A Tern around Dungeness!

 There has been a White-winged Tern, formally know as a White-winged Black Tern, (Don't know why they changed the name? Possibly someone was bored, probably the same bloke who tried to take away my Redpolls, I'm not having it I tell ya!!, sorry rant over!!😅) at Dungeness for some time, I had manfully resisted the trip, but the addition of up to 15 Black Terns (name has not been changed as yet!) and all the usual goodies broke my resistance  so I headed off at at stupid o'clock with a view to arriving at first light, however some knob had decided to shut the A23, with out telling google, which meant I ended up going via the M25, a 60 mile trip turned into a 90 mile trip and my brilliant plan of not filling the car up, so I could benefit from the cheaper fuel in the Eastbourne area completely backfired and I ended up paying £1.79 a liter on the M20!! 😱😱 I did not fill up!! Anyway I arrived somewhat flustered at 6.45 and parked in Arc carpark as the reserve gates don't open til 9, another thing that gets my goat!!! 😡😡😡

Sorry, far too much ranting on this post, let's get to the birds!! First I checked out the Hanson Hide, few Reed Warblers in the reeds, a couple of Ruff on the Islands and lots of Ducks!! A Marsh Harrier did a flyover but too distant for pics!

Reed Warbler

Ruff

Reed Bunting having a chirp, lots of midges!!

I headed back to the car before starting the long trek down to Burrows Pit, As White-winged Tern is not  a lifer, I've seen a few, I decided rather than route march straight to Burrows a detour around Dengemarsh and to check out the Hayfields would be in order, to which end I decided to take my Scope. A brave choice for a man with my condition! Laziness😀! So loaded down with Scope, Tripod, Camera, Bins and a bottle of water, total weight 150 kgs or there abouts😂 I set off. As I headed down the entrance track I notice a large herd of Cows, safely behind a sturdy fence, all 3 of my regular readers know I have conquered my fear of such beasts, but weighed down as I was it would have been tricky, even for one as nimble as myself to avoid the deadly horns! My thoughts had turned to Yellow Wagtails, often found with Cattle this time of year, but no luck however on the plus side there was a large flock of Cattle Egrets with em, showing well!! I reckon at least 15 that I could see!! I filled me boots!!

Cattle Egret

I think the black bill denotes a youngster

Cattle Egret with Cattle

Think they are my favourite Egret, full of attitude! I dragged myself away and continued towards Dengemarsh, it was annoyingly quiet, I scoured the tops of Bushes for Shrikes and the bottom of Bushes for Wrynecks, to no avail! A few Linnets and some Common Whitethroats the best I could manage! I could hear Beardies at Hookers but they didn't show so I continued on my way!

Great White Egret! Saw a couple but they didn't really pose well

Common Whitethroat

Lapwing

Great Crested Grebe

The scenery is always good here!

Another small herd of Cattle on the Hayfields which were decidedly lacking hay, but they did have Yellow Wagtails with em!! Hurrah! Only 4 and they were quite distant! 

Yellow Wagtail with cow!

I arrived at the Firth Viewpoint on Burrows Pit and with some relief spotted several Terns both flying and having a wash!! There were  a couple of Ruff wandering about and a small Wader on the water's edge with is probably a Dunlin, but the light was terrible, seemed quite upright in stance and long-legged, it was a total silhouette, even in the scope! (Edit, confirmed as a Dunlin, on Birdforum!)

Mysterious Wader

This might be the same bird in flight!

As might this

I believe this to be the White-winged Tern short bill and and no dark shoulder patch

Common Tern with fish

Ruff

Ruff

Common Tern, Conference, Juvenile with a lot to say!

Tern wash!

This was all very entertaining, but all a bit distant I could see there was a lot more going on further on so headed to Dennis Hide! Where there was more action, I spent a happy couple of hours taking too many pictures of Terns!! There is a theory that you can have too many pics of Black Terns, luckily for you I don't subscribe to it!! 

Two Black Terns and the WWT 

Black Tern starting the moult, to non-breeding plumage

Black Tern

WWT noticeably more squat than the more elegant BT

Moulting BT

BT

WWT

Black Terns

Black Tern

Black Tern above WWT below

WWT

Mixture of terns

BT

BT

BT x2

Common Tern on post

BT feeding

2 BT and  WWT

BT

Common Tern

BT

Hobby, that surprised you!!

By my calculations 5 Common Terns, 9 Black Terns and 1 White-winged Tern

Having to shoot through the wispy vegetation in front of the hide

BT snatching a midge from the air!

Brilliant fun!!! A frenzy of Terns, very difficult to pick out the WWT among the Black Terns of which there were at least 12 but probably more!! My technique of taking 100s of pics of every Tern I saw on the basis that there would be some of the WWT paid off big time, 😊although once I got my eye in it did become easier to pick out the rarer bird! Please note how I didn't label the last few to enable you to practice your Tern identification skills!! I'm too good to you guys sometimes!!

Having filled one SD card, I called time on the Terns and headed back to Dengemarsh, there were now loads of Dragonflies on the wing, having seen a couple of Hobbies I was hoping to catch them hunting over the Reedbeds, had a couple of great sessions here in the past, sadly, on this occasion it was not to be, not a sniff of a Hobby in the hour or so I waited!! A local said it had been a slow year for them! Heard and had brief views of the Beardies. A Marsh Harrier had a tussle with a Buzzard  and a couple of Little Egrets chased each other about, but it was all bit "after the Lord Mayor's Show! 

Loads of Dragonflies of numerous different species flying about, caught these two having  a bit of nooky so took some pics while they were busy! All the others were far too quick for me!

Clouded Yellow, lots of these as well. On the walk from Burrows back to the car probably saw at least 30!

Great Crested Grebe 

More scenery

Marsh Harrier

Little Egret

Back at the car, I decided I was too knackered to head down to the point, which turned out to be an error as a Wryneck was found later, though it wasn't on Birdguides which I did check before heading home!! Oh well can't win them all! All in all a very enjoyable day!!