Sunday 21 July 2013

Catching up ........ Brief visit to Dungeness then onto Rye

Black Redstart.

I paid a brief visit to Dungeness last Sunday the 14th July , i headed straight to the patch in the hope of seeing either Little or Med Gulls however i didn't see either , on my way to the patch i could hear a Black Redstart calling from somewhere inside the power station compound but could not locate it , although on the way back from the patch i located the Black Redstart on top of a tall post calling its heart out , only other birds of note were about 60 Common Scoters heading east .

I then decided to head to Rye Harbour and try and see the recent Roseate Tern that had been reported from there .

Common Tern.

Rye Harbour is not a site i visit much although it is a very good reserve and has a long list of rarities to its name ,on my walk to the Denny hide i saw several Avocets with young , there were plenty of Linnets flying around and then i had arrived at the hide , i could instantly hear very vocal Common Terns which were very close to the hide .

Very close Common Tern.

However the Roseate Tern had not been seen since early this morning , oh well it was such an enjoyable morning i thought i would put in some time as it often went missing , scanning through the waders i came across a summer plumage Knot which was a new bird for the year list ( i know i should get out more ) .

Summer plumage Knot.

I bumped into Jamie ( sorry cant remember surname ) who is a birder i met on Scilly a while ago , good to see you again , well Jamie headed of to check other areas after we exchanged phone numbers just in case, well he had only been gone 20 mins when a lady picked out what she thought could be the Roseate Tern right at the back of the reserve amongst Sandwich Terns , i quickly got my scope on it and sure enough it was an adult Roseate Tern , smart i have not seen one of these for a few years so was very pleased to see it , i quickly phoned Jamie and he dashed back and thankfully saw it too. I never managed to get a photo because of the heat haze and distance , so here is a pic of the last Roseate Tern i saw at Minsmere a couple of years ago .

Roseate Tern at Minsmere in 2011.

I quickly popped into the other hide and other than some close Redshank it was very quite.

Redshank.