Since the last time....

Well to be honest, it's been reasonably hard work finding stuff recently in the hour before work each morning, highlights have been the first few SISKINS of autumn and 1 TREE PIPIT, which flew south yesterday morning. MEADOW PIPITS, SWALLOWS and MARTINS still continue to flow southwards, a SAND MARTIN on Saturday was the only one of the autumn for me which is unusual. A few SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS have been hanging around and Dad had a HOBBY on Tuesday 24th. CHIFFCHAFF numbers remain steady at around 10 birds each morning and a couple of BLACKCAP were heard this morning while a SNIPE flew over the first of the autumn.
We have been checking the moths regularly and on Wednesday morning counted over 500 LUNAR UNDERWINGS!! almost a record. Other moths have included FROSTED ORANGE, RED UNDERWING, PINION STREAKED SNOUT, BORDERED BEAUTY, AUTUMNAL RUSTIC and a couple of BEADED CHESTNUTS certainly enough to keep us interested.
A guided walk last Saturday did produce 50 species although only 3 participants!!! hopefully they enjoyed it though. Here are a few random pics from the last few days.

Chaffinch

Reed Bunting

Autumnal Rustic

Frosted Orange

Red Underwing

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Long overdue Kent tick!!!!

This morning I headed to Oare Marshes to look for the well photographed Spotted Crake. It was a beautiful morning hardly any wind and bright sunshine. The tide was high, as Debbie Harry would say! and there were good numbers of waders on the East Flood. A WATER RAIL disappeared into the ditch by the road as I headed towards the East Hide. The Crake was seen at 6.30am, I arrived at about 7.40am and waited until around 10am before moving on with no sign of the Crake. Luckily I was talking to Steve Ashton and mentioned I needed Spotted Crake for Kent, I had been gone a minute or two and the Crake came into view!! I noticed Steve waving, thankfully and went back to and had good views of the SPOTTED CRAKE at last. With a couple hours left I headed around the rest of the reserve, a HOBBY flew west and there were a few SAND MARTIN, HOUSE MARTIN and SWALLOW heading south.

Spotted Crake

Reed Bunting

Little Egret

Waders included GREENSHANK, CURLEW SANDPIPER, AVOCET, BAR and BLACK TAILED GODWITS, GOLDEN PLOVER, RINGED PLOVER, RUFF, SNIPE, DUNLIN and lots of REDSHANK and LAPWING. Overall a very enjoyable morning talking to fellow birders and a rare trip off patch!!
Back on the patch this afternoon SWALLOWS and HOUSE MARTINS were heading south and a COMMON BUZZARD posed in the field above Park Field, otherwise there wasn't much else to report.
Thanks again to Steve for attracting my attention as I wandered off aimlessly.

A Week Away.....

I have been back nearly a week now but we did go to Corfu for a short break last week, it was very relaxing and I was hoping I would find a few migrants, despite it not being a birding holiday. It was actually really slow for migrants until the last couple of days when a few raptors started to move south. Most of the activity for the raptors centred around a couple of short sessions, so much more was probably going on, the highlight was a smart young BONELLI'S EAGLE, not sure if it was migrating but it did head south. Next was a nice group of Harriers on the 6th Sept which included 3 male MONTAGU'S and 1 male PALLID, these were followed within the hour by several MARSH HARRIER, 1 OSPREY, 5 HONEY BUZZARDS and a couple of unidentified Falcons. A couple more Montagu's came through on the 7th and another Marsh plus a group of 8 assorted raptors! but too far away to identify. Other birds in the week included RED BACKED SHRIKE, BLUE ROCK THRUSH, SUBALPINE WARBLER, COMMON REDSTART, SARDINIAN WARBLER, RED RUMPED SWALLOW, ALPINE SWIFT and a WOOD WARBLER. As there weren't too many birds around I did look out for some insects and enjoyed a few butterflies and dragonflies, these included GERANIUM BRONZE, SCARCE SWALLOWTAIL, SOUTHERN COMMA, SILVER WASHED FRITILLARY, LANG'S SHORT TAILED BLUE plus a couple of other butterflies still to be identified, VIOLET DROPWING was the highlight for the dragonflies, the first I've seen although probably common in Corfu.
Here are a few holiday snaps........zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

A view around Agios Gordios Corfu

Geranium Bronze

Violet Dropwing

Southern Comma

Blue Rock Thrush

Common Redstart

Scarce Swallowtail

Common Water Snake

A couple of walks at the castle this week have produced a few bits moving through with CHIFFCHAFF numbers were upto 15 yesterday and a WHINCHAT, REED WARBLER and a GREY WAGTAIL. This morning there were probably only 8-10 CHIFFCHAFF and 3 SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS. 5 SWALLOWS through this morning is the biggest count this week!!

Someone asked me......

Before I get into the birds etc.. bit, an old friend asked me if I would do them a drawing/painting of a bird for her Aunt, I haven't done any sort of artwork for about 20 years so was slightly nervous. I didn't know what bird she wanted as we spoke and I thought maybe a stooping Hobby would be nice or something colourful like a Kingfisher. It soon transpired that the subject was colourful, actually going to be a Budgie!!! So a Budgie it was, rightly or wrongly the result is below, as you can see I'm no expert but actually enjoyed picking up a paint brush again especially as it wasn't one for decorating anyway!

My dodgy attempt at Painting!!

