27/08/14 Dungeness - another special day! Red-necked Phalarope, Little Stint and Wryneck

Wednesday 27th August 2014
Dungeness
With PJ

• After a RBA alert about a Red-necked Phalarope at Dungeness, Paul and I made the long journey down to the coast, arriving at the ARC Screen Hide just before mid-day.  True to the alert the Phalarope was present and showing well. 

Red-necked Phalarope
Library picture

Yet another "lifer" for me! 

This rare bird has probably migrated down the east coast from Scotland en route to it's wintering grounds in South America.

• After admiring the "star" bird for an appropriate time we moved to the Hanson Hide to look for the Little Stint that had also been seen recently.  Again we were lucky and within minutes we spotted it on a small shingle island 75 metres away. 

Little Stint
Library picture

 

This was my first sighting this year of this particular species. 

This bird is almost certainly migrating south, from the breeding grounds in the Arctic, to the Mediterranean Sea and then on to Africa.

• Just as we were about to leave Paul noticed a Ruddy Duck in the water just metres in front of the hide. Again, this was a first sighting of 2014 of this bird. 

Ruddy Duck
Library picture

 

                      What a cracking start we had made!

• Feeling confident we then decided to do some sea-watching from the fishing boats.  However we met Plodding Birder en-route who told us that it was very quiet there and we really should follow him to Galloways where a Wryneck had been seen.  We turned up just a little too late - the bird had gone to ground and despite our best efforts we were unable to find it.

• Our next decision was to relocate to do more sea-watching, this time overlooking "the patch".   This turned out to be a really good decision as we were able to pick out a couple of Black Terns among the mainly Common Terns and Sandwich Terns and the few Little Terns.   We even managed to throw in a good sighting of a Black Redstart on the way back to the car.

• Having had such a good day, and with some time to spare, we decided to try for the Wryneck one last time.  Before we could get set up with our scopes, a fellow birder beckoned us over to see a brilliant view of the bird in his scope. 



Wryneck
Library picture

Shortly after this the bird flew down to ground and we were unable to see it again.  Thank goodness for the kind birder - the views were excellent, if somewhat brief!

• Other birds seen included Black-tailed Godwit, Garganey, Water Rail, Whinchat, Whitethroat, Stonechat, Wheatear, Hobby and Sparrowhawk, Avocet, Tufted Duck, Common Scoter, Gannet, Ruff, Linnet and many others.

What a great day out with 4 year ticks, including a lifer!







Additions to UK 2014 Bird List:
Red-necked Phalarope   (255)
Little Stint   (256)
Ruddy Duck   (257)
Wryneck   (258)


Addition to UK Life List:
Red-necked Phalarope   (272)