White-tailed Plover at Dungeness RSPB

With much thanks to my sister who tipped me off that there was a "Mega bird" at Dungeness in the form of a White tailed Plover, I whizzed off down to Dungeness for a good old -fashioned bird watching twitch tonight! When I arrived there, I thought I'd missed it, as the bird had not be seen for an hour. The bird had been hundreds of miles away in Glouceter just the previous day, so chances of seeing it seem very low. Or so I thought.. ..I decided to head back home (with the world-cup final shortly to begin), and started walking back to my car, Suddenly, a stampede of birders seemingly appeared out of no where. I then realised the bird had been refound.

My luck was with me tonight, as I saw this very elegant plover feeding out in the open often in the company of our resident Lapwings.This White-tailed plover should be at home in Iraq, Iran and Russia, but tonight it's thousands of miles away in Kent, much to the admiration of many birders who realise it could well be a once in a life time event.

Purple Heron

Purple Heron skulking around in the Denge Marsh reed bed.

The RSPB at Dungeness have history in the making on the reserve, with a pair of Purple Herons expected to be the first ever to breed in the British Isles. My first and very distant views were made after a early morning start to Dungeness on Satuday morning. The reserve seemed to be alive with birds and I was able to catch-up with some of our more common summer visitors to;


A distant comparison here between the Purple Heron and a larger Grey Heron being pursued by a Lesser Black backed Gull

Whitethroat collecting insects in Gorse

Lesser Whitethroat still calling and proclaiming its territory seems a little late in the year. Usually this is something I usually associate with late April - so it's really a sign of our late spring.

Female Reed bunting - seemingly abundant on the Reserve

Sedge warbler with a collection of bugs ready to delivered back to its nest.

A fine adult male Marsh harrier - one of many individual harriers that can be seen hunting in the vicinity of the reserve.


And finally, a look upwards seemed to give a guarantee of up to 4 Hobbies. Beautiful birds, if only they'd all fly a little closer for the lens!

Blue Tits ready for the jump

Hidden in the shade of Ivy leaves, our Blue Tit box houses a thriving family of fledglings now ready to depart. When not being fed with a near continuous feed of Green caterpillars, the young birds jostle for a better view of the world outside. I'm guessing that within 24 hours, they'll have made the big jump and join many other Blue Tit young already on the wing.

Hobbies prospecting and - are 'our' Buzzards nesting?

...Evidently by this picture of an adult bird carrying nest building material they are! So we now have some real evidence of Common Buzzard attempting to breed in the parish. Watching from the garden deck this morning, with two Hobbies circling high above, I noticed above them one of our local Buzzards much higher again. Only when checking these images later, did I notice the stick in the talons. A Cuckoo called in the background but yesterday's Spotted Flycatcher seems to have gone for now.

Spotted flycatcher in the garden

The hottest day of the year so far, has brought a welcome summer visitor to our garden today - from dawn to dusk we've had a Spotted Flycatcher flying from TV aerial to Oak tree canopy and then to the back garden Poplar (all high vantage points). As I've mentioned in postings before, this once common summer visitor is now scarce, so to see one back in the garden after a couple of years absence is great news. If it was to pair and breed, its biggest obstacle to success may well be the garden squirrels who easily raid eggs and young. My photographs are distant, as the bird always stayed high -up or at least roof top level. With luck it'll stay with us a little longer.


Top picture taken during morning, flycatcher in Oak canopy pics taken during the evening

Mystery fly and Damsel fly

Smouldering summer like temperatures and weather have arrived after weeks of chilling North East winds. Our spring which always felt as cold as winter, has suddenly turned to summer - (for now)! Under mostly blue skies at the top of our Blackthorn trees, a small swarm of weak flying black flies (15 mm long) with shiny irridescent wings and long black antennae 40- 50 mm have danced, basked and displayed together. They have in fact slowly moved from tree to tree down the garden boundary with the paddock (following the sun). They remind me a little bit of the Solomon Seal Sawfly or St Marks fly, but then close observation shows them to be more like a Dancer fly. They are structurally different though and as yet I can't put a common name to them. Their attention has not gone unnoticed by others with big eyes around the garden to - see below!

The flies seem to dance around each other and also flick their wings in display too. But the warm sun has also brought a rush of adult Large Red Damsel flies to the garden and pond margins too - and as you can see a dancing delicate fly doesn't always just attract a mate!

Norwegian spruce - Red pine cones

Gardens always have the ability to throw something new at you. In this case, our tall and gangly Norwegian Spruce has about a dozen crimson red 'baby' pine cones growing. Against a blue sky with strong sunshine on them, they're very beautiful; - almost glowing such is the intensity of their red hue. No doubt, this is probably a common phenonemon but I've never noticed them before in fifteen years of living here.

I'd like to get better pictures but the cones are quite high up and out of reach. I stood on the boys' old climbing frame, armed with a long telephoto lense to get these pictures. Quite a silly risk for a picture of what is after all - a pine cone!