Ravens Galore and Travels Around Kent

7th August
I responded to a tweet GB had posted about four ravens he'd seen at SS. I quickly arrived and just saw them before they flew off inland together but there were five birds, a family group? Also a greenshank flew over head down on the beach where I also counted 26 egrets.

9th August
Had a day out visiting Samphire hoe, St. Margaret's and finally Lydden where I found some chalkhill blues and a silver-spotted skipper.

 Oak Eggar in the gents toilet, Samphire Hoe

 Hoverfly - Espisyrphus baleatus

 Chalkhill Blue

Silver-spotted Skipper

10th August
A visit to the plots at SS. revealed a few Essex skippers, blues and one brown argus , the first I'd found at SS.

 Brown Argus

 Essex Skippers

11th
A visit to Scotney Castle produced a few small red-eyed damselflies and brown hawker plus a boring visit around the old lady's house.

Small Red-eyed Damelfly

13th
Seasalter again, only produced 60 ringed plovers, and 1 dunlin on the roost plus a load of people! Went home.

14th
Some shots from the Herne Bay airshow.

Most shots ruined by all the coloured smoke!

15th
Missed a lovely red sunset at Seasalter, I kept looking out of the window whilst I was doing this blog- I'm spending too much time on the PC, its got to stop. Might have to just keep the Flickr going with a few added notes.

Interest Coming Back

5th August

Gradually awakening from my summer slumber and getting out a bit more although grand children are on holiday now, which I do enjoy (to a point) so time is still difficult. However, a few highlights from my brief excursions included a wheatear on the evening of the 30th of July followed by a brent goose the next morning at Seasalter.  

On the 1st August it was outing to the African Experience at Port Lympne zoo where its nothing like Africa one little bit. The animals are out of range for the camera and they drive around without stopping in an old lorry, I spent over £100 on the day, never again.  However, the gorrillas were good when they let them out into the paddock area.

 'What hairy arms you have got grandad'

'Just one more'

On the 3rd I went to Oare finding the Bonaparte's Gull, rather white-headed now plus the curlew sandpiper, gone are the days when we used to see over one hundred!  On the way home a coupleof Sandwich terns were off Seasalter.

5th August

I thought I would try and stay at SS for longer than half an hour, lol.  Out on the mudflats I counted 202 black-tailed godwits, 3 grey plovers, 1 brent just off the outfall, 24 egrets, 1 bar-tailed godwit and an odd sighting of 2 snipe sitting out on the mudflats their legs gradually getting covered by the incoming tide before they eventually flew off.

The plots were very quiet just a stonechat, blackbird and a couple of whitethroats but I soon got interested in the butterflies, lots of common blues, gatekeepers, large skippers and a couple of small coppers all in one small area.

I only had my little Panasonic camera and standard 24-70 zoom so I had to crop in an awful lot.

 Gatekeeper

Large Skipper

 A Stable Fly I think

Small Copper

 The first time I have noticed the large flats on the antennae on common blues which also appear to have a series of lines/ridges on the flat.