Kearsney Birder

SOUND &VISION,LIFE&DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON

2012-01-17T20:50:00.000Z

After clearing the frost from the windscreen I arrived at Samphire Hoe just as the sun was coming up over France,with the sheep fed I walked along the back track by the railway to Woody Gully where a song thrush was in full song in the warming sunshine,

SONG THRUSH IN FULL VOICE,can you hear him?

This BLACKBIRD was only half hearted in his song.
Meanwhile

The LITTLE OWL slept through all the noise.
After lunch with lifebelts checked my attention was drawn to a now familiar sound : the kronk of a raven right over head at the Dover end of the sea wall.

RAVEN CALLING TO
ITS MATE
There followed a fine aerial ballet as the birds circled around

The distinctive wedge shaped tail can be seen here,then the resident peregrine falcons decided they didn`t much like the new noisy neighbours and tried to run them out of town,A long spectacular dogfight ensued over Shakespear Cliff

The action was taking place at quite a distance and was enthralling in the binoculars so this is the only photo of the two together,there was no winner and no blows were struck,can`t wait to see how things pan out.

One sad note was the demise of one of the many RAZORBILLS that have been around recently.....

Thats all folks,see you soon.

NORFOLK N CHANCE

2012-01-16T19:58:00.000Z

Friday was big twitch day,kindly invited by Martin Collins to see western sandpiper and lesser white fronted goose in faraway Norfolk,joined by Les Collins and Malcom Mcvail we set off at 6am and got to Buckenham Marshes at about 9.30.By midday we had found egyptian geese,canada geese,barnacle geese,white fronted geese,pink footed geese,bean geese and greylag geese,guess what the lesser w.f goose remained hidden until we had left the scene,well it was friday the 13th.Never mind the western sandpiper had been seen at Cley that morning,guess what it went to ground and stayed hidden all afternoon or was taken by a merlin as we arrived? who knows.

WIGEON AT BUCKENHAM

BRENT GOOSE AT CLEY

PINTAIL WIZARD

GOLDEN PLOVERS

As we drove away from Cley a barn owl was hunting in a field beside the road,a good way to end a day of dipping,serves you right for twitching do I hear?

AROUND AND ABOUT

2012-01-16T19:35:00.000Z

The last week has been a bit of a whirl with two funerals, a trip to Norfolk, and a whizz round locally.
The little owl is still at the Hoe.....

LITTLE OWL

PIED WAGTAIL

GREAT SPOT AT LARKEY VALLEY WOODS.
There were also a full set of tits here and bullfinch but no sign of hawfinch.

A sunset lit CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL from Larkey Valley

RUFF ROUND THE EDGES

2012-01-09T21:56:00.000Z

Friday found four of us at Dungeness for the day with the sole intent of boosting the year list; messrs Wells, Woolhouse ,Mcvail, and myself went first to the fishing boats for the glaucous gull which was found easily enough the caspian gull was not.The ARC pits had drake smew and goldeneye to drool over and a couple of chiffs on the willow trail were a bonus kingfisher and tree sparrow were good too.The long tailed duck was on the RSPB reserve and two great egrets were quite active.From here it was Scotney and finallyWalland marsh for the Bewick swans and the harrier roost with a Merlin for good measure..A very good days birding with lots of sunshine and about 70 species seen.

KINGFISHER ARC PITS

LONG TAILED DUCK

LONG TAILED DUCK IN A FLAP

LONG TAILED DUCK

GREAT WHITE EGRET

TWO OF THE 33 BEWICKS SAWNS ON WALLAND MARSH.
Apologies for the poor quality pics but nothing came close today.

Today Monday it was the turn of Oare to add to the list; I want to get to a 100 before going to India,I was picked up at 8 by Charlie Stokes and arrived about half an hour later. The light was dismal but there were plenty of ducks and waders on view,and a single greenshank from the west hide had the honour of bringing up my century,got there before Sachin Tendulkar(lol).After lunch there was time for a quick visit to Stodmarsh and a sticky walk to the marsh hide was rewarded with water rail, snipe,ruff water pipit and redshank .

RUFF

WATER RAIL

REDSHANK

RUFF No 2 from the Marsh hide
There was no sign of the Glossy Ibis presumably disturbed by the ground works that have taken place recently,which should pay dividends in the spring.

WET WILD AND WINDY

2012-01-05T15:34:00.000Z

2012 started on a dull overcast note then got wet wild and windy through the first few days.As new years eve had taken on a gallon of beer I unlike the england scrum half walked. Starting from home my walk took in Bushy Ruff,a sad sight indeed with just a couple of puddles left,hopefully the recent rains will fill the aquifers and set the springs running again soon,Kearsney Abbey where thankfully there is still a reasonable flow,here I found KINGFISHER,LITTLE GREBE,TREECREEPER,GOLDCREST,GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER,REDWING and GREY WAGTAIL,moving on through the village of River following the Dour I found GREY HERON and WATER RAIL.In the town centre a LITTLE EGRET was perched in a conifer in the steadily falling drizzle ,it was decision time to go to the pier or call it a day?Iwent to the pier getting absolutely drenched in the process,there were still thirty or so GANNETS feeding in the harbour entrance and RAZORBILL AND GUILLEMOT numbers were increasing, I was not the only mad person as two other birders from London were perched in the lee of the cafe,luckily for me they offered me a lift home which was gratefully accepted ,if you read this thankyou once again.Sorry there are no pics but as it was so dull I didn`t even take the camera out.
However here are some taken yesterday wed 4th I think.

Juv KITTIWAKE walking on water.

Adult KITTIWAKE sinking in the water.

RAZORBILL

Razorbills are outnumbering guillemots about 4:1 which is amazing for Dover Harbour where you are lucky to see a couple a year,it is also a very unusual event to have gannets feeding inside the walls of the harbour,I can only assume that large sprat and /or herring shoals are present.

GUILLEMOT.
Yesterday also provided a rare bird in the form of a GREEN WINGED TEAL at Sandwich Bay

GREEN WINGED TEAL a visitor from America,very similar to our teal but with a vertical white stripe on the breast not horizontal on the wing.

American on the left Eurasian on the right.

CURLEWS on Rest Harrow Scrape.

AUKS AT HOE

2011-12-28T10:48:00.000Z

With festivities over it was back to normal yesterday and volunteer duties to be done at the Hoe.After giving the sheep their breakfast I did the rounds and as it was pretty dull didn`t bother to lug the camera around,of course when you do this there is always something turns up.Today it was a razorbill and a shag feeding just off the sea wall,in the end I managed a couple of shots of the razorbill and a guillemot but with the dull day the usual excuses apply.

RAZORBILL

DIVE DIVE DIVE.

GREY HERON HEADING FOR SOME ROCK POOLING.

GUILLEMOT

GUILLEMOT SCULLING.

Further out there were at least 20 more razorbills and a dozen or so gannets and several red throated divers feeding presumably on a shoal of sprats or herrings.
Back on dry land we have recently taken custody of five young cows,but I think one of them was crossed with a giant panda.

CHI CHI THE COW.

If I don`t see you before "HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL."

BLACK MAGIC AT OARE

2011-12-23T15:44:00.000Z

A lovely sunny day at Oare yesterday was good value for the diesel used with lots of waders and ducks on show topped off late afternoon with a merlin and a short eared owl.Waders included avocet,dunlin,lapwing,ruff,black tailed godwit,grey plover,curlew, redshank,ringed plover,oystercatcher,snipe,turnstone and golden plover.Ducks seen were wigeon,teal,mallard,pintail(14),shoveller,tufted duck, and red breasted merganser(4) including two drakes flying west up the Swale.
Not much variety on the camera I`m afraid just black tailed godwits,and a couple of merlin record shots.
BLACK TAILED GODWITS

BLACK.T..GODWITS

FEEDING ON THE SWALE MUD.

TWO-THREE -ONE FORMATION PROBING.

FEMALE MERLIN at a respectable distance.

MERLIN in silhouette(magic)
This will almost certainly be the last post before christmas unless something good turns up in the harbour tomorrow,so have a good time eat drink and be merry as I certainly hope to and I`ll be back soon.

GLAUCOUS IS WILLING

2011-12-12T19:21:00.001Z

Dungeness Monday starring Malcom McVail as the get away driver in this tale of unrequited twitching,target birds Bewick swans and Penduline tits.Ten years ago a day that included Little Egret,Great white Egret,Bittern x2,Marsh Harrier,Long tailed Duck and Glaucous Gull would have been marvellous ,well it was pretty good today too but the targets did not show until we had left and were in West Hythe watching the Rough Legged Buzzard.

GLAUCOUS GULL Complete with new tail he may be able to go back up north next year now.

GLAUCOUS GULL in flight this is now a second winter bird I think and will eventually look like this.

ADULT GLAUCOUS GULL at Dungeness January 2009

Theres another storm warning out for tomorrow so the sea wall at the Hoe will be closed all day,but it should be spectacular wave watching and maybe the odd storm wrecked bird.

HARBOUR MASTER

2011-12-12T18:51:00.001Z

The undoubted master of Dover harbour in the last week has been the great northern diver which has been hanging around the inner harbour and on friday last even ventured into the Wellington dock as far as De Bradleis.

GREAT NORTHERN DIVER in THE WELLINGTON DOCK

As well as this fantastic visitor GUILLEMOTS continue to frequent the harbour,least half a dozen KITTIWAKES can be seen scouting for food around the pier,a MEDITERRANEAN GULL put in a brief appearance and on Saturday a female COMMON SCOTER was diving for crabs 100 yards out from the pier.A raft of 23 GREAT CRESTED GREBES AND 7 TURNSTONES were also around over the weekend,rock pipits also put in the occasional appearance.
KITTIWAKE

MED GULL

GUILLEMOT

COMMON SCOTER

COMMON SCOTER a diving duck that breeds in northern europe and in small numbers in Scotland,usually seen in large flocks in winter.

