Another quick catch-up

I haven't managed much of anything recently, so just a quick run down. The most surprising has been the regularity of MEDITERANNEAN GULLS on the patch, my Dad, Stephen and I have all seen them myself 3 times with a maximum of 14 Dad twice just a couple of singles and Stephen had 20+ on Sunday morning. They were all adults bar one of Stephens birds. I haven't noticed lots of young birds but BULLFINCHES have started appearing. I have been sitting quietly for a couple of mornings just watching LITTLE OWLS catch worms and listening to the young begging which has been really enjoyable, unfortunately it's only been about 10 mins each morning but I'm happy with that to start the day.
Butterflies are still scarce but a few Dragonflies and Damsels are about with the highlight being a nice DOWNY EMERALD about 10 days ago but they never seem to sit still!!
I have been checking the moths this week and numbers are picking up with species counted each morning ranging from the mid 30's to just over 50 yesterday, highlights here include LIGHT BROCADE, EYED HAWKMOTH, ALDER MOTH, BEAUTIFUL GOLDEN Y, 3 SILVER Y's and SMALL ANGLE SHADES.
Here a couple of recent pics.

Little Owl

Alder Moth

Beautiful Golden Y

28th May- 4th June

Another Woodcock survey on Thursday produced 11 sightings, maybe just a couple of birds, plus a Hobby at 8.45pm, obviously been partying!! Back on the patch straight after the survey I managed to add TAWNY OWL (90) to the year list.
Visits have been sparse to the patch but a quick walk Saturday afternoon produced only 1 species of raptor which turned pout to be 2 RED KITE!! there were more reported in Kent all over the weekend. This morning was my next walk after checking the moths, 48 species in a couple of hours included 2 LITTLE OWLS, KINGFISHER, 3 SPOTTED FLYCATCHER and a nice family of LONG TAILED TITS. The highlight though was the 2 CROSSBILL (91) flying north.
The other outing this week was to Stodmarsh with some great company, we notched up 68 species including 13+  HOBBY, 1 BITTERN, 3 NIGHTINGALE, 3 TURTLE DOVE, 2 CUCKOO a couple of BUZZARDS and a couple of KINGFISHER being the highlights on a very enjoyable morning!

Hobby - Stodmarsh

Chaffinch

Young  Long Tailed Tit

Lime Hawkmoth - Macro no. 100 for the year.