds keeping there heads down in the strong wind, though 2 Cattle Egrets were reported as being in the hay fields but despite several locals looking for them the report was unsubstantiated, just Little Egrets seen.

A pleasant waste of time at the fishing boats this afternoon 13.30-16.00 joined by MH and RW:

Great-crested Grebe: 3 around

Gannet: 79 down    18 up

Cormorant: 16 around

Oystercatcher: 1 up

Black-headed Gull: c20 around

Mediterranean Gull: 1 down 1st summer 

Herring Gull: c20 around

Great Black Backed Gull: c10 around

Kittiwake: 1 down

Sandwich Tern: 10 around

Common Tern: 4 around

Swift: 32 out

Skylark: 1 singing behind boats

Pied Wagtail: 2 around

Grey Seal: 1

Harbour Porpoise: 2