Friday 31st. May 2013

Carol has been waiting for some reasonable weather to visit an old friend who lives on the south coast at Camber . Would I let her travel alone , or earn some more 'Brownie points' and take her . My decision to take her had nothing to do with the fact that Rye Harbour Reserve is on one side and Dungeness Reserve on the other . Having dropped her off , I headed for Rye Harbour . It would take all weekend to write up the whole story , so it's photos and comments this time .

Walking out alongside the river , a male Meadow Pipit was trying to impress a female .

But even his trapeze work in the wind didn't do the trick , she flew off .

Just before the first hide , a distant male Wheatear , sadly just one of two seen , and even sadder , no sightings of Yellow Wagtail , the two species were almost guaranteed where the path turns right along the beach .

I must say the work done to create scrapes looks great , but only this pair of Shellduck were to be seen from the first hide . The Avocets seem to have nested in the field nearest to the caravan park , well out of view , whereas they used to nest not too far from the hide .

On the road by the beach , a large caterpillar , several others found squashed on the road . Looks like the bike riders play 'flatten the caterpillar' as they cycle by . A bit of digging on the web , and I think it might be that of the Fox Moth , with the emphasis on 'might' . Well , what a surprise , wrong again . Many thanks to Spock for the correct ID , Grass Eggar .

Just a few Linnets seen before the turn to the two hides , but as I did so , this Sandwich Tern flew by calling , with a good meal for it's mate in it's bill .

Lots of noise from infront of the hide on the left , with BHGulls and Common Terns arguing over property rights , but scanning round , found three gulls dozing on the shingle , the one in the middle being a Mediterranean Gull .

 

Moving to the hide on the right , a few more Mediterranean Gulls appeared , their almost laughing call announcing them before they could be seen properly .

The Common Terns were sharing the islands with the BHGulls , but they were still sitting tight on their nests ,

whereas , the BHGulls had young of various stages , with very young birds gathered together in a crèche .

The only waders I saw were Oystercatchers and a few Redshank , like this one , that came for a quick wash and brush up .

Heading back to the car , several Skylarks were making use of the strong wind . As can be seen from these shots , it was quite cloudy to begin with , but the sky started to open up as I made my way to Dungeness , where although migrants were few and far between , I did find one rarity , but I'll write that up later .