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.

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!