ROCK PIPIT

DOVER DIVERS

2011-12-05T15:53:00.000Z

After a brief sighting of a GREAT NORTHERN DIVER on Sunday afternoon I returned to the harbour at sun up to see if it had stayed overnight,my luck was in and the bird was very close to the shore and stayed around all morning seemingly doing a circuit of the outer harbour then returning to the pier.It was seen catching small crabs and a couple of small dabs,it was also seen snorkelling in the clear water.They are Arctic birds with about 300 pairs breeding in Iceland and are quite rare here in the south east of England with just a few turning up each winter.

AN EARLY START

When I got to the pier the Diver was close in lying very low in the water.

GREAT NORTHERN DIVER

CATCHING CRABS

I took over 350 photos in the session and with Steves Ray Reaynart and Ashton,Tony Morris and Colin Fisher all clicking awayit must be the most photographed diver of the winter so far.

MORE CRAB FOR BREAKFAST.

SNORKELLING

A DAB FOR LUNCH Later in the morning a RED THROATED DIVER showed up briefly following its larger cousin along the shoreline.

RED THROATED DIVER these are smaller and more common around the coast of Kent.
Near the lifeboat station a single GUILLEMOT was loafing around the various craft in the marina it never came close but here is what he looked like.

GUILLEMOT
In the Wellington dock which is tidal at present while the lock gates are being repaired three cormorants were feeding on small fish.

EMERALD EYES OF THE CORMORANT

All morning we were under what in my opinion is the finest castle in Britain if not the world and I could not resist taking its portrait once more.

CASTLE DUBRIS

ROMAN PHAROS AND THE GARRISON CHURCH

STORMS AND SPARROWS

2011-12-03T17:40:00.000Z

I have had a couple of requests from squeamish readers to remove the wood pigeon from the blog hopefully the demotion to no.2 will satisfy them.Tuesdays gale meant the sea wall was closed at Samphire Hoe because the weight of water coming ashore was spectacular to say the least

After Tuesdays gale and Thursdays deluge(37mm) a trip to Dungeness was on the cards on Friday,a rare calm day at this mid channel point.Although there were plenty of wildfowl on show and a nice bittern flew in front of the Hanson hide not a lot troubled the cameras as they kept a safe distance from the hides.

SYNCHRONISED DABBLING GADWALL

DRAKE GADWALL

All of the common ducks were on view and several goldeneye have arrived since my last visit,the female long tailed duck is still on the ARC pit and the long staying drake goosander was also seen.
Whenever I see a tree sparrow I always think of the old joke when Paddy sees a sign saying tree fellers wanted,pity there`s only two of us says Mick,alright please yourself.Anyway there is a healthy increase in the numbers of tree sparrows at Boulderwall Farm at the entrance to the reserve,now nearing thirty individuals evidently.

TREE SPARROW AT BOULDERWALL FARM.
After this I went on a wild swan chase across Walland Marsh finding only mute swans,but near the wind farm another small flock of tree sparrows was found in a mixed group of finches and reed buntings.

TREE SPARROW AT HOOK WALL

GREAT TIT came to have a look at the car.
At Scotney on the border between Kent and Sussex the wild goose chase ended with a flock of about 100 Barnacle geese whether they are truly wild is debatable but nevertheless they are handsome birds.

BARNACLE GEESE

THE UGLIEST BIRD IN TOWN

2011-11-25T17:02:00.000Z

This unfortunate wood pigeon has turned up in my garden and spends all of its time picking up the left overs from the seed feeders,it seems to get enough to survive but has problems drinking from the water bowls,dribbling most of it down its front,I know" it sounds like me on friday night".

GROTESQUELY DEFORMED WOOD PIGEON
After the Little Shop of Horrors its back to a semblance of normality with some improved shots of the SAM HO little owl being obtained on Tuesday along with some more fungii.

LITTLE OWL

FAIRY CLUBS

EARTH TONGUES

MUSHROOMS

The highlight of the day was a Short Eared Owl hunting along the cliff face as the afternoon light faded,no pics of this one but here`s one I made earlier

SHORT EARED OWLS Ancient Highway Sandwich

SHADES OF GREY

2011-11-13T21:32:00.001Z

A beautiful sunny sunday morning on Langdon Cliffs would have been uneventful if it had not been for the arrival of a superb great grey shrike.It was first sighted briefly before taking flight but was relocated a few minutes later it hung around for about ten minutes before flying towards the radar masts at Swingate.

GREAT GREY SHRIKE in LANGDON HOLE

GREAT GREY SHRIKE.
While on the subject of great grey birds a visit to Dunge last thursday left me with a conundrum,assuming that a great egret had been photographed from the path near the raptor viewing mound ,I thought no more about it and went on to see the long tailed duck from the Hanson hide;when the pictures were downloaded however it was clear something was not quite right and I think this bird is a leucistic grey heron.

GREY HERON?? Any thoughts?
The yellow legged gull had been seen near the fishing boats earlier and had paraded on a nearby roof by doing a goose step.

GOOSE STEP GULL

HERRING GULL A5WR AT DUNGENESS

GREY PARTRIDGES (ancient highway)

ROUGH LEGS AT THE ROUGHS

2011-11-10T20:41:00.000Z

As most of you will know a Rough Legged Buzzard has taken up residence at the old gravel works at West Hythe opposite the Roughs appropriately enough.The Roughs are a rough area of ground below the escarpment west of Hythe which are subject to regular landslips and have never been built on for obvious reasons,apart from that is a wartime listening ear which can still be seen but is fenced off these days as it is in a parlous state.I digress,back to the buzzard,while on the phone to Ian Roberts as to where best to see the bird I turned around and there it was 100 yards behind me.
When I found it again it was sat on one of the big earth pyramids being formed on the site,it soon took off and was lost to view.

the first encounter
After this it was a case of wait and see and eventually it came round again,hovering kestrel like and seemingly finding plenty of prey,which is usually small mammals.

The feathered legs from which the name derives can be seen here.

Then it was back to earth again.

LIGHT SNOW AT THE HOE

2011-11-08T19:55:00.000Z

It was very quiet at Samphire Hoe today,hardly any visitors,just me and the sheep for company,the poor old ram has done himself a mischief and has gone lame,no fun for him for a while.
Blackbirds,redwings robins and song thrushes filled the bushes half a dozen stonechats were found, two flocks of siskins flew east and solitary wheatear and black redstart were on the sea wall.Best of all though was a snow bunting picking about the rock sea lavender on the wall.It was so dull I hadn`t bothered to take my camera out so I hightailed it back to the office picked up my trusty nikon and went back to the wall,luckily the male bird was still happily feeding,Ipushed the ISO up to 800 before getting a reasonable shutter speed and clicked off a few shots before leaving him to his seed eating.

SNOW BUNTING

BLACK REDSTART.

THE HOE WILL BE CLOSED TOMORROW (WEDNESDAY) AND THURSDAY 10TH FOR ESSENTIAL TRAFFIC LIGHT WORK.

INTO THE GLOOM

2011-11-07T17:35:00.000Z

Hibernation appears to be quite a good option at the moment,sleep thro the winter and wake up when the sun shines in the spring,I hate these dull gloomy november days.
The last week hasn`t been all doom and gloom however with a good number of birds at SAM HO ,the glossy ibis showed up at Stodmarsh on wednesday and the curlew sandpiper at sandwich was good,the owls didn`t show up on the ancient highway,that was not good.
The harbour sheltered several med gulls on friday with a guillemot,10 turnstones an arctic tern and a kingfisher.One of the Mediterranean gulls unfortunately had a fishing hook in its mouth!
ATTENTION ALL ANGLERS TAKE YOUR BAITED HOOKS HOME WITH YOU!!!

DAWN TRADER IN THE CHANNEL

WHEATEAR ON THE WALL

SEA SLATER A PRE HISTORIC CREATURE FOR HALLOWEEN?

A DISTANT GLOSSY IBIS (For Steve Ashton)

FOX on the mud from the FEAST HIDE at Stodmarsh

LITTLE GREBE

FEMALE SHOVELLER

SELECTION OF COLOURFUL FUNGII

CURLEW SANDPIPER

GREY PARTRIDGE

GREY PARTRIDGES

MED GULL with fish hook.

TURNSTONE

One of ten on the Prince of Wales pier

I do not know what fate awaits this young gull but it is so easily avoidable by not leaving discarded fishing hooks laying around on the beach or piers.

AUTUMNAL MOTHS

2011-10-31T21:07:00.000Z

A couple of female snow buntings in the stubble on the cliffs were the highlight of sunday morning and a rough legged buzzard floating over Lydden hill on sunday afternoon was even better.
The moth trap hasn`t been out lately but the last few nights its been on and here are some of the autumn favourites.

GREEN BRINDLED CRESCENT

BLAIRS SHOULDER KNOT

FEATHERED THORN

YELLOW LINED QUAKER

NOVEMBER MOTH

Wonderful names as ever.

STRANGERS ON THE SHORE

2011-10-27T17:49:00.000+01:00

After the hectic week in Norfolk it was back to the patch on monday,with an after lunch stroll around Langdon cliffs,nothing much to report from there,but a call from Steve Ray had me scurrying down to the Prince of Wales pier where he had seen a GREY PHALAROPE,it was not immediately evident when I got there,but it soon appeared again ,I had forgotten how small they are,superficially like a tiny black headed gull,it was in the shadow of the pier picking morsels of food from the surface.The birds breed in Iceland and spend the winter at sea off the coast of west Africa.

GREY PHALAROPE

GREY PHALAROPE is also known as RED PHALAROPE as in breeding plumage it becomes a deep terracotta red.
A single PURPLE SANDPIPER was also found on the beach opposite the Gateway flats,this bird also breeds in Iceland and other Arctic regions,it spends the winter in small groups feeding amongst rocks and seaweed covered surfaces,there used to be a group that regularly wintered on the hoverpad but this has diminished over the last few years,now preferring the new rock sea defences at Hythe.

