Purple Patch

I'm not really much of a football fan but I do like watching England play so I feel I should make some reference to England's World Cup adventure in South Africa. I've given it a lot of thought and considered every angle but I always seem to come back to the same conclusion: IT'S ONLY A GAME!



So, i'm eating my cornflakes this morning, sleep still in my eyes and as always, wondering what day it was, when all of a sudden my mobile gently announced the arrival of a text message. It was Alan Roman asking if I'm going down to find the Purple Heron at Dungeness RSPB today. I was going to go to New Hythe originally but being weak willed and at my most vulnerable I agreed to go.

We arrived at the Denge Marsh road viewpoint at about 10 o'clock to find the RSPB volunteer warden on lookout duty by the side of the road. He pointed out where the nest site was located and within ten minutes we had our sighting and a couple of long distance record shots of what I believe to be the female. It was as easy as that!

PURPLE HERON

PURPLE HERON

The Kestrel chicks were there to greet us at the reserve entrance, looking as if their maiden flights were imminent and a single Tree Sparrow sat on the roof above the nest box on the barn wall at Boulderwell farm.

The Blue Viper's Bugloss that covers the site has now been joined by Yellow Horned Poppies, this together with the emerging Foxgloves and many other wildflower species painted a lovely, colourful picture in the glorious sunshine.

YELLOW HORNED POPPY

This same glorious sunshine kept bird activity quite low although most of the usual species could be found including Little Egret, Lapwings, Oystercatchers and Green Woodpecker. The LBJ's were well represented by Reed and Sedge Warblers, Dunnocks and Common Whitethroats.

I found the little bee species below on a lakeside gravel bank and I think it's probably a Sharp Tailed Bee. I can find very little info about it but hopefully i've ID'd it correctly.

SHARP TAILED BEE

A little further along I noticed this Pike in exactly the same spot as I found one some weeks ago. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same one. If it is it's grown a bit since last time. These fish are not the sharpest tools in the box but when they get bigger their teeth certainly are, I've seen first hand what their teeth can do to a persons fingers. Mind you he shouldn't have put them there in the first place!

JACK PIKE

Not too many birds to report on the water. Pochard, Tufties, GC Grebe, Greylag and Canada Geese, Moorhens, Mallards, Cormorants and of course the humble Coot. Mute Swans are particularly well represented at the moment and the one below had found a way to keep it's head cool.

BOTTOMS UP!

The five (or six) spot Burnets were in abundance, especially in areas where the thistles are emerging. I know I posted a picture very recently but this was the first time i'd photographed fifteen spots (or eighteen)! Or should I say thirty spots...........you do the maths.

BURNETS

Lunch should have been taken at the viewing mound bench but the RSPB have turned it into a temporary, well, viewing mound really, for the Purple Herons. There were tables laid out with RSPB wares for sale, scopes bristling along the trackside like radar dishes waiting to pick up and broadcast their every move and volunteers available to answer all the questions you might ask. The most common one being: " is that a Purple Heron or a Grey Heron over there? " It's not that easy to tell from a distance. So we had our lunch sitting on the gravel further down. During which the highlights were Swifts, all heading south strangely, Swallows, Linnets and a booming Bittern which at first I put down to Alan blowing into his bottle of juice but he assured me he didn't.

SMALL TORTOISESHELL

Most of the butterflies seen today were Small Tortoiseshells, as was the case in Dorset last week, must be good news. Feast your eyes while you can.

AND AGAIN

Finally, yet another picture of a Sedge Warbler. Sorry, but you have to take what you can get when the sun is high and the birds aren't obliging.

SEDGE WARBLER

Dungeness RSPB 4th June

I had a day at Dungeness RSPB today with a friend of mine. It's a great place to be in any weather but today was the icing on the cake. First bird to greet us was the Red Legged Partridge below, it was posing on a fence post, I haven't seen one do that before.

RED LEGGED PARTRIDGE

Marsh Harriers were active today with four or five at least seen including a couple of very smart males. Hobbys and a Kestrel completed the raptor sightings but a Red Footed Falcon was also present and we're pretty sure we saw it from a distance but ID was difficult and the presence of so many Hobbys made it harder to be 100% certain.

BROWN ARGUS

The tiny butterfly above was on the track from the visitor centre and i'm pretty sure it's a Brown Argus but correct me if i'm wrong.

Sedge Warblers, Reed Warblers, Whitethroat, Reed Bunting, Dunnock and Wren represented the LBJ contingent today with good numbers of all these species busily collecting food for hungry chicks.

GREAT DIVING BEETLE

There's a small water filled ditch near the Denge Marsh hide which has only been there a relatively short time, I think it was dug last year to contain sheep or goats in the small piece of meadow as an alternative to a horrible electric fence. I was amazed to see that it was already alive with Newts, more than I can ever recall seeing anywhere else. Also in the ditch were what I believe to be Great Diving Beetles which were coming up for air periodically. The one above appears to be doing just that, I think they store the oxygen under their wing casings and they are very big, this one was probably an inch and a half long and I think it's a female. They are very aggressive and will attack almost anything that moves including fish and small frogs.

GREAT DIVING BEETLE

The only Hirundines seen today were a couple of Swallows, probably due to the weather conditions but given the numbers of Hobbys around I think they were better off staying away.

The raft that has been anchored opposite the Denge Marsh hide was home to a pair of Oystercatchers with two chicks and a pair of Common Terns. There was a noisy fight everytime one or other parent returned to the raft with food, I think detached homes would have been more suitable than a pair of semi's. Other birds here were Pochard, Shelduck, GC Grebe, the inevitable Geese and a few Tufties.

COMMON TERN

Lunch was on a small bench below the small viewing mound during which we were entertained by a couple of Bearded Tits flying to and fro the reed beds and a super Bittern flying sedately in front of us towards Denge Marsh hide area.

On the way back to the car park we had flyovers of Redshank and Ringed Plover and also spotted this excellent baby Pike about 3 or 4 inches long lying motionless in the shallows where the water would be warmest. Note the dorsal fin way down it's back nearer the tail, this is what helps give the adults their explosive burst of speed which makes them so deadly in the pursuit of their prey. These are top predators in the freshwater fish world and I really like them!

PIKE

A quick visit to the ARC hide over the road didn't produce much in the way of birds, we only added Shoveler to make 40 species for the day, but I did spot this nice Emerald coloured chap which is a Green Tiger Beetle. They, like so many of us like the sun and the sand and they are ambush experts but can also run fast as I found when trying to get a picture. The larvae dig burrows in the sand and pounce on their unsuspecting prey of ants and other creepy crawlies.

COMMON BLUE BUTTERFLIES

Last but not least were these two blues on the side of the track back to the car park. I'm not too good with these chaps but i'm thinking Common Blues?

GREEN TIGER BEETLE