WELL SPOTTED

FOUR SPOTTED CHASERCOMMON SPOTTED ORCHIDHOLLY BLUE

Just a last quick post to keep up to date as I am off to Cornwall tomorrow for a week.Four Spotted Chaser at Dungeness,common spotted orchid at Samphire Hoe and a holly blue in my garden.

THE EYES HAVE IT

EYED HAWK MOTH

This eyed hawk moth turned up in the moth trap last night,the first large moth of the year.When at rest the eyes remain hidden beneath the forewing but when threatened the wings open to reveal two lovely black eyes which hopefully will deter the threat.

FOLKESTONE WARREN

CARDINAL BEETLE

SPECKLED WOOD  JAVELIN NAGS HEAD PRIMEVAL PLANTS

I thought I would revisit my youth today and went down the cliff path from Capel to the sea at the warren,spent a lot of time here in my late teens and early twenties,like everything else its changed quite a bit and not for the better.The cliff path is basically the same,but the beach is now a small strip of sand at low tide as large boulders have been dumped against the sea wall to prevent erosion.There were some butterflies around, speckled woods in the sunlit glades,common blues on the grassy banks,holly blues,dingy skippers,wall and a single green hairstreak. A Cardinal beetle was seen in the undercliff area which is now largely overgrown with weed trees ash and sycamore and the undergrowth is mainly ferns and nettles,it has a primeval feel about it.Birds were thin on the ground with just the odd blackcap and whitethroat among the wrens robin and blackbirds. Out of the woods you could hear the gutteral chuntering of fulmar petrels  tumbling down from their high nest ledges,but that was about it apart from the hourly high speed trainshooting through.Down on to the sea wall and a pair of rock pipits were seen,gathering food for a hungry brood no doubt.The Nags Head is an old feature of a long ago landslide called saucering where the land slips down at the back forcing the front up and leaving this pieco of chalk cliff high and dry.

WAIT UNTIL DARK

TREE PIPITTREE PIPIT

At Stodmarsh on thursday Iwas reliably informed that the Kings Wood nightjars had performed impressively on the previous evening so as it would be my last opportunity for a while to go there I went last night.Got there just after eight ,lovely evening,straight away found the singing tree pipit then waited for the sun to go down, it seemed to take forever then a bit longer for the light to fade, nothing.As it got darker even the blackbird and song thrush that had been going at it big time ,gave up the ghost, not even a churr to be heard, well thats birding but at least I got back to the Railway Bell for a beer.If anyone is interested they are showing the 1966 world cup final there next thursday evening,thats the one we won against West Germany.

ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A LITTLE WHITE BULL

STODMARSH RAGING BULL.

Well there werent many birds about.

HOE HARBOUR AND HEIGHTS

ROCK PIPIT

SMALL BLUESMALL BLUE

LARGE RED OVIPOSTOR

At Samphire Hoe on tuesday it was absolutely calm at 7 am when I arrived and the Folkestone crab boat PeterPaul was hauling his pots just off the wall,didn t appear to have caught a lot, must be almost bereft of crabs and lobsters there by now, it should have a rest for a year or two.Later on the rain arrived so the camera was put away,there are stonechats and black redstarts feeding young,house martins are still rebuilding their cliff face homes and the peregrine falcon was seen with a young carrion crow in its talons hotly pursued by an irate adult but not for long.On wednesday I went to the Prince of Wales pier to see if the ringed plovers were breeding this year no sign  unfortunately but they may be on the huge pile of hardcore left from the demolition work.About the only bird I did see ,apart from herring gulls was a rock pipit that was singing and displaying.A Dutch brig was anchored in the harbour, this provided a pleasant change from the cruise ships.After this I made a quick visit to the western heights tohave a look for the small blue that can be found there in small numbers,luckily I found one,just one,within a few minutes and later found two more at langdon cliffs.When I got home there was another photo opportunity as the Large Red damselfly had found a mate who was oviposting in my humble little pond,how good is that.

SUSSEX BY THE SEA

On friday,after reading Paul Trodds piece on Rye Harbour I realised that I had nt been there for a couple of years so off to Sussex it was.It was exactly forty miles from my house to the car park at Rye but it was worth every foot.Three species of tern were present, common,sandwich and a solitary little tern,waders included avocet with at least three young, dunlin,ringed plover,bar tailed godwit,redshank and oystercatcher,hunreds of nesting black headed gulls with young,the noise and the smell were brilliant,good numbers of med gulls were nesting too.Three male wheatears were seen skylarks and linnets as well.The stars of the show were the sandwich terns, a never ending procession of birds returning to their nests with an assortment of fish for their chicks.The little tern was found in the quarry pools and was fairly distant so only poor pics Iam afraid but compare the size to the adjacent common tern and you realise how small they really are.