So the I haven't been out much in the last few days but a couple of visits have produced a little bit of movement, firstly on Sunday morning I was sitting in my Dads sitting room in Sissinghurst and a MARSH HARRIER flew over the village heading west, later a SWIFT went through with a small flock of SWALLOWS. Monday the patch walk started with 2 flyover TREE PIPIT (99), a good start as I had already seen a HOBBY flying south before I left Dads house. Once again though the lack of Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and the like was striking, there was very little noise. Stephen was out as well and after a chat I headed to the veg garden where there were 3 CHIFFCHAFF and a WILLOW WARBLER, then Stephen called to say he had just seen a WRYNECK!! after a bit of searching we couldn't relocate the bird, which was very reminiscent of the bird I had in 2004 that just disappeared after it flew into a Silver Birch. There was a SEDGE WARBLER further on and 5 COMMON WHITETHROATS still around, a KINGFISHER called and a LITTLE OWL flew up from the rough grass as I approached it. The morning session finished, I came back later for a walk with Bec, there were more butterflies about and I counted 6 CLOUDED YELLOWS, by far the best year here as in many places this year. 3-5 BUZZARDS were seen and 2 YELLOW WAGTAILS flew from the hedge as I looked again for the Wryneck.

Another hedgerow Sedge Warbler

Clouded Yellow

Common Buzzard

Back in our little garden the Buddleia was full of butterflies, no less than 31 SMALL TORTOISESHELLS, incredible especially as just a handful of years ago I went a whole year without finding one!! There were 2 PAINTED LADIES, 1 RED ADMIRAL and 3 PEACOCKS, the highlight though was my first garden PURPLE HAIRSTREAK which landed on the small sycamore briefly.

Full of Butterflies! Small Tortoiseshells and a Peacock

This morning another look for the Wryneck proved fruitless but a SEDGE WARBLER was again in the hedges and 2 more TREE PIPITS flew south then circled round round and looked to land. I could also hear some HOUSE MARTINS in the mist, the first for a while.

Some Butterflies

It's been a quiet week on the bird front although both Stephen and my Dad have had WHINCHAT, Stephen also managed a WHEATEAR. Personally I've been counting CHIFFCHAFFS and COMMON WHITETHROATS, with maximums of 12 and 5 respectively. I did see my first raptors for a while in the shape of 1 COMMON BUZZARD and 1 SPARROWHAWK also I heard a GREEN SANDPIPER. A dodgy addition to the year list was Warrens BARNACLE GOSE (98).
Last weekend I had a good walk with Phil, Sam and Dave, we managed 39 species but the highlight for me were the 8-10 CLOUDED YELLOWS. The day was actually quite good for butterflies last Sunday, others included COMMON BLUES, BRIMSTONE, WHITE ADMIRAL, PURPLE HAIRSTREAK and loads of GATEKEEPERS and WHITES, these were all at the castle. At home the Buddleia was a new species for the garden SILVER WASHED FRITILLARY also RED ADMIRAL, SMALL TORTOISESHELL, COMMA and plenty of PEACOCK.
Not great photos but here are some I took over the week mainly last Sunday.

Common Blue

Clouded Yellow

White Admiral

Brimstone

Silver Washed Fritillary

Purple Hairstreak

Barnacle Goose with Greylags

The Rowans seem really heavily laden

12th - 16th August

Another mixed week started with TURTLE DOVE and SEDGE WARBLER as highlights on Monday. Tuesday was quieter before Wednesday produced a nice little mix of migrants and birds in general. Firstly it was evident that WILLOW WARBLER numbers were up, I found 6 for sure but probably there were double figures around. A YELLOW WAGTAIL (96) called 4 times as it headed south and 2 SEDGE WARBLERS were in the hedgerows with several WHITETHROATS and BLACKCAPS.

Sedge Warbler

 As I headed into the clover field a quick scan of the fence posts produced the first WHINCHAT (97) of the year, while a LITTLE EGRET flew south west, the first for a couple of months. Other birds on Wednesday were young SPOTTED FLYCATCHER and a LITTLE OWL called and was seen sitting on a post near the overflow car park. Later that day Stephen had 15-20 CLOUDED YELLOWS, certainly a record here.

Whinchat

Willow Warbler

Spotted Flycatcher

Lots of birds cleared for Thursday morning but 4 WILLOW WARBLERS remained and 1 SEDGE WARBLER stayed other birds of note were TURTLE DOVE and a LESSER WHITETHROAT. Quieter again this morning as just 2 WILLOW WARBLERS were all I could find.
On Thursday I did get up early and record the moths with Steve which included 3 year ticks BULRUSH WAINSCOT, SMALL MOTTLED WILLOW and MAGPIE MOTH which was the first record for 5 years

Magpie Moth

Bulrush Wainscot

A few bits

Numbers of passerines seem really low here at the moment, with hirundines almost non-existent! The reliable car park area usually full of young Chiffchaffs, flocks of Tits, Greenfinches and the like, is deathly quiet each morning. There was a LITTLE OWL calling at the top end this morning a CHAFFINCH, 3 ROBINS and 2 GREAT TITS were the only other occupants. I'm sure this must change soon and as Stephen said maybe the slightly delayed breeding season might account for some of it, which certainly seems likely at the moment!

Little Owl

Yellowhammer

Around the fields a couple of WHITETHROATS were heard and 1 SEDGE WARBLER 'tacked' before it found it's way briefly into the open. A TURTLE DOVE was a nice surprise just the 3rd sighting this year.
Last week did finish well, with GREEN SANDPIPER, REED WARBLER, SEDGE WARBLER and GREY WAGTAIL all seen on Thursday with a KINGFISHER being seen on Friday just before 40 SWALLOWS flew through in front of a heavy shower.

Goldfinch

A quick trip to Oare Marshes with my my nephews, 10 and 13 yrs old on Saturday was nice, they enjoyed the large numbers of  BLACK TAILED GODWIT, the AVOCETS and just the surroundings in general. CINNABAR MOTH caterpillars were found as well as a single WHINCHAT, they did well to last a morning but did say they want to go again!!

Golden Plovers - Oare Marshes