BRIMSTONE & BLERIOT

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.