Male Kentish Plover at Rye.
My first port of call was Rye nature reserve , i walked up to the cottage and before i had even set my scope up the quite stunning male Kentish Plover was in the nearby pool that it has been favouring , this bird had a lovely rufous crown and nape , a welcome year tick .
Another record shot of the Kentish Plover.
There were plenty of Ringed Plover , Dunlin and Redshank plus approx: 10 Avocets were dotted around here and there .
Digi scoped record shot of the Kentish Plover.
There was also a distant female Merlin perched on the ground . Plus several Sandwich Terns flying along the gravel bank .
Digi scoped female Merlin.
The Merlin spooked the waders and they all flew off after about half an hour of me watching them , 2 adult summer Med Gulls flew over the chalets and i then decided to head of to Dungeness rspb reserve , i made had a quick stop at the entrance of the reserve and saw a handful of Tree Sparrows on the feeders .
One of many Tree Sparrows on the feeders.
I parked up and walked around to the Makepeice hide where i saw 2 Redhead Smew which were good to see , i decided to head to Hookers pit , it was fairly quite looking from the hide so i then decided to look from Hookers ramp , this was a good decision as there were several Golden Plovers and also 2 Ruff were mixed in with them , after scanning the geese i saw the 5 Tundra Bean Geese which was an excellent year tick , there were at least 3 Marsh Harriers in the area , i also saw a Bittern flying behind the ramp , wow the year ticks just keep on coming !!!!
I then headed back to the car and down to the fishing boats looking for the Glaucous Gull which is very hit or miss and sadly today i missed it , i did see a Sparrowhawk fly over the gull roost and land on some fishing nets , i headed off to the old lighthouse area and was soon happy to see 3 Black Redstarts 2 males and a female .
Female Black Redstart .
And in flight .
I had a look over the Arc pit and saw 5 Black Tailed Godwits and just when i thought that would be the last bird of the day a Great White Egret was on Burrows Pit .
