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| Sun up! nearly |
I got to the castle early to check the moths, unfortunately the traps were nowhere to be seen, not to worry, it was a beautiful morning so I had a look around before heading off to Dunge with Dad. Birds were few and far between with lots of regulars but I did find 2 new STONECHATS, a male and female which brightened the morning even more.
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| Stonechat |
So to Dunge with Dad, we started with our traditional seawatch after a quick stop to look for yesterdays Long Tailed Skua, which didn't materialise, it was fairly slow 1 LITTLE GULL and 2 BLACK TERNS were at the patch and then 2 distant SHEARWATERS were probably Balearic but too far to be sure, so a Kent tick slipped away :-( A distant Skua could have been anything back at the car a couple of SISKIN flew over and 2 Hummingbird Hawkmoths were next to the car. (Click on pics for larger image).
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| Hummingbird Hawkmoth |
We decided on a walk round the trapping area, we were joined by a lovely couple from Surrey. A BLACK REDSTART, was near the houses one the way out, there were loads of Willow/Chiffs including a flock of 5 together with a LESSER WHITETHROAT, the first of 3 we found, unfortunately there wasn't loads here either but we added a couple of BLACKCAP and a REED WARBLER. Dad picked up a SPARROWHAWK, which wasn't surprising after yesterdays numbers. I got a text to say the Long Tailed Skua was at the patch but another look at the sea proved fruitless, we only added a distant flock of COMMON SCOTER. A look at the roosting gulls failed to produce the Glaucous Gull, later I found out I wasn't the only Kent birder not to see the bird this year!! which made me feel not quite so bad!
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| Black Redstart |
Onto Arc pits and there was a good selection of waders, 4 AVOCET, 1 LITTLE STINT, BAR TAILED GODWIT, 6 BLACK TAILED GODWIT, 3 RUFF, 2 DUNLIN a CURLEW and good numbers of GOLDEN PLOVER and LAPWING.
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| Too far for a pic really!! Little Stint |
Next stop was Dengemarsh and Springfield Bridge, there were 2 WHINCHAT near the gate to the field and good numbers of SAND MARTINS, around 5 MARSH HARRIER milled about the marsh and possibly 3 COMMON BUZZARDS were seen. A GREENSHANK and GREEN SANDPIPER added to the wader tally, 2 LITTLE EGRET were on view for most of the 2 hours we were there. We met Ian from the Stodmarsh area and local man Pete, again good company while we tried hard to find more birds. 2 RAVENS called as they drifted over, one quite high.
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| Raven |
Overall we had a really enjoyable day, not loads of birds but as always enough to keep us interested, some good company and good weather.
10 comments:
Seems like you had a great day out Alan. Love the Black redstart well captured.
Alan ,
I agree with Mike , that Black Redstart shot is great .
Always nice to find HHMs .
Hi,nice day out,shame about the Skua.
Hi,see my Blog about ringing (comments) cheers.
I agree with the others on that Blackred Alan - very nice :-)
Hi Mike, Thanks, it was a really enjoyable day with pretty good numbers of birds, it was nice to be out with Dad.
Hi Greenie, Thanks, I didn't think the Redstart would come out at all, just lucky :-)
Hi Alan, I'm not sure how long the Skua was around for but it was a case of should have been there yesterday!!
Hi Warren, Thanks, as above it was just lucky :-)
Nice post, Alan. I love the Hummingbird Hawkmoth pics, and the Black Redstart (my favourite species). Sorry you missed the skua. I've not seen the Dunge Glonk either, have looked for it two or three times (including on a bird race!)
Hi Marianne, Thanks, the Hummer and Black Red are quite photogenic, although I thought the Redstart might have been too far away, hopefully we'll both catch up with that gull before the end of the year!!? :-)
Pleased to see Sissinghurst getting its own blog. It has some nice habitat. Glad to hear there is still a kingfisher around.
If its any consolation I was at Dunge on 14th, was directed to an area of beach where long-tailed skua had just been seen, but it had disappeared, & I had to go, so never did see it!
Andy B
Hi Andy, Thanks, it is a nice place to walk around and as you say the a few nice bits of habitat help.
Shame you missed the Skua too, it's a long time since I've seen one and would have been a new bird for my Dad, hopefully we'll get some more chances :-)
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