Tern arrivals and stint find!

We clocked up 96 species on a full day tour around Sussex and Kent with Pratibha from Florida on Friday, despite rain catching us out and keeping the birds down for a chunk of the afternoon. This included some unexpected finds...

We started at dawn at Sevenoaks with amazing views of Green Sandpiper. We also had an incredible encounter with a Kingfisher but the light wasn't great for photos.

One of biggest surprises of the tour was a flock of Sandwich Terns and Common Terns dropping down in front of the Tyler Hide

Seeing Robins up close was a dream come true for Pratibha

Still missing Rook for the day, a lifer for Pratibha, we made an unplanned stop at Pett Level. We were successful with Rook, found Pratibha's lifer Eurasian Curlews, and this juvenile Black Tern dropped in! To top it off, we enjoyed blinding views of Bearded Reedlings...

One of the highlights of the day was discovering this juvenile Temminck's Stint on the East Flood at Oare Marshes at high tide.

A host of other waders included three Wood Sandpipers and this juvenile Little Stint, which was showing at close range!

Three Great Crested Grebes were fishing off the slipway at Oare.

Two Hobbies were hunting migrating Red Admiral butterflies over The Swale! Other highlights at Oare included Eurasian Spoonbill, Lesser Whitethroat and Green Woodpecker.

Pratibha and David (left and centre) — it was fun to bump into Tony Swandale, Oare's original warden, at the famous marsh