September 6

06:25-13:35 – cloudy with a moderate westerly wind. Murray was there when I arrived and we spent a pleasant morning teasing out all the species we could find. These included the adult Long-billed Dowitcher on the east flood and the Bonaparte’s Gull on the mudflat east of the causeway. The juvenile Cuckoo was seen in the hedge to the south of what had been the SE scrape and the Osprey flew over the east flood towards the Swale, at 1.15 pm, almost lost amongst the thousands of wheeling waders. Waders included four juvenile Little Ringed Plovers, c140 Ringed Plovers, only one Knot, nine Curlew Sandpipers with one adult, a flyover Greenshank and a Green Sandpiper, a lone bird in front of the west hide. Up at the cottages, a Goldcrest was in the hawthorns by the paddock, warblers were Cetti’s, Reed, Whitethroat, Blackcap and Chiffchaff and a Mistle Thrush was the first I’d seen here since January. Other birds included several Hobbies, one landed on Horse Sands and another, a juvenile, was resting on one of the concrete blocks near Dan’s Dock. We also saw single Whinchat, Stonechat and Wheatear and three Wigeon circled over the east flood. We amassed a total of 89 species but contrived to miss a Little and a Black Tern and a Peregrine whilst Murray, with Tony Swandale, had a calling Pectoral Sandpiper flying around the east flood which was independently seen by David Campbell (a Beddington birder, I believe). Although this is the most frequent Nearctic wader, there had not been one seen here since 2006.
Geoff Burton

Curlew Sandpiper, Hobby, Oare Marshes / Geoff Burton