Sunday, 30 July 2017

Pectoral & Wood Sandpiper at Dungeness

Pectoral Sandpiper.

Yesterday the 29th July i popped into Dungeness Rspb reserve around lunch time in the hope of seeing the Pectoral Sandpiper , i went into the Dennis hide and was informed that the Pectoral Sandpiper  had just walked out of sight but was still present , i waited for approx 30 mins before it reappeared and it showed well with great scope views , however not great for photography at that range.

Breast band clearly noticeable.

Digi scoped photos .

The light was not great but at least the rain had held of for now , there was at least 2 Common Sandpipers plus 2 Dunlin briefly put in an appearance.

My other target bird was Wood Sandpiper and although it had been seen earlier this morning it had not been seen for a couple of hours , not one to give up i walked around to the Firth hide .

There were another 3 Common Sandpipers from here plus a superb Turnstone , whilst checking the islands i thought i saw the Wood Sandpiper disappear behind some foliage on one of the furthest islands , it took sometime before it re-appeared but Wood Sandpiper it was !!!

Digi-scoped record shot of  Wood Sandpiper.

Very pleased to see this bird as they are one of my favourite waders , shame it was so distant but once again it was great through the scope.

I lastly walked to the Makepeace hide adding 4 Black Tailed Godwits & 3 more Common Sandpipers to my totals , there were hundreds of low flying Sand Martins and then the rain came forcing many of them to ground on the islands.

Sand Martin.

Grounded on the islands.

A really enjoyable birding session with both target birds seen .