Missing Waders.

I've always liked waders, (or shorebirds as they're called in the USA) as a group of birds, but although we are at the coast with quite a lot of foreshore at low tide, St Margaret's doesn't attract many shorebirds to feed. I took the pictures below at Pegwell, just before you get to Ramsgate Harbour. The sun is always in a difficult position here, as you face south and when the tide is out the birds are miles away.

Oystercatchers are the only regulars on the rocks at St Margaret's, but often they are along way out of the bay, under the cliffs and difficult to get to.

We see a few Turnstones fly by and one or two are occasionally on the wall at the undercliff at Kingsdown and they do pop into the piers at Dover and Deal, hoping for tit bits from the fishermen.

The only Grey Plovers I've seen at St Margaret's have been fly-bys and then not frequently. Along the coast on Thanet, the Thames and Swale they are common species, but there is no suitable habitat along our stretch of coast.

New Record at Bockhill I've just seen on the Bockhill page of the KOS latest sightings area that there is a new record for our local patch. The number of species this year has reached 192 with the addition of a Ring-necked Parakeet at the Kingsdown end of the area.