PURPLE SANDPIPER.

A few bits and pieces from Tuesday at Samphire Hoe;

PIED WAGTAIL resting on the wall.

WHEATEAR migration has slowed to a trickle now.

ROCK PIPIT numbers are building up,can reach 30-40 birds in the winter.

GOLDFINCH flocks have been on the move recently foraging on teasles and thistles.

The troglodyte LITTLE OWL has returned to its cave on the cliffs.

A less pleasing find on the beach near the clock tower today was a dead gannet,there was no obvious injury so it may have died of starvation,but that is not certain.

This gannets 6 foot wing span will never take to the air again.

The gannets large webbed feet are lined with pale green ribs,something you rarely see.

The more I look at this poor beast it does look quite emaciated but that may be because it was very wet.

TIME AND TIDE or THE WASH UNPLUGGED

2011-10-26T15:06:00.000+01:00

Friday,the last day of the Norfolk trip had been earmarked for Snettisham,the RSPB reserve beloved of TV documentaries where millions of waders come to roost when the tide pushes them of the muddy shores of the Wash.It was the best day of the week weatherwise and I think more species of bird were seen here than the other venues including scaup, spotted redshank,and greenshank.High tide was at 13:52 so we had a while to wait,the channel where the shrimp boats were operating seemed several miles away,so all the hides were visited in turn ,some more than once,and we waited then waited some more,eventually 13:52 arrived and the tide was at its maximum for the day.

WAITING FOR THE TIDE

13:52pm 21.10.11 THE TIDE IS HIGH,It turned out to be the lowest high tide of the month,(LOL)
Next friday the tide will be up here at the top of the shingle,we did have a good chuckle about it.

MIKE "CANUTE"BRIGGS Our beloved leader. Anyway we did see flocks of knot and golden plover flying about in the distance,so we will have to come back another day for a close up view.

It was decided to give Titchwell another go as a last little treat,it was a lot quieter than the first visit,but there were still a lot of loud people in the island hide so I headed for the beach.

DRAKE TEAL

SANDERLING

SANDERLING" FOREVER ALERT"

GREY PLOVER Still in summer plumage,just.

I just sat very still on the stump of an old timber groyne and eventually the grey plover came close enough to get some reasonable shots.

This OYSTERCATCHER too came within range.

TITCHWELL BEACH LOOKING EAST from the ruins of the old pill box,you can just make out my old groyne,if you`ll pardon the expression in the middle ground.
A superb trip enjoyed by all a big thankyou to Mike&Lesley, and finally a message to Steve and Liz,Martin and I" WILL" beat you at crib one day.

IT ALL CAME OUT IN THE WASH

2011-10-26T10:53:00.000+01:00

You guessed it I went out with my camera and bins,I walked from the hotel along the beach to Hunstanton and back it was a fabulous afternoon,superb weather and lots of waders as well as interesting geology.

BAR TAILED GODWIT

SANDERLING

TURNSTONE

THE BEACH AT OLD HUNSTANTON.

HUNSTANTON CLIFFS

These cliffs are made up in three layers,an iron rich sandstone at the base,hunstanton red chalk in the middle and normal chalk on top.

SANDSTONE BOULDERS LITTER THE SHORE.

REDSHANK

KESTREL HUNTING AT HUNSTANTON

THIS NOT SO COMMON GULL HAD FOUND A DEAD MACKEREL AND WAS NOT LEAVING.

RINGED PLOVER

KNOT OR KNOTS?

DUNLIN

REDSHANK

BAR TAILED GODWIT

BTG DIGGING DEEP.

ONE FINAL BAR TAILED GODWIT.
If you are quiet,stealthy and patient you can get quite close to waders on the beach,it beats sitting in a noisy hide anyday.

HOLME IS WHERE THE HEART IS.

2011-10-26T10:00:00.000+01:00

Thursday morning the whole group except for the lost handbag brigade went to Holme bird observatory,where some of the ladies were introduced to ringing,unfortunately there were only common birds caught during our stay,a short sea watch found a bonxie,gannets,guillemot and red throated divers.A boardwalk takes you out into the saltmarsh behind the dunes where there were curlew,little egret,knot,redshank,and more bar tailed godwits.

KNOT

A CALLING CURLEW can you hear it?

A pair of BLACK TAILED GODWITS decided to have a dust up over a lug worm or something!

It went on

And on

and on

and on.

until peace was restored.

HOLME BEACH

SEAWATCHERS.

BIG SKY AND SALTMARSH
We were given the afternoon off on Thursday,guess what I did,find out in the next posting.

NB No Godwits were hurt during the writing of this blog.

NORFOLK OR BUST

2011-10-24T22:59:00.000+01:00

Nineteen members from Sandwich Bay met at Hanningfield Reservoir in Essex on monday morning,some,the early ones were lucky enough to see the ring billed gull,the later arrivals had to make do with a slavonian grebe and little stint as consolation.After this it was a treasure trail to the Ouse Washes in Cambridgeshire for tree sparrows and the first whooper swans of the winter.

ELY CATHEDRAL from the OUSE WASHES.

FAMILY GROUP OF WHOOPER SWANS.
From here we made tracks for our hotel in Old Hunstanton.
On Tuesday morning we all set off for Titchwell RSPB reserve,by the time we got there the car park was already overflowing,and the hides and footpath down to the beach were like the M25 on a friday afternoon,not my idea of birding at all,but we did manage a spotted redshank and a jack snipe,taking photos was not really an option here as the birds were distant and you risked being pushed into the water by uncompromising old ladies armed with walking poles and camouflage clothing,if you stopped for any time.

GREY PLOVER ON THE SALTMARSH AT TITCHWELL.

After lunch a visit to Holkham Hall gave us good views of Fallow deer and two new birds for the trip Nuthatch and Egyptian geese.

FALLOW DEER STAG The rut was just getting started and the stags were bellowing and getting ready to fight all comers.

Well some were.
Wednesday found us at Cley,the Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve,again it was pretty crowded,but not as bad as yesterday.NWT have built a large new HQ over the road from the reserve,its a bit like a motorway services with shop cafe and toilets,marvellous you can sit and watch the birds from the grandstand,no need to get cold or wet or muddy!is this the future?armchair birding.Not for me.

BLACK TAILED GODWITS

Enough of the grumpy old man act,we had good views of lots of birds here at Cley,including more Whooper swans Black tailed Godwits,Marsh Harriers and various ducks.

WHOOPER SWANS

BRENT GEESE were numerous on the NORFOLK COAST.

SHOVELLER

BLACK TAILED GODWIT

THE FAMOUS CLEY WINDMILL.
Late afternoon found everyone at Holcomb Gap to watch the spectacle of thousands of Pink Footed Geese coming in to roost,well we saw them in the distance,they would choose a different roost today wouldn`t they.

PINK FOOTED GEESE below the cloud base.

MORE PFGs

Some did come a bit closer.

HOLCOMB SUNSET

RED OCTOBER

2011-10-16T15:05:00.000+01:00

SUNRISE OVER DUNKIRK

BRENT GEESE MOVING EAST

FEMALE WIGEON AT SAMPHIRE HOE

FIELDFARE LANGDON HOLE

REDWING BOCKHILL

SNIPE RESTHARROW SCRAPE

PEREGRINE AT LANGDON CLIFFS SUNDAY MORNING.

A LATE PAINTED LADY.No its not dead just resting.

KEARSNEY SUNSET

GREECE--MYTHOS BUT NO LEGENDS

2011-10-12T12:10:00.000+01:00

Have just returned from a weeks break in Skiathos,not on a birding trip,just a sunny holiday,the weather was perfect,but you always find time for watching birds and butterflies whether on the beach , hiking in the hills,or having an ouzo on the balcony.I have never been to Greece in October before and finding birds was a struggle,most of their summer visitors had departed which meant there was not a lot new to see.Spotted flycatchers were everywhere as were chiffchaffs and blackcaps,red backed shrikes and sardinian warblers were reasonably common as were red rumped swallows.Raptors were infrequent just buzzards kestrel and sparrowhawk with half a dozen elenoras seen at dusk looking for migrants to eat A single Hoopoe seen flying away, an arrival of whinchats one day, and the resident Kingfisher on the beach was about it really,oh nearly forgot the Scops owls calling in the evening is always special.

IRON MAIDENS WORLD TOUR JET AT GATWICK

DOVER FROM THE AIR

SNOW ON THE ALPS

THE BLUE MOUNTAINS

THE BEER OF GREECE

MIXED SOUVLAKI WITH GREEK POTATOES- LOVELY GRUB!

CATHS SEA FOOD PLATTER.

THERES A SCOPS OWL THERE SOMEWHERE HONEST.
After the high life comes the wild life.

SPOTTED FLYCATCHER

THE UBIQUITOUS HOODED CROW.

RED BACKED SHRIKE

RED BACKED SHRIKE.

CHIFF CHAFF
One morning from the balcony a family group of red rumped swallows were perched on the wires nearby,the three youngsters must have just fledged as they were still being fed by the parents.

Now for butterflies and other insects

CLOUDED YELLOW

I thought this may have been a PALE CLOUDED YELLOW but subsequently think its a female CLOUDED YELLOW.

Not many PAINTED LADIES reached us this year but there were lots here.

SOUTHERN WHITE ADMIRAL

LANGS SHORT TAILED BLUE

LANGS S T BLUE.

HUMMING BIRD HAWK MOTH.

UNIDENTIFIED RED DARTER?answers on a post card please.

One last piece of wildlife;Cathy in cheeky mood after a couple of sun downer Ouzo and Sprites.

AND ITS GOODNIGHT FROM HER AND ITS GOODNIGHT FROM HIM.
SKIATHOS SUNSET FROM THE BALCONY.

S.O.S. SAMPHIRE O STODMARSH.

