MAY A RARE OLD MONTH

 Most of our summer visitors are in now and its been quite a month for rarities too. Black Winged Stilts,Temincks Stint,Golden Orioles ,Bee Eaters,Caspian Tern,Kentish Plover,Eleanoras Falcon,Red Footed Falcon and finally a Sardinian Warbler.I have managed to see them all except for the Golden Orioles and Bee Eaters.I also travelled to Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire with Martin Collins to see the Black Browed Albatross which is now a regular summer visitor there.

BLACK WINGED STILT

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BLACK WINGED STILT

BITTERN at DUNGENESS.

HOBBY Dungeness

WHITETHROAT -Langdon Hole

YELLOWHAMMER and St Marks flies - Langdon Hole

TURNSTONE in breeding plumage at Oare.

BRIMSTONE at Stodmarsh.

WHIMBREL on the shore at Oare.

The first SWIFTS of the year  at Oare.

SWIFT

BROWN ARGUS at Uplees copse.

MARSH FROG at Dans Dock

HAIRY DRAGONFLY.

WALL BROWN at Bockhill

ORANGETIP at Bockhill.

SPOTTED FLYCATCHER -BOCKHILL

ORANGETIP -Bockhill

MOTHER SHIPTON MOTH - Langdon Cliffs..

GREEN HAIRSTREAK - Samphire Hoe

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CELEBRITY APEX at Dover,

ECLIPSE OF THE MOON 0415 16 th May.

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ALMOST TOTAL -It was now getting light and the moon was setting behind the hills.

The first PAINTED LADIES are arriving from Morocco,looks like it could be a good year.

FOUR SPOTTED CHASER at Dungeness

GANNETS COURTSHIP - BEMPTON CLIFFS

BLACK BROWED ALBATROSS a visitor from the Southern Oceans 

that has made its summer quarters at Bempton Cliffs

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FLYING OVER THE GANNETS.

 

BLACK BROW.

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TREE SPARROW

PUFFIN

KITTIWAKE

GANNET IN THE RAIN.

RAZORBILL

GANNET

GANNET

HOUSE MARTINS Collecting mud for their nests built under cliff ledges at Samphire Hoe

This is where they lived before man provided buildings for them.

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KENTISH PLOVER a rare passage migrant these days.

BANDED DEMOISELLE -Stodmarsh along the river.

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GARDEN WARBLER warbling.

GARDEN WARBLER at Grove Ferry

HURTIGRUTENS MAUD Arriving at Dover.

THE ELEANORAS FALCON AT WORTH MARSHES closing in on an unsuspecting dragonfly.

A bird more frequently found in the Mediterranean regions,this one graced us with its presence for over a week attracting birders from far and wide.

GOTCHA.

ELEANORAS FALCON.

EF

EF

Remarkably at the same time and place a RED FOOTED FALCON another European species found Worth marshes a happy hunting ground and also stayed for over a week.

RED FOOTED FALCON

RED FOOTED FALCON can hover like a Kestrel but more often was seen hunting from the wires.

So it has been a month of rarities in Kent ,as well as the above there have been sightings of Golden Orioles,Bee Eaters,Caspian Tern and Sardinian Warbler.