A couple of Migrants birds and moths

Another good week of weather and a few outings have produced some reasonable numbers of WILLOW WARBLERS, a REED WARBLER, Steve B had a GREEN SANDPIPER on Saturday morning and this morning I had a TREE PIPIT (94) drop into the field below the moat. Also in the last few days a HOBBY has been seen on more than one occasion and a pair of TURTLE DOVES have been around. BULLFINCHES with young are a feature as I walk the hedgerows as are the young tacking BLACKCAPS. Still the Sedge Warblers remain unfound but they must be around.
Steve has been recording the moths this week and found some great migrants, 2 JERSEY MOCHAS, are possibly the 2nd and 3rd records for Kent, BARRED HOOK-TIP was new for the site as was the migrant DUSKY HOOK-TIP found in among yesterdays moths, the castle list now stands at 435 species. I put the trap out in the garden for the first time this year which is a poor show but immediately added a new species for the garden in the form of a LUNAR THORN. Steve Broyd very kindly sent me photos of our new visitors to the castle, many thanks for these

Jersey Mocha - Steve Broyd

Dusky Hook-Tip - Steve Broyd

Barred Hook-Tip - Steve Broyd

Peacock and shadow

Comma and friends

What a Beauty!!!

The week was fairly quiet, again a couple of very short walks produced nothing much but today, while I was eating lunch Bec called out that she had a strange butterfly in the garden seconds later I was watching a CAMBERWELL BEAUTY!! in my garden!! Amazing I saw one in Poland in 2004 but never in this country, unfortunately it stayed only 5 minutes but that was just long enough for a few pics :-)

Camberwell Beauty - Sissinghurst

6th August

A couple of short walks this weekend didn't really bring any great surprises, the first returning WILLOW WARBLER, that I've actually seen rather than suspected hearing, showed briefly in the hedge whilst mixing with a family group of BLUE TITS, several SWIFTS were over head. Still no sign of any Sedge Warblers but better coverage will surely produce one.
Butterflies included WHITE ADMIRAL, COMMA, PEACOCK, GATEKEEPER, MEADOW BROWN, HOLLY BLUE, SPECKLED WOOD and RED ADMIRAL. A GOLDEN RINGED DRAGONFLY stopped for a short time and a SOUTHERN HAWKER also put in an appearance. These were both in Roundshill Wood as were a few calling MARSH TITS.
Steve is still checking moths, mainly without Pete and myself, I admire his dedication and if I could get out of the house without making any noise I would definitely be!! We are now on over 270 species for the year, the latest to be added was SHARP ANGLED PEACOCK. Last night while watching the Olympics a WAVED BLACK appeared from behind the curtain!

Golden Ringed Dragonfly

Golden Ringed Dragonfly

Southern Hawker