2011-09-28T20:11:00.000+01:00

Managed at last to get a half decent shot of one of the black redstarts at the Hoe yesterday,it was one of the youngsters but its quite an achievement to get close to these wary critters.It was a superb day yesterday just like high summer weatherwise and good numbers of birds too,nothing out of the ordinary but a good mix of species.

SPARROWHAWK

DUNNOCK

CHIFF CHAFF

BLACK REDSTART

BLACK REDSTART one of half a dozen youngsters successfully readred at the Hoe this year.

STONECHAT a few more in evidence as autumn approaches.

HARBOUR PORPOISE DECEASED ON ABBOTSCLIFF BEACH,THE GREAT BLACK BACK GULLS WERE THE WOULD BE BRAIN SURGEONS On that happy note we leave Samphire Hoe and head for Stodmarsh on a warm misty Wednesday morning

BEARDED REEDLING or to give it its popular name BEARDED TIT, there were good numbers roaming the reed beds today and the largest flock of some twenty odd birds came to me while I was photographing a spiders web,I became aware of a clamour behind me and they posed nicely for a few minutes.

This must be a young female as it has no beard but it certainly appears to have the second half of the equation!!!!!

THE WEB OF THE LACE CURTAIN SPIDER.???

ROSE COLOURED SPECTACLE

2011-09-23T18:42:00.000+01:00

Dungeness Friday a quiet but nonetheless interesting day,quite superb weatherwise,started at the point with an hours seawatch,a few skuas lots of terns a little gull at the patch and a lot of swallows heading out to sea.
There was not a lot to be seen at the obs so it was off to the ARC pits and the RSPB Reserve,again it was fairly quiet until Dengemarsh where there were 8 bearded tits,,3 snipe ,2 greenshank,a hobby,lots of swallows and sand martins,and the great white egret showed well.It was at this point when an incoming text alerted us to a juvenile ROSE COLOURED STARLING back at the Obs.It was an opportunity not to be missed so back to the car and back to the point,the bird had obviously moved to near the new lighthouse by the time we arrived,as three or four birders had it in view there.It continued to give good views intermitently,but not close enough for anything but record shots.

ROSE COLOURED STARLING with normal starling on left.

JUVENILE ROSE COLOURED STARLING DUNGENESS 23.09.2011

REED WARBLER ARC PITS

LITTLE EGRET ARC PITS

JUV BEARDED TIT

MALE BEARDED TIT DENGEMARSH. Although the young starling is not the most impressive bird most will never see it is a fairly rare occurence for one to turn up in Kent,and it was a first ever for me ,so it made the day a memorable one.

BRIMSTONE & BLERIOT

2011-09-19T10:10:00.000+01:00

Last Wednesday I had decided to tidy up the garden clean out the nest boxes shed and pond ,no sooner had I started an incoming text about the long tailed skua at Dunge gave me doubts but with a will of iron resisted the temptation and carried on with the chores.My reward for staying at home was a superb Brimstone butterfly turning up in the afternoon to feed on my michaelmas daisies and having achieved all of my goals a feeling of satisfaction.

BRIMSTONE AT KEARSNEY WED 14.9.11.
Another beautiful morning on thursday found a big fall of chiff chaffs at Langdon Hole as well as blackcaps lesser and common whitethroats,wheatears,ravens,a marsh harrier and good numbers of swallows and martins heading south.

THE MOON IN THE MORNING.
Having had such a good morning went down to the Hoe to see what had turned up there,more of the same and a free airshow to boot with a spitfire and hurricane zooming up and down the coast it being Battle of Britain day.There was also the sight of a channel swim starting from the west beach,I am told being a pilot or an observer on a cross channel swim is one of the most boring jobs in the world,but swimming the channel is a great feat of endurance,and evidently more humans have climbed Everest than done this crossing!!

HURRICANE

SPITFIRE

UNKNOWN CHANNEL SWIMMER(the hard bit)

PILOT BOAT AND OBSERVERS(the boring bit)

SPITFIRE MAKING ANOTHER PASS

Friday morning did an early sea watch at St Margarets Bay with Malcom McVail a few bits and pieces

gannets ,terns ,a bonxie an avocet,distant unidentified ducks,a juv kittiwake and a couple of med gulls made the notebookand a kestrel chasing a bat around the car park was an unusual sight,the kestrel had no chance of catching the bat by the way.

After breakfast headed for Oare,filling up with diesel at Wincheap on the way,why is fuel 5p a litre cheaper in Canterbury???

Oare provided the usual fare with large flocks of black tailed godwit, avocet, and golden plover,with bar tailed godwit, ruff ,dunlin ,a curlew sandpiper and a pair of hobbies making up the numbers.Teal and wigeon numbers appear to be increasing and a large goldfinch / linnet flock was good to see.

CURLEW SANDPIPER

GOLDEN PLOVER

SHEPHERD &NEAME THAMES BARGE ENTERING THE SWALE

JUVENILE COMMON TERN DOVER HARBOUR SAT17.9.11

COMMON SEAL P.O.W.PIER DOVER.It was being fed herrings by a fisherman.
On Sunday the highlight of the morning was a replica of Louis Bleriots plane appearing over the clifftop

It must have been heading for an airshow somewhere as the original flight took place on July 25th 1909,so there is no special anniversary.
The afternoon was perfect for raptor activity but only one buzzard came close to the garden

ANOTHER TATTY BUZZARD, OVER THE GARDEN.

A BIT OF A BLOW AT THE HOE

2011-09-13T22:09:00.000+01:00

Although the wind was not as strong as yesterday it was still blowin a hoolie, but had swung round to the west so the waves were not overtopping the wall,which was open today.
Four grey wagtails were a bit of a surprise on the seawall,but four wheatears weren`t,nothing much on the sea considering the blustery conditions just three Med gulls of any note.

WHEATEARS ON THE WALL.

As promised a couple of weeks ago some better wasp spider photos were obtained today when the sun shone.

FEMALE WASP SPIDER
Like many spiders she likes a snack after mating,unluckily for the male he`s usually on the menu.
On the subject of sex,the Adonis Blue was caught in the act,not far from the wasp spider,it all happens at the Hoe you know.

ADONIS BLUE MALE

ADONIS BLUE FEMALE.

MENAGE A TROIS.
.

Although two are coupled the second male does not give up.

This colony of mining bees is at the west end of the Hoe and according to my insect book there are about 60 different species in britain,so if anybody can identify this one or would like to come and see for themselves be my guest.

ANORAKS AT THE READY

2011-09-09T19:41:00.000+01:00

For those of you at the thursday evening talk at SBBO last night,who remembers the tanker going through the Panama Canal,not many of you I expect,well it just so happens that the very same tanker passed through the English Channel just a few days ago and here it is

STENA FR 81 off Dover 28.8.11
Sorry about the digression,but it was too good a coincidence to pass up.
Today it was Backsand again,where there was nothing out of t`ordinary so leaving Steve Ray to the coffee mug I proceeded to Restharrow.Here there were 3 ruff 4 dunlin and single greenshank green sandpiper wood sandpiper,little ringed plover and last and definitely least was a little stint which makes the dunlin look huge..

GREENSHANK

RUFF

LITTLE STINT

LITTLE STINT smaller even than LITTLE RINGED PLOVER

LITTLE STINT, L.R.PLOVER AND DUNLINx4
A good variety of waders in a small area,seen by a good variety of birders whilst I was there too.

LOUIS ARMSTRONG TO OLIVER CROMWELL via MARCONI

2011-09-06T18:08:00.000+01:00

The LOUIS ARMSTRONG pub in Dover held a five day beer festival this weekend,managed to support it for three evenings,good ale good bands and good company,well done.
Saturday morning had a walk along pier at Dover to blow away the cobwebs,it was covered in a thick sea fret when I got there but slowly cleared to reveal a couple of cruise liners berthed.

COSTA PACIFICA

SEABOURN SOJOURN

Dover Rugby Club opened their league campaign on Saturday afternoon with a terrific 28-6 win over Portsmouth for any fans of running rugby come down to Crabble and have a look ;and its free.
The Relics a very good PINK FLOYD tribute band entertained a good crowd at the Louis in the evening.
Walked to St Margarets on Sunday morning,not a lot of birds about but a pair of ravens were in Langdon Hole,a few swallows and sand martins were flying gamely into a strengthening breeze and four late swifts followed on.
The first international radio transmission was received at the South Foreland Lighthouse on March 27th 1899,when Marconi transmitted from Wimereux across the channel.Dover Radio Club were encamped there
on Sunday making transmissions with lots of aerials in the grounds.

MULTIPLE AERIALS AT SOUTH FORELAND.
Back home in the moth trap was this well marked SILVER Y,normally they look quite dull after migrating from the continent,could this one have been bred here I wonder?

SILVER Y

As you may have read on other blogs OLIVER CROMWELL paid a visit on Sunday afternoon Icaught up with him at Kearsney Station in the persistent drizzle,luckily it was on time.

OLIVER CROMWELL
Monday morning was bright and very breezy and after clearing the debris from my kitchen headed for Dungeness to try once again for the cattle egret,which at last granted me an audience,a UK first for me,which warranted a record shot at the very least.

CATTLE EGRET Boulderwall Farm.
Met up with Barry Woolhouse and Malcom McVail at the fishing boats ,Barry told me later that he lost his specs there so if anyone finds them you know whos they are cheers.

WADING IN

2011-09-02T18:10:00.001+01:00

I`ve been on the hunt for curlew sandpiper for the past few weeks and finally caught up with a single bird at Backsand this afternoon,but missed the little stints that have been hanging out at Restharrow.Two visits to Oare last week were interesting but not fantastic with lots of black tailed godwits,avocets and redshank making the volume and golden plover, ruff, and knot in the supporting cast.A trek to Backsand finally paid dividends today with the single bird that stubbornly kept its distance and then a young peregrine scattered everything to the four winds bringing a premature end to my visit.

BLACK TAILED GODWIT on the stretch.

