Friday 12 April 2013

First Skua Passage

 Another good sea watch this morning at Dungeness considering the regular showers and poor visibility 06.45-10.15 Totals kindly collated by AJG.

Red throated Diver 98 E
Gannet 177 E
Fulmar 12 E   1 W
Red-necked Grebe 1 E
Brent Goose 516 E
Common Scoter 659 E
Gadwall 2 E
Eider 3 E
Red Breasted Merganser 16 E
Great Skua 42E
Arctic Skua 7 E
Mediteranean Gull 1 E
Little Gull 2 E
Kittiwake 17 E
Sandwich tern 6 E
Common Tern 133 E
Curlew 2 E
Auk 13 E  Mainly Guillemots
Swallow 1 in


                                        North Thames Herring Gull JZ1.T on the beach
                                                    Oiled Red-throated Diver

 On the ARC an oiled Red-throated Diver, 5 Smew, and 3 Goldeneye among the very few common wildfowl that has not left.
Around the reserve a few migrants, 8+ Willow Warblers, 4 Chiffchaffs, 6 Goldcrests, 2 Firecrests, 2 Swallows, 2 Sand Martins and a House Martin. Round Hookers 4 Marsh Harriers, a flight view of a Bittern and 4 Bearded Tits were of note. I was unable to locate any of the 3 Black Necked Grebes that were present yesterday.
A short afternoon watch from the fishing boats was not particularly productive with a few Common and Sandwich Terns, 2 Red Throated Divers and a Red Breasted Merganser. 

2 comments:

  1. Martin,

    Red Throated Diver - such a shame to see a bird oiled like that and even worst that it's in its summer plumage too.

    Its good to see the Skuas are now coming through, and that's a stunning Firecrest.

    Hope to see you soon!

    Nick

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  2. Nice to see that summer plumaged RTD Martin such a shame its oiled. There was one at Bough Beech last week in an even worse state. Lovely firecrest, why are they never there when I am ?

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