RETURN OF THE GUILLEMOT

The first guillemot of the autumn has turned up in the harbour in the last week,the first of many hopefully,it was interesting to see an angler catching herrings on feathers from the Pof W pier so the gilly should be well fed at least,also the scoter is still with us.

 GUILLEMOT

 CORN BUNTING,quite a few of these on the cliffs at present.

 THE LONG TAILS

 LONG TAILED BLUES continue to emerge in the warm October sunshine.

 A YOUNG LITTLE GREBE or DABCHICK.

SPOTTED CRAKE continues to tantalise the cameras at Oare

FROM OUZO TO OUZELS

Last week was spent under glorious blue skies in Santorini,a Greek volcanic island north of Crete,there was prescious little bird life as there is no natural water and little vegetation but what was seen was pretty good,including long legged,honey and common buzzards,marsh harrier,eleonoras falcon,kestrel and an osprey,red rumped swallows,spotted flycatcher,chiff chaff,red backed shrike and blue rock thrush.Hooded crows,collared dove, house sparrow,and yellow legged gull were fairly common,and pulses of migrating swallows and sand martins were seen daily.Sorry no bird photographs but a few butterflies :-

 LANGS SHORT TAILED BLUE

 FEMALE LANGS SHORT TAILED BLUE

 RED VEINED DARTER

 SWALLOWTAIL

SWALLOWTAIL IN FLIGHT
There were not many butterflies, but in one vegetable garden we passed there were lots of long tailed blues no doubt being a nuisance to the owner.
So not a place for a birdwatching holiday but geologically and archaeologically superb,the weather was warm and sunny and it was just beginning to rain as we left,perfect.
Back home, yesterday it was Langdon Hole catching up with the ring ouzels,and messrs Ray,Ashton ,and Gould.
Estimates ranged between 15 and 25 birds in all but they were very mobile and not very co operative .

 RING OUZEL

RING OUZEL

At least these two stayed still long enough to capture their unusual feeding behaviour

LATE FLUTTERINGS

As summer draws to a close,afternoons like todays have to be cherished and stored up for the long winter ahead.It was good to see the late flutter of tiny wings as the long tailed blues came out to enjoy the warm sunshine,there were also good numbers of Adonis,common, and chalk hill blues on show some still fresh looking.

 SPECKLED WOOD

RED ADMIRAL

 ADONIS BLUE

 

ADONIS BLUE

 

 

 

 

CHALK HILL BLUE

 ANYONE FOR CRICKET

LONG TAILED BLUE

 

LONG TAILED BLUE

LONG TAILED BLUE

In addition to the above there were brown argus and common blue,small copper,small tortoishell and a single clouded yellow of note.

In the morning a quick stroll along the pier saw a common seal on the hoverpad and a female common scoter in the outer harbour,sadly it appears to have some fishing net or line around its neck,an uncertain future awaits.

COMMON SCOTER

PIED WAGTAIL--CHISWICK  CHISWICK

COMMON SEAL

 

SEPTEMBER SONG

The month is rolling on and I have been extremely indolent about blogging recently,I learnt earlier that my blog,amongst others,  may have been innocently complicit in the removal of certain items of natural history from their rightful place ,so I am a little disillusioned with the whole business. In future there will be no precise locations on my blog where it involves rare or unusual findings.
Apart from that I haven`t had much luck with the camera anyway,can`t get anything sharp with the Nikon lens so will be changing to Canon very soon.Here are a few pics from the month so far

 SMALL COPPER

 SPOTTED CRAKE

SPOTTED CRAKE

 DANCING RAVEN

 BROWN ARGUS

 SMALL TORTOISHELL-has been a very good year for them on one day at the hoe I counted 155.

 ADONIS BLUE-the second generation finally emerged early in the month.

 SEABOURN SOJOURN-one of the more stylish cruise ships to visit Dover.

COSTA PACIFICA-Sister ship to the ill fated Costa Concordia.

SILVER SPOTTED SKIPPER- Somewhere on the cliffs.

 SPITFIRE

HURRICANE- Free airshow on the cliffs most weekends.

 LAST NIGHTS FULL MOON

 CURLEW SANDPIPER

 LITTLE EGRET

REDSHANK.