RUFF and B T GODWIT

KNOT and REDSHANK

RUFF The hunchback of Oare

BLACK TAILED GODWIT

CURLEW SANDPIPER with redshank showing white rump.

CURLEW SANDPIPER as close as it came before the peregrine.
There were plenty of greenshank green and common sandpipers redshank and dunlin on the scrape as well as a couple of wigeon a dozen teal and two tufted ducks,also half a dozen little egrets were particularly noisy and feisty toward each other.
Nothing much else to report except for an unsuccessful search for two Dotterel at Abbotscliff on wednesday afternoon with Paul and Derek from the Hoe.

DEREK SMITH with a ship on his shoulder after dotterel failure.
My first autumnal encounter with the St Margarets ringers on thursday morning was interesting for the number of birds netted (about 120) when you could see or hear very few ,you do wonder sometimes what you miss.It was mainly the common warblers being caught the exception being a grasshopper warbler,caught of course before my arrival,the last bird rung was also unusual as it was a mistle thrush,not caught very often evidently.Another bird of note was my first Ring Ouzel of the autumn,a juvenile bird at Fan Bay.

MISTLE THRUSH looking a bit tatty in its moult.
A clouded yellow was seen on Sunday morning at the cliffs,my first of the year and this speckled wood was enjoying the warm sunshine.

SPECKLED WOOD.

MAMMATUS MONDAY

2011-08-24T17:49:00.000+01:00

As the weather forecast for Tuesday was awful I went to the Hoe on monday,"it will be warm and sunny"said Carol,and so it was for about half an hour,then the clouds rolled in from France and it rained for the rest of the day,only drizzle admittedly but enough to keep the butterfly transect off the menu.Tuesday said Carol would be torrential rain up to 50mm we would all drown!did we? no we had a couple of heavy showers for about 5 minutes in the morning and that was it,the wonders of modern technology.
Mondays clouds were most impressive and should have brought storms and a deluge but didn`t.

MAMMATUS CLOUDS OVER THE CHANNEL

. Before the cloud cover arrived this female common blue was seen sunning itself on the sheep grazed bank.

COMMON BLUE female,
The first wasp spider I have seen this year was also located in the longer grass.It was a bit low down and quite dark by now so am hopeful of better images soon.

FEMALE WASP SPIDER.

DOVERS GOT TALONS

2011-08-22T17:00:00.000+01:00

If you were a wood pigeon the last thing you would want to see is one of these hurtling down on you at lightning speed,though you probably wouldn`t know much about it.

PEREGRINE FALCON note the needle sharp talons for killing its prey usually in a high speed mid air attack.The seriously hooked bill is used for plucking and tearing meat from the dead unfortunate.
This bird is probably a male or TIERCEL,smaller than the more robust female .

After this it was back to the more gentile surroundings of Temple Ewell downs for Silver Spotted Skippers and Adonis Blues,Devils bit scabious and Autumn ladies tresses.

ADONIS BLUE the most vibrant colour that is difficult to capture and do justice to.

DEVILS BIT SCABIOUS.

SILVER SPOTTED SKIPPER on a field scabious

SMALL COPPER nectaring on wild marjoram.

The white spiral of AUTUMN LADIES TRESSES.

COMMON BLUE (left) AND ADONIS BLUE underwing comparison.Note the black veins extending into white margin on Adonis,

CLIFFTOP RAMBLINGS AND BACKSAND REFLECTIONS

2011-08-17T10:19:00.000+01:00

Walked from Langdon Hole to South Foreland on Sunday morning,found my first Whinchat of the autumn and quite a few warblers were in the bushes near the coastguard station including common and lesser whitethroat, blackcap,willow warbler and chiff chaff.

COMMON WHITETHROAT

As usual the LESSER WHITETHROAT was more elusive but gave occasional glimpses whilst gorging on the plentiful elder berries.

LESSER WHITETHROATS

Moving on to Fan Bay the male yellowhammer was still in the area but no sign of young birds.

At South Foreland there were not too many birds but a fresh Brown Argus was compensation.

On Monday a return visit to Backsand did not reveal the hoped for rarity but the usual suspects in the form of Green,Common,and Wood Sandpipers Greenshank and Little Egret provided the interest.

GREENSHANK

LITTLE EGRET

COMMON SANDPIPER

WOOD SANDPIPER

GREEN SANPIPER

COMMON SANDPIPER "AVIN A BARF"

Finally at the Hoe yesterday morning whilst out counting butterflies amy attention was drawn to a bit of a kerfuffle at clifftop level when the local kestrel took an objection to another raptor passing through at first I thought sparrowhawk then the white rump of a harrier showed and the rufous breast meant Montague`s Harrier it was all too brief as the kestrel was joined by crows and gulls to see off the interloper but a couple of blurry distant shots were taken,apologies for the poor quality.

MONTY AND KESTREL

MONTY on route for Folkestone and beyond who knows where?

RETURN OF THE TURNSTONE

2011-08-10T21:47:00.000+01:00

On Monday evening the weather was warm and sunny so a stroll along the pier seemed like a good idea, so it turned out with the first returning turnstones scurrying around picking up tasty tit bits providing the bird interest and Old Red the resident common seal hauled up on the hoverpad having a rest from fishing.

TURNSTONES still in summer plumage.

COMMON SEAL with RINGED PLOVER (lower left)

At the Hoe on Tuesday at 7am there were dozens of Gannets and Sandwich terns feeding off shore along with several harbour porpoise,probably feasting on the mackerel shoals.

NEVER TRUST A BRIGHT CLEAR MORNING.

HARBOUR PORPOISE breaking surface.

One of the eight Wheatears at Samphire hoe on Tuesday.

ROCK SAMPHIRE from which the Hoe derives its name.

GOLDEN SAMPHIRE.

WALL BROWNS are enjoying a good second brood.

GREAT GREY BUSH CRICKET ? This was found in one of the life belt boxes during the weekly check.

Talking about cricket England doing well against India and all the bowlers are English.

A TIGER IN MY TANK

2011-08-08T22:56:00.000+01:00

Quite a surprise the other morning when a JERSEY TIGER moth turned up in the moth trap,an immigrant from the continent,the first I have seen here; this is the one that is found in thousands in Rhodes in the wrongly named Valley of the Butterflies.

JERSEY TIGER.

This pristine GRASS EGGAR was one of three.

Three SCALLOPED OAK MOTHS on my slate.

Also had a quick walk around the grassy banks of Temple Ewell on Friday afternoon and found half a dozen silver spotted skippers.

SILVER SPOTTED SKIPPER,they often sun bathe on dried cow pats,lovely.

This male was in clover.

MARBLED WHITES are still hanging on.

A second brood of WALL BROWNS is on the wing

There are lots of wonderful CHALKHILL BLUES at Temple Ewell too.

A SHORT STINT AT BACKSAND

2011-08-08T22:26:00.000+01:00

Spent a couple of enjoyable hours at Backsand today,the first bird seen was a small unfamiliar wader which turned out to be aTemmincks Stint,also wood,common and green sandpipers were present.

TEMMINCKS STINT

WOOD SANDPIPER

GREEN SANDPIPER

COMMON SANDPIPER

TEMMINCKS( note yellow legs)

GREENSHANK at Restharrow.

BACK TO REALITY

2011-08-04T17:16:00.000+01:00

I left Kirtomy at 7am on a perfect summer morning,the first for ten days,ironic or what?as I got to the top a merlin swooped overhead chasing a meadow pipit,more irony.The journey south towards Inverness on deserted minor roads was a real pleasure,I hadn`t planned to stop but the scenery and light was irresistible

A WEE KIRK AT ACHANLOCHY CLEARANCE VILLAGE.

LOCH NAVER ON A PERFECT MORNING

REFLECTION OF BEN KLIBRECK.

Enough,onwards and downwards, Inverness, Perth, over the doomed Forth Road Bridge,Edingburgh and back to North Berwick where the boat had been well and truly missed over three weeks before,no mistake this time.At 2.30 the SULA II set sail for the Bass Rock.

THE SULA II

CAPTAIN BIRDS EYE AND MISS SCOTLAND

APPROACHING THE ROCK

GANNETS GALORE

NOTE THE FAT DOWNY CHICKS

SOME OF THE 120 000 PAIRS ON THE ROCK

MORE FAT CHICKS

A QUIETER SIDE

AROUND THE RUGGED ROCK

WE HAVE LIFT OFF

WHEELING AROUND

PUFFIN FLYING ON WHIRRING WINGS

PUFFIN AFLOAT

A FINAL SHAG

ISN`T THIS WHERE WE CAME IN?
An hour later I was over the border and heading for Newcastle but I think I`LL BE BACK!!!!!

A VIEW WITH SOME ROOM.

2011-08-04T14:18:00.000+01:00

For three weeks I awoke to this view across the Atlantic.

Or occasionally this

SCOTCH MIST.
And in the evenings the sun went down about 10 30pm when I first got there.

THE LAST SUNSET.by the end of my holiday it was 9.45pm.winter draws on.

Some regular visitors to the garden included willow and sedge warbler,swallows were nesting in the old croft building,rock doves the ancestor of all our feral pigeons were commonplace here,a family of ravens,hooded crows,which replace the carrion crow north of the Black Isle,curlew and oystercatcher in the field opposite.Sea watching from the garden bench produced gannet ,bonxie,shag black guillemot in addition to the usual gulls.

HOODED CROW

WILLOW WARBLER

CURLEW

SWALLOW

SEDGE WARBLER

FIVE HUNGRY SWALLOWS Unfortunately they all perished when for three days a cold wet spell meant there was no food available.

ROCK DOVE. I took my moth trap with me and caught some interesting species a selection below

GARDEN TIGER

BURNISHED BRASS

THE DRINKER

BEAUTIFUL GOLDEN Y

GREEN CARPET

ANTLER MOTH &TRUE LOVERS KNOT

PURPLE BAR

GREY?

