August 3rd

Leaving moths in the dark today, so to speak! I concentrated on birds this morning. A couple stops in the entrance lane produced WILLOW WARBLER, BLACKCAP, 25 JACKDAWS, a few GREENFINCHES  and a WHITETHROAT. The first bird seen, once in the car park was a LITTLE OWL, it watched me for a couple of seconds, I thought I would retreat and go into 'stealth mode' to get a bit closer but as soon as I stepped backwards the bird was gone! I didn't add much else there so moved to hedges, Stephen arrived and we took different routes around the fields. A JAY called from the other side of the veg garden, a bird I've not seen much recently and a HOBBY flew through unannounced this time, it took the same line and was seen close to the same time as three previous sightings in the last couple of weeks. About 20 HOUSE SPARROWS were in one group but there were more smaller groups scattered around the hedges. A BULLFINCH called but couldn't be located and a GREY HERON flew west, also a fairly light coloured LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL drifted over. The last part of the walk took me along a ditch and uphill next to the tree lined bridleway, along the ditch were 4 REED BUNTINGS all youngsters, a GARDEN WARBLER and several WHITETHROATS, unfortunately there was no sign of yesterdays Stonechat which was present all day. The bridleway had another good flock of birds, 13 LONG TAILED TITS, COAL TIT, MARSH TIT, loads of BLUE TITS, CHIFFCHAFF and WILLOW WARBLER. Another bird I hadn't seen for a while appeared when 9 CANADA GEESE flew towards Frittenden. Unfortunately we have lost connectivity at home, which maybe a router problem, with the works photo editing programs a bit hit and miss, there probably won't be any photos for a short time but probably loads when everything is up and running again!!