Ternery Pool attracted 5 Black Tern, 1 Green and 2 Common Sandpiper.
At least 300+ Yellow Wagtail on the Beach Reserve and a Hobby.
Offshore 50 Gannets and 1 Arctic Skua.
At Castle water 1500+ Lapwing,3 Green Sandpiper,3 Kingfisher,2 Cettis Warbler and a Ruddy Shelduck.
It was a little quiet this morning with just single Curlew Sandpiper and Wigeon of note, but this young male Fox was entertaining. It was hunting around the edge of the pit near the hide, attracting lots of attention from the ducks and leaping on several hidden prey, but I didn’t see it catch anything.
A day of increasingly wet and windy weather brought a few seabirds but very little was seen on the land. At sea, two Balearic Shearwaters flew east and a Roseate Tern flew west along with large numbers of Sandwich Terns and Common Terns, 27 Arctic Terns and a few Black Terns and Little Gulls. About 500 Gannets, 30 Arctic Skuas, two Great Skuas and a juvenile Mediterranean Gull were feeding offshore.
David Walker (from DBO website)
Yesterday evening there were still 11 Curlew Sandpipers and two Wood Sandpipers on the reserve. A small fall of 8 Spotted Flycatchers were counted and other migrants included a Nightingale and several Tree Pipits.
A count of Little Egret from the Bittern viewpoint this morning saw 51 birds leaving the traditional roost, the highest count so far this year. Also present were three Cetti’s Warbler, a Green Sandpiper and a Hobby.
A group of 8 Curlew Sandpipers have been moving between the scrape and Carter’s flood over the last two days and good numbers of Whitethroats and Willow Warblers were present in the valley today. Other migrants in recent days have included a Redstart and several Whinchats and Tree Pipits.
As autumn fast aproaches the waders are returning to feed on the grassland that can be viewed from the road at Pett Level. This morning I watched Whimbrel and Curlew eating large grubs that they extracted from the ground by turning their heads upside down. A vehicle makes an ideal hide and the birds can be very close.
Over 1000 Gannet were still fishing offshore this morning, along with 171 Cormorant and several hundred terns (Common, Sandwich and the odd Arctic). The terns were harried by up to four Arctic Skua, as well as an immature Kittiwake, which seemed to be trying to take a leaf out of the skuas book, but with little success!
During the monthly WeBS count today, a Spotted Redshank and up to three Ruff were present on Ternery Pool, while Flat Beach Quarry played host to five Curlew Sandpiper (four immatures and an adult) and seven Bar-tailed Godwit. On the shore, 10 Knot fed among the Dunlin, while four Black-tailed Godwit flew east over the reserve mid-morning. In addition, the count at Castle Water turned up a Ruddy Shelduck and two Black Tern.
In the evening, a trip round the Beach Reserve turned up an immature Pied Flycatcher, catching insects from a straggly sycamore tree near the river mouth. This is only the 10th record of this species on the reserve, and only the second from the Beach Reserve, the last occurring over 20 years ago!
There was a Common Buzzard over Peasmarsh yesterday evening - last seen thermalling and drifting towards Rye about 6.30pm.
Chris Drew (from Rye Bay Wildlife e-group)
Although the Sandwich Tern roost somewhat reduced today with 300+, other Terns roosting included: 4 Arctic Tern (3 Adult and 1 Juv), 3 Black Tern (also seen offshore mid morning), 1 Little Tern, 16 Common Tern.
Waders present on the flood: 2 Curlew Sandpiper (1 Adult), 97 Oystercatcher, 108 Golden Plover, 70+ Dunlin, 20 Ringed Plover.
At Castle Water, 2 Wood, 5 Common and 8 Green Sandpiper.