GOLD SPANGLE

So that was it, thanks to Graham and Elizabeth for the pleasure of their house and lovely dogs and to Paul,Julie and Sam at Armadale for their hospitality and the trip to the Sutherland county show.All that remained was the drive home a small matter of 750 miles.

STRAIT TO THE POINT

2011-08-03T18:24:00.000+01:00

Only one more headland to go, Strathy Point is a popular whale watching place,but on the sunday of the organised event the infamous scotch mist descended and was cancelled,however after another visit to the puffins,I went alone,no whales but plenty of seabirds,especially shags.

STRATHY POINT LIGHTHOUSE

DUNLIN

FEMALE EIDER WITH SINGLE DUCKLING.After breeding the males clear off and the females band together in small groups to form a creche,safety in numbers no doubt.

PUFFIN

LARGE HEATH BUTTERFLY( SCOTTISH VARIETY)

The scottish variety is less well marked than its english counterpart and was very flighty and difficult to
photograph.

but eventually I got one reasonably sharp

NEAT PEAT at Strathy.

SCOTTISH PRIMROSE a tiny flower that is found in Sutherland and the Orkney and Shetland Islands.

NORTH BY NORTH WEST

2011-08-02T21:29:00.000+01:00

CAPE WRATH the most north westerly point on the British mainland is one of those mystical places you only hear of on the shipping forecast,it is somewhere I have wanted to visit for years,I tried once before but the boat did not show; you can`t drive there,a ferry or tiny motor boat takes you across the Kyle of Durness for a fiver,and a big bloke from London called Andy takes ten quid a head to drive you to the cape in a mini bus that holds 16 people,a nice little earner?The funny thing was Andy turns up in full regalia kilt,dirk down the sock etc,I suppose it impresses the Yanks!It takes 45 minutes to drive to the lighthouse,an hour there and 45 minutes back,it didn`t live up to its name that day it was all benign and peaceful,I would have preferred a big blow to see how wrathful it could be.The usual seabirds were on the cliffs or doing a fly by and a few pilot whales and dolphins were seen sailing by an occasional dorsal fin breaking the surface.

ALL ABOARD THE SKYLARK

NEXT STOP CANADA

CAPE WRATH LIGHT

THE CAPE WRATH MOTORWAY!

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE CAPE

THE FOGHORN

ROCK STACKS CALLED THE CATHEDRAL

Back to the ferry landing stage and blow me down ,camera in bag for the crossing a Golden Eagle comes gliding by right over our heads,and hovers for a few seconds,it was a sub adult bird and pretty tatty with flight and tail feathers missing,so not a very pretty boy.
A south facing grassy bank by the sea is always good to explore and in bloom here were fragrant orchids and common twayblade.

FRAGRANT ORCHID

COMMON TWAYBLADE.

There was still plenty of time left before going back and the Dipper that had eluded me so far even though there is lots of suitable habitat was on the wanted list.The Borgie Forest nature reserve looked ideal,but no luck,but a family of spotted flycatchers provided a good photo opportunity.

SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS just out of the nest

I wanted all three together but it was not to be,mum came back to feed them and they flew after her,I know my place.

A DAY ON THE BOG

2011-08-02T20:13:00.000+01:00

Forsinard RSPB reserve is a wilderness of wild peat bog, a unique environment of which there is precious little left,14 miles south of Melvich it consists of a visitor centre and railway station a couple of houses a hotel and many acres of peat bog and lochans.The guided walk takes in a very small part of the reserve and birds were at a premium the day I was there,but the plants and scenery not forgetting the wet feet more than made up for it.

RED DEER IN THE DISTANCE.

BOG BEAN AND BEYOND

GREAT SUNDEW a flycatching plant.

ROUND LEAVED SUNDEW another insectivore.

GOLDEN PLOVER on a peat hump.
There were lots of meadow pipits in the area and one juvenile red throated diver,but unfortunately the hen harriers merlins and short eared owls were not around.

COTTONGRASS is a very common plant in the north of Scotland Nearby on a nearby forestry commision trail there was a large flock of redpolls feeding.

REDPOLL on the fence.

RED DEER STAG by the side of the road.

STILL THERE IN BLACK AND WHITE

2011-08-02T18:52:00.001+01:00

My first encounter with Scrabster was in the long hot summer of 1976,en route to the Faeroe Islands not to watch a football match but to visit the outlaws!Anyway it was here where my first black guillemot was seen and they are still there and apparently thriving with a dozen feeding on small crabs in the docks.

BLACK GUILLEMOT look at those red legs, stunning.!!

From the harbour it was a shortish walk to Holborn Head with more sea stacks and views across to the Orkneys.

HOLBORN HEAD LIGHTHOUSE

THE ORKNEY ISLANDS ACROSS PENTLAND FIRTH

SCRABSTER LIFEBOAT

THE MOST NORTHERLY PALM TREES IN THE WORLD????? UNLESS YOU KNOW DIFFERENT.

NORTH SEA GIANT an oil support vessel- a real giant.

ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER BLACK GUILLEMOT.

If you are getting bored with this Scottish epic I apologise but theres more to come sorry.

TWO HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE

2011-07-31T13:37:00.000+01:00

The next trip out was to Dunnet Head,the most northerly point of mainland Britain,and Duncansby Head the most north easterly point.The former is an RSPB reserve with limited viewing of the sea cliffs but there is plenty of stuff flying by.On the way one of the pools near the lighthouse was home to three red throated divers,and on the telegraph wires nearby was a small flock of twite.

RED THROATED DIVER

TWITE showing pink rump

TWITE in song
Moving on to Duncansby Head via John O Groats or should it be Grots,much better views of the seabird colonies here and special views of arctic and great skuas patrolling the cliff edges.

GREAT SKUA

OYSTERCATCHER taking food back to its nest in the lighthouse garden.

GUILLEMOTS on the lower ledges.

LOOKING SOUTH FROM DUNCANSBY HEAD

RAZORBILLS tend to use the higher ledges.

PALE PHASE ARCTIC SKUA

ARCTIC SKUA

FULMAR CHICK.
And for those of you who like lighthouses........

DUNNET HEAD

DUNCANSBY HEAD.

PUFFINS GALORE

2011-07-31T11:22:00.000+01:00

After getting to know the dogs and the immediate area I ventured a bit further afield and went to the puffin stacks on the border between Caithness and Sutherland,since my last visit there a couple of years ago numbers appear to have increased quite well.

PUFFIN STACK

PUFFIN

As well as the puffins there were razorbills,guillemots,black guillemots,shags fulmars,kittiwakes,bonxies,and the usual gulls to be seen here.

RAZORBILLS

Also of interest on the way to the cliff edge were heath spotted orchid,bog asphodel and a new butterfly for me a large heath.

HEATH SPOTTED ORCHID

BOG ASPHODEL
On the way back to Kirtomy I called at Armadale bay,where this buzzard was seen circling overhead.

Also there on the beach were four ravens,several ringed plovers and dunlinand a couple of common sandpipers

BUZZARD

RINGED PLOVER doing broken wing impression.

DUNLIN on the rocks

MEADOW PIPITS were very common all over the area

NORTHERN MARSH ORCHID.

TAKING THE HIGH ROAD

2011-07-30T16:11:00.000+01:00

I am back from my month in Scotland where I have been house and dog sitting for an old friend.Ileft on Saturday july 2nd and made it to North Berwick by mid afternoon ,my intention was to take a boat trip to the Bass Rock,home to the worlds largest gannet colony,just missed the 3o clock boat,the 4o clock boat was full and for the 5o clock Iwas the only taker so it was no go.I left the home of the Scottish sea bird centre cursing my luck,but worse was to come,got to Dunkeld on the Tay found a B&B paid the bill up front and strolled into town to replenish my wallet and have a couple of pints.The Bank of Scotland ATM crashed with my card inside,not a good day ,however had enough for a pint,wrote the B&B a cheque got my cash back,so had enough to get to Thurso.

BASS ROCK from the shore

Before heading north I spent an hour at Loch of the Lowes reserve where there is an Osprey nest site,the birds had nested ,laid three eggs but none had hatched this year.Both birds were still hanging around and Iwas lucky enough to see the male bird fishing.

DIVE DIVE DIVE

LEAVING THE WATER FISHLESS

There were also several red squirrels at the feeders as well as the usual birds.

That is a taste of things to come there will be plenty more soon.

FROM LANGDON TO LYDDEN

2011-06-30T14:17:00.000+01:00

After Tuesdays storm,wednesday dawned clean and clear,and garden chores done a visit to Langdon Cliffs was the order of the day.

APPROACHING STORM AT THE HOE.
Marbled whites were plentiful in Langdon Hole,they are an impressively marked butterfly,on top and on the underside.

MARBLED WHITE

MARBLED WHITE underside.

SMALL TORTOISHELL

RINGLET

SMALL COPPER

PYRAMIDAL ORCHID

A beautiful morning at LYDDEN DOWN with fair weather cumulus bubbling up and a fair sprinkling of the first CHALK HILL BLUES of the year.

CHALK HILL BLUE.
The small elm copse at the top of the reserve which has supported a few white letter hairstreaks in recent years appears to be suffering a bad dose of the dreaded dutch elm disease,hopefully enough will survive to keep the colony going.

HERDS OF ELEPHANTS AND SURPRISE LETTERS

2011-06-27T22:47:00.000+01:00

This morning started with five elephants in the moth trap,four large and one small,followed soon after in the warm sunshine by a single painted lady.

ELEPHANT HAWK MOTHS SMALL AND LARGE

PAINTED LADY ON GREATER KNAPWEED.

My wildlife garden is obviously doing quite well and it saves all that weeding and grass cutting.
After my boiler had been serviced it was off to Ham Street woods for a look round,soon found the first of a dozen white admirals and a rather tatty purple hairstreak put in a brief appearance,it was so hot the butterflies were very flighty and difficult to approach so it was home for a bit of tennis and a nice cup of tea.

