HALCYON DAYS

Tuesday at Samphire Hoe saw three whinchats and eight wheatears along the fence line first thing,you have seen enough of the latter but heres a couple of shots of the former,they are very difficult to get close to so these have been heavily cropped.

 WHINCHAT.
After work nipped over to Grove hoping to catch up with the Wryneck,no joy there but the kingfisher was ample compensation.

 KINGFISHER,

 Today was invited to join Malcom Mcvail on a visit to Dungeness,starting at the Patch we saw little gull,black tern,arctic tern with the more numerous common and sandwich terns.The highlight of the RSPB Reserve was the sight of three black necked grebes from the makepeace hide.

 TWO BNGs

 

 THREE BNGs

 BLACK NECKED GREBE

BLACK NECKED GREBE.

THE CLOUDS ARE YELLOW

Tis a very soggy Saturday morning so thought it was time to update the blog, its mainly butterflies again but things are slowly picking up on the bird front,and some autumn flowers are beginning to bloom.

 The lone white letter hairstreak was still showing at South Foreland .

 Second generation speckled wood and common blue are doing well

 Only 22 miles to go matey,another channel swim starts from Samphire Hoe.

 House martins gathered on the sea wall,44 active nests were found on the cliffs at the Hoe this summer.

 Several Jersey Tiger moths have been seen

 Clouded Yellow butterflies are enjoying the warm weather

 as are the Painted Ladies.

 Another jersey tiger

 MIGRANT HAWKER

 SMALL COPPER

 ST MARGARETS BAY from Lighthouse Down

 155 SMALL TORTOISHELLS were counted on the butterfly transect on Tuesday,

 a single SMALL BLUE found at Langdon Cliffs

 DEVILS BIT SCABIOUS

 AUTUMN GENTIANS on the cliffs.

 This very pale Clouded Yellow was seen at Samphire Hoe on Friday

I walked into the Warren on Friday in the hope of catching a glimpse of a Grayling ,I stopped off at the site where we used to pitch our tents in the good old days,to sit and eat my lunch,this is the scene that greeted me,a beach party had obviously taken place recently and the debris left for others to enjoy,including smashed up speakers,I have a message for these anti social b******* don`t go to a beauty spot to enjoy yourselves and leave  it like this,take your crap home!

FREE RANGE EGGS

The National Trust organised a butterfly walk yesterday led by Matthew Oates a leading light in the world of butterfly conservation.The first objective was to see the long tailed blues at Kingsdown Lees which was accomplished before lunch.

He also pointed out some eggs

laid singly on the everlasting sweet pea ,with luck and good weather we may have our own adult butterflies in about 6 weeks.

It was a perfect day for the event and the afternoon was spent wandering around Lighthouse Down and South Foreland Valley,where we added brown argus and clouded yellow to the list.

 

 BROWN ARGUS

In the morning prior to the walk I had checked the elms near the light house to try one more time for a white letter hairstreak that had so far eluded me this year,it is very late for them now but my luck was in and one was found nectaring on tansy in a sunny clearing under the elm trees.

WHITE LETTER HAIRSTREAK

 On Tuesday at the Hoe,birds of note were a juvenile cuckoo  a few willow warblers,3 wheatears and several whitethroats,again it was butterflies to the forewith 5 clouded yellows the highlight.

 WILLOW WARBLER

 CLOUDED YELLOW

CLODED YELLOW

WHY THE LONG FACE?

With news of a long tailed blue butterfly at Kingsdown lees yesterday filtering through,I set off for Bockhill in overcast conditions this morning without great expectations,however the skies brightened and the sun came through as I walked down from the monument.Jack and Phil Chantler were at Hope Point and I joined them,after a short search in the everlasting sweet peas we got lucky and found the wee beast,it soon became evident this was not yesterdays butterfly as it was not so damaged.Soon after another was seen which had a nip out of  the right hind wing as had the original,so there were now two definite short tailed blues,the last Kent record was in 1957 according to JC so it is a pretty special arrival from southern Europe.

It is about the same size as our own common blue so it is quite an achievement to reach these shores.
Other bits and pieces from the last few days:-

 MEADOW BROWN

 GATEKEEPER

 WASP SPIDER WITH CHALKHILL BLUE FOR LUNCH.

 GREEN VEINED WHITE

 MAGPIE MOTH

COMMON BLUE freshly emerged 2nd generation.