Sunday 15 April 2018

Common Scoters on the move

Lade - The weekend weather has been dominated by fog rolling in off a cold sea which pretty much put paid to any birding yesterday morning. Walking around the local patch was a weird experience as there were migrants present with a scattering of Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs singing from back gardens and a Tree Pipit over calling, a passage migrant I now don't expect to see/hear every spring. Also heard overhead Yellow Wagtail, Brambling, Siskin and several Mediterranean Gulls.
  An afternoon visit yielded our first Lesser Whitethroat of spring in scrub behind the `mirrors`, while the Long-tailed Ducks were still present today.
Dungeness -Thick fog all Saturday morning didn't clear until midday, but an afternoon visit with the family off the boardwalk produced a good number of Porpoises off shore, of which one or two were breaching, plus a few passing Gannets, terns and an Arctic Skua.
 Sunday morning heralded much better visibility with a light south-westerly airflow clearing the mist. An early seawatch was notable for a large movement of Common Scoters which numbered up to 1,000 by the time I left site. Gannets, Kittiwakes, Fulmars, auks, Common and Sandwich Terns were also steadily trickling past the hide, plus our first three Little Terns, along with 10 Little Gulls, 12 Shelducks, three Eiders, a Shoveler, two Black-throated Divers, five Red-throated Divers, 100 Brents, three Arctic Skuas and a Bonxie. Two Swallows went out and a Peregrine made a sortie over the sea from the power station.
  On the land, Wheatear and Black Redstart on the power station wall and a brown Merlin on the beach by the new lighthouse.

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