WHITE ADMIRAL

PURPLE HAIRSTREAK with bits missing.

After Venus had been eclipsed at Wimbledon I ventured outside to take what little air there was and had one of those" I don`t bloody well believe it" moments a white letter hairstreak had found its way into my garden,amazing!managed to get a couple of shots before it went on its way,there are no elms in the immediate vicinity so where it appeared from is a mystery.

WHITE LETTER HAIRSTREAK a first for the garden.

A FRESH PURPLE HAIRSTREAK taken at HAM STREET IN 2009

DOING BIRD AT ELMLEY

2011-06-26T11:47:00.000+01:00

I had agreed to play cricket in a testimonial match for Tony Rickson on Friday afternoon at Bobbing Court so I took the opportunity to visit the RSPB reserve at Elmley in the morning.
On the approach road there were plenty of redshank and lapwing in evidence and a few yellow wagtails.At the farm young swallows were abundant hawking around the barn and orchard area.Reed and sedge warblers were also plentiful in the reed beds along the track.From the hides it was obvious that the avocet population is booming with chicks of all ages in evidence.

AVOCET CHICK not more than a day or two old.

WAIT FOR ME MA!

AVOCET IN REFLECTIVE MOOD

AND ONCE AGAIN.

REDSHANK

ANOTHER AVOCET CHICK quite independent at a tender age.

THREE SPOONBILLS Circling high over Elmley,later ther were five together.

ELMLEY IS A GOOD PLACE FOR BROWN HARES,also stoat and weasle were seen.

TEN SPOTTED REDSHANKS were on the flood nine here and one other.

The other one resplendent in summer black plumage

SPOTTED AND COMMON REDSHANK side by side.

AVOCET BOOKENDS.

UP AND AWAY TO SEE OFF A MARSH HARRIER.

A very obliging LAPWING by the farm track.
The cricket was fun,though the game was lost and I survived to tell the tale.
An old chesnut about the difference between a weasle and a stoat.
A weasle is weasily wecognised but a stoat is stoatally different! on that note I bid you all good day.

LITTLE BLACK AND WHITE RIDING HOOD

2011-06-18T11:01:00.000+01:00

What big ears you have said the magpie.

All the better for hearing you said the fox.

What big eyes you have said the magpie.

All the better for seeing you said the fox.

And what big teeth you have said the magpie

All the better for eating you with said the fox.
At that point the magpie suddenly flew away and they all lived happily ever after.

THE END

PIPITS AND SKIPPERS

2011-06-15T17:30:00.000+01:00

The rock pipits on the Prince of Wales pier are hanging on with two birds seen on Sunday afternoon, also two were at Samphire Hoe yesterday along with at least 7 meadow pipits three of which were displaying, seems to have been some late arrivals in the last week or two.I also had a late evening at Kings Wood Challock on Monday where a tree pipit was seen briefly,but no churrring was heard!theres a guided walk there this evening (wednesday)at 9pm lets hope the nightjars co operate.

ROCK PIPIT POW PIER

TREE PIPIT KINGS WOOD

ROCK PIPIT SAMPHIRE HOE

On to the skippers now Small or Essex that is the question,is it small with ginger tips and essex with black tips to the antennae or vice versa, and then you`ve got to get good enough views to see them.
Essex tips are black ,have just checked Collins again.

ESSEX SKIPPER(black tips)

LARGE SKIPPER(hooked tips)

SMALL SKIPPER(ginger tips)
I think I`m correct in my ID of these little blighters but if you know different please let me know.
There are at least 23 house martins nests on the cliff overhangs at the Dover end of the Hoe with a couple more which may be occupied,they have been very industrious this last week,most now ready for finishing touches.
Dragonflies are also active on the main pond with several Emperors and Black Tailed Skimmers present

BLACK TAILED SKIMMER (male)

B.T.S.(female)

THE WHEEL OF LOVE

HAWKS AND DOVES

2011-06-10T16:34:00.000+01:00

A couple of hawk moths have been in the trap this week an elephant and an eyed hawk moth,also four of the jock moths Rannoch loopers were found on monday night.

RANNOCH LOOPER

EYED HAWK MOTH

VARIED CORONET

ELEPHANT HAWK MOTH

TURTLE DOVE at Uplees copse Oare on thursday morning.

ROAMIMG IN THE GLOAMING(CLOWSE WOOD)

After last weeks nightjar hunt at Clowes Wood drew a blank a second attempt at Blean was successful last night when three birds were seen and heard there along with at least two roding woodcock.

ROAMING IN THE GLOAMING (BLEAN WOODS)

WOODCOCK RODING IN THE GLOAMING!

JUST BECAUSE ITS JUNE

2011-06-09T19:53:00.001+01:00

Did my late BTO breeding bird survey on monday morning,the first half was as usual fairly disappointing,but eventually found a few warblers ,whitethroats blackcaps and chiffchaffs and even a garden warbler,the first for a few years,was singing,a pair of yellowhammers and families of great and blue tits robin and meadow pipit were also seen.two pairs of swallows had returned ok and a young great spotted woodpecker was out with mum.

JUVENILE GREAT SPOT

The house martins at the Hoe are back on the muddy pools after the rain and the two young black redstarts appear to be fending for themselves now,also the female wheatear was seen carrying food last weekend but I saw neither on tuesday,fingers crossed

MUD MUD GLORIOUS MUD

HOUSE MARTIN AT WORK

JUV BLACK REDSTART note the yellow gape is still evident.

EVERY SPERM WHALE IS SACRED

2011-05-31T22:14:00.000+01:00

This morning at Samphire Hoe we witnessed the sad sight of a dead whale floating by on the incoming tide,it was some way off the wall and eventually passed by the harbour we think,probably heading for Pegwell Bay,it was belly up and bloated so ID not possible.

DECEASED WHALE WITH HERRING GULLS ON BOARD
On a happier note the black redstarts have fledged and a male wheatear is still singing from the fences,now that would be a feather in the cap if the female is sitting on eggs nearby?

MALE WHEATEAR SINGING

FEMALE BLACK REDSTART

Meadow pipit numbers have improved and the males are displaying and taking food parcels to her indoors.

MEADOW PIPIT WITH WHAT APPEARS TO BE A VERY DEAD EMPEROR DRAGONFLY.

BUGS WITH MUSCLES

BUGS WITH SHIELDS

CREAM SPOT TIGER MOTH

HOLLAND AMERICA LINES "ROTTERDAM" AT DOVER CRUISE TERMINAL

LA BRENNE A FEW ODDS AND ENDS

2011-05-27T10:40:00.001+01:00

Having been through the photos again have found a few that escaped the first sweep.

ORCHID can you I D this please Steve?

GLANVILLE FRITILLARY only found on Isle of Wight in UK.

MALE SWALLOW note long tail streamers

FEMALE SWALLOW

WHISKERED TERNS

WHISKERED TERNS AT NEST SITE,they must be vulnerable to flooding!

HEATH FRITILLARY

GREAT CRESTED GREBE doing the conga!

RED CRESTED POCHARD

MELODIOUS WARBLER

BROAD SCARLET DRAGONFLY

KNAPWEED FRITILLARY
This really is the end I think.

INNOVATION AT THE HOE

2011-05-24T21:00:00.000+01:00

This morning at Samphire Hoe the house martins that normally collect mud for nest building from the puddles in the car parks were seen collecting mud and sea weed from the exposed rocks as the tide dropped.
They build their nests under the many overhangs on the cliff face,no doubt before man provided houses this was the norm,perhaps in previous times collecting materials this way was also normal who knows whether this is a new action born out of necessity or a long forgotten art hiddden in the memory banks. Has anyone seen this behaviour elsewhere?

C`EST LA VIE (FIN)

2011-05-23T20:08:00.000+01:00

The last full day of the trip was spent making a quick resumez of the places visited previously and after a patient wait in the afternoon sunshine the black necked grebes finally came within range.

A FLEETING SIGHT OF A NIGHTINGALE

SERIN OUTSIDE HOTEL

SPOTTED FLYCATCHER

KNAPWEED FRITILLARY

SPOTTED FRITILLARY

BLACK KITE

LAKE AT GABRIAU

BLACK NECKED GREBE

LAKE BEAUREGARD

WHITE ADMIRAL

MONTAGU`S HARRIER

MONTY`S HARRIER.
The montagu`s harrier was found at the same place as the stone curlews as we made our way to Preuilly for dinner.
So a good weeks wildlife watching ended on a high note and the area is highly reccomended to one and all.

C`EST LA VIE (DEJA VOUS)

2011-05-23T17:35:00.002+01:00

The story of the trip to La Brenne continues mainly in pictorial form you will be pleased to read.The main reserve here is La Reserve Naturelle de Cherine,where you can get a guided walk to the main hide for 2 euros,here we saw a family party of water rails both adults and 5 youngsters,it must be a perilous task with all the imminent dangers from predators,to keep the young safe.

WATER RAIL

WATER RAIL CHICKS 4/5 they all followed mum across to another reed bed soon after ,unfortunately my camera was not to hand when this occurred, it would have made a great shot.
There were night herons here too as well as grey and purple herons and black kites were often overhead.

BLACK KITE

FOUR SPOTTED CHASER

GARDEN WARBLER

SCARLET DRAGONFLY (I think)

PERCH

ROACH?

COYPU

BLACK VEINED WHITE ON RAGGED ROBIN

BROAD BODIED CHASER

PURPLE HERON OVERHEAD.

WHISKERED TERN
The final day will follow shortly!

C`EST LA VIE

2011-05-23T13:01:00.001+01:00

Last week was spent in La Brenne region of France,just south of the Loire valley,based in Azay-le-Ferron.
It is a large area of lakes and marsh, very similar to Stodmarsh but on a much grander scale.
The speciality birds here are breeding black necked grebes and whiskered terns,but other notables seen were stone curlew,montagus harrier,golden oriole,purple heron,night heron,great and cattle egrets,black kite,honey buzzard booted eagle,melodious warbler,hoopoe,nightingale,serin and cirl bunting.(for a full list if interested see Pete Wells blog).
The weather was absolutely perfect,warm,calm and sunny every day, ideal for butterflies and dragonflies as well as birds.Although not particularly numerous the butterflies that were of note included black veined white,knapweed fritillary and spotted fritillary all of which were new to me.

BLACK VEINED WHITE

MELODIOUS WARBLER

KNAPWEED FRITILLARY

SOUTHERN WHITE ADMIRAL

CATTLE EGRET?

PONY EGRET

GREEN LIZARD

SPOTTED FRITILLARY

PURPLE HERON a fairly common bird in these parts.

WHISKERED TERN at Etang de la Sous

GRIZZLED SKIPPER

SOOTY COPPER

STONE CURLEW

CIRL BUNTING

MELODIOUS WARBLER

CIRL BUNTING

KNAPWEED FRITILLARY

There will be more later!!!!

NO BREAD &NO CHEESE

2011-05-15T13:24:00.000+01:00

Only one pair of yellowhammers are on the cliff top this year between Dover and St Margarets and for the first spring ever I have`nt heard the little bit of bread and no cheese song so reminiscent of past times, does a single male need to advertise his presence I wonder?.When I began bird watching some forty years ago it seemed that every hawthorn had either a yllowhammer or a linnet singing from it,a gradual decline has led to todays sad state of affairs,modern farming methods, loss of habitat, climate change, all contribute to the demise of our bread and cheese heritage!

LAST OF THE YELLOWHAMMERS?

COCK YELLOWHAMMER AT FAN BAY
On a happier note the Ravens are moving around the cliffs all five were present in Langdon Hole on Friday morning.
Butterflies are enjoying the dry warm weather and small heaths are doing well in Fan Bay bottom with a dozen or more on the wing.

SMALL HEATH

COMMON BLUE

ADULT RAVEN LANGDON HOLE.
Away from the cliffs another trip to Stodmarsh failed to improve my hobby photos but good views of sedge and reed warblers were had, and I actually caught a Cettis warbler throwing his head up and giving vent to his strident song,before he had seen me,very unusual.Common terns feeding and a Turtle Dove in the alder wood were other high points.

COMMON TERN

SEDGE WARBLER

REED WARBLER

TURTLE DOVE

MARSH FROG the noisiest creature at Stodmarsh?

SUNSET AT STODMARSH

2011-05-07T18:50:00.000+01:00

On thursday evening Pete Wells and myself took a sundowner stroll along the Lampen wall at Stodmarsh,it was wonderful,we had the place all to our selves and were treated to a feast of birds at evensong.Song thrush and blackbird,blackcap and garden warbler,turtle dove and cuckoo and as dusk gathered the nightingale topped the bill.

CUCKOO IN FLIGHT

SUNSET AT STODMARSH
As we turned back for the car a barn owl hunting over the reed bed was just about the perfect ending,apart from a pint of Harveys in the Duke William at Ickham,highly reccomended!

Next morning I returned to attempt some better hobby shots,but failed miserably as they were flying too high but they were good to watch anyway.More cuckoos were seen and two willow warblers were singing along the river.

REED BUNTING

WILLOW WARBLER WARBLING

WILLOW WARBLER NOT WARBLING

CUCKOO

AS LONG AS ITS BLACK

2011-05-07T12:08:00.000+01:00

Wednesday at Dungeness with Malcolm McVail,first stop the Patch where good views of passing Pomarine skuas were had and four Black Terns were feeding,luckily one came onto the beach to rest among the Common Terns thus enabling a size comparison to be made.

BLACK TERN

From here to the RSPB reserve where the undoubted high was the return of the Purple Herons

PURPLE HERON (see July 2010 PURPLE HAZE)
Other notables were Knot in summer plumage, Cuckoo,Hobby and Common Sandpiper.

RED KNOT

CUCKOO
Apologies for the standard of photos but all taken at a fair distance from subject.
There was tension in the air at Fan Bay on Thursday morning when the female Raven was not very happy with my presence,not that I was anywhere near to the nest site,this unusual behaviour led me to believe that the youngsters had or were about to fledge.

FEMALE RAVEN NAGGING AT ME

My suspicions were confirmed this morning (Saturday) when three young were sat on the cliff edge with mother in attendance nearby.They have started flying around too so they will soon be gone and another successful breeding season will be over for them.

Back to Thursday, the Peregrine was sat on his favourite flint on the way out but on my return he was doing a quick circuit round the clifftop

PEREGRINE
Attention turned to butterflies on the lower tramway where Adonis Blue,Small and Common Blue,Dingy Skipper,Green Hairstreak,Small Copper,Small Heath and Orangetip were all found as well as a Cinnabar moth.

ADONIS BLUE

GREEN HAIRSTREAK

CINNABAR MOTH

LINNET AT LANGDON HOLE

LINNET AT FAN BAY There are more meadow pipits now and three singing corn buntings on the cliffs but only a single pair of yellowhammers and zero stonechats,whitethroats are everywhere and about three lesser whitethroats in residence.

FOX NEWS

2011-05-03T22:14:00.000+01:00

There were two fox sightings at the Hoe this morning,one doing a Chris Bonnington impression,clambering across the cliff face,the other taking breakfast back to the den presumably.

FOX WITH RABBIT FOR BREAKFAST he looks in fine fettle,the fox that is, not the rabbit..

WINDSWEPT WHEATEAR,
POSSIBLY THE LAST OF THE SPRING.

Over the weekend an unknown moth was caught and a superb orangetip paid a call in the garden on sunday afternoon.

U.F.O.

ORANGE TIP

Yesterday made the trip to Dungeness,the wind made things very uncomfortable at the point,and I can only wonder at the fortitude of those doing a 9.5 hour sea watch.Two black terns at the patch were the first of my year and a little ringed plover on the ARC pits was also a year tick.On to the RSPB and swifts added to the year list and I believe I was the first to pick up the red rumped swallow near Hookers pit,unfortunately the camera was in the bag at the time,so it was pleasing that others saw the bird later.The only pictures yesterday were of a common tern and a pair of GCGrebes in courtship mode.

COMMON TERN

DANCING GREBES

WEDDING DAY BLUES

2011-04-29T19:57:00.000+01:00

Wedding what wedding,I forgot all about it and found myself on the cliffs watching whitethroats and lesser whitethroats,peregrines and ravens,swallows and a ring ouzel,by the time I remembered it was too late, oh dear,sorry William and Kate.Before heading for home to watch the highlights and attend the street party,there was just time to find my first adonis and small blue butterflies,on the lower tramway.The clifftop flora has also made great strides this week with nottingham catchfly,sain foin,and red valerian blooming.

WHITETHROAT IN SONG

LESSER WHITETHROAT RATTLING

PEREGRINE assumed to be the male standing guard was here at 9 30 and was still there at 11 on my return.

GRASS LARK

CHORTLING CHAFFINCH

SMALL BLUE

ADONIS BLUE

SMALL BLUE

ST MARKS FLY so called because it appears around 21st April St Marks Day.There are millions of them this year ,they are quite large flies with long dangly legs,you may have seen them.

DINGY SKIPPER.

SAIN FOIN

NOTTINGHAM CATCHFLY

STOP FOR A CHAT

2011-04-28T14:36:00.000+01:00

It was blowing a hoolie at Samphire Hoe on Tuesday,so small birds were keeping a low profile,however the male stonechat was standing guard over his territory early on and he allowed me to approach within range for once,he really is a fine individual.Unfortunately there is just the single pair so far this year.

STONECHAT

STONECHAT SENTRY

Another bird which breeds regularly here is the meadow pipit but after two cold winters in succession numbers are well down,but hopefully are showing signs of recovery.

MEADOW PIPIT

All the other resident species were seen,the most encouraging sight though was the number of wall brown butterflies,the dry warm april must have been very good for them.
The early spider orchid count has started and this too got off to an encouraging start with over 2000 in one area alone.

WALL BROWN

HOT CROSS PUNS

2011-04-25T10:24:00.000+01:00

I confined my easter wildlife watching to Langdon cliffs and the back garden.With the warm weather continuing throughout, migration has almost stopped although a few more whitethroats and lesser whitethroats were in and the odd swallow and sand martin arrived over the cliffs.
More butterflies are appearing daily and the moth trap has attracted a few more interesting species.

WHITETHROAT Langdon Cliffs

YELLOWHAMMER nest building at Fan Bay

GREEN VEINED WHITES( IN COP)

WALL BROWN

MUSLIN MOTH

NUT TREE TUSSOCK

MULLEIN MOTH

MULLEIN MOTH side view.

HOLLY BLUE in garden

DON`T LET THEM GET YOU DOWN DYLAN!

HOTTER THAN JULY

2011-04-25T09:26:00.000+01:00

Wednesday at Elmley RSPB Reserve on the Isle of Sheppey, it was hot,damn hot, hotter than July in fact.The first thing that impresses about this place is the number of brown hares, there are dozens of them!

This one seemed half asleep.
Lapwings and redshanks are also found in large numbers as are avocets,there were a few yellow wagtails on site and three spoonbills were seen from the south fleet hide.I didn`t make it to Spit end as the tide was fast approaching when I got to the Swale hide.On the return walk there were black tailed godwit in full breeding plumage,reed and sedge warblers aplenty, reed buntings by the score and a drake garganey back at the farm lake was icing on cake.

BLACK TAILED GODWIT

SEDGE WARBLER

REED BUNTING

SPOONBILL

SPOONBILL (doing angel impression)

REED WARBLER

YELLOW WAGTAIL

ANOTHER HARE

CORN BUNTING

GOLDFINCH

As you can see Elmley has lots of variety,but it is a long walk going out and it seems an even longer walk going back,but well worth the effort.