Stilt Action at Oare !

Black-Winged Stilts seem to be becoming a regular occurrence here in the south of the country, Vange Marsh in Essex, Cliffe Pools North Kent last year, and now Oare Marshes where a family group of four Black-Winged Stilts, two adults & two juveniles have been on show since early June.
although checking the latest bird reports there does not seem to be any further reports after 19th July, so it looks like my late visit on the 17th may just have been in time.

Oare Marshes is quite a compact site, small car park behind the sea wall, an access road running alongside  the East Flood which seems to be the favoured area for waders, and a pleasant walk which circumnavigates the whole east flood area, with views over Faversham Creek and the Swale estuary.

Stilts are quite a distinctive bird and it wasn't difficult to locate them as they fed up and down the edge of the flood nearest the road.

Just managed to fit the whole family in one frame, most of the time the family were scattered all around the flood, although the two juveniles did stay close together at times.

Juv Black Winged stilt

The local Avocets did not appear overjoyed with there company, especially when they strayed to close to each other, but made for some interesting action photographs.

Plenty of other waders on show around the flood, most numerous were the Black-Tailed Godwits roosting en-masse in the middle of the flood.

Black-Tailed Godwits

Other waders noted around the flood were as follows.

Whimbrel

Little-Ringed Plover

Ruff in moult

Avocets

Plenty of Gulls on the flood, mainly Black Headed Gulls in various stages of moult, a few Mediterranean Gulls in the mix with a bonus of the single  Bonaparte's Gull hidden amongst them.

Mediterranean Gull

Mediterranean Gull, Bonaparte's Gull & Black-Headed Gull

Bonaparte's Gull with Black Headed Gulls

Juvenile Black Headed Gull

A walk around the East Flood revealed good numbers of  both male and female Ruddy Darters.
my first Migrant Hawker of the year was seen resting up in a tree.

Ruddy Darter male

Migrant Hawker

Butterfly's represented by Gatekeepers, Red Admiral, Peacock and a single Pale Clouded Yellow, which  was too quick for me to get a photograph. huge numbers of six spot Burnett feeding along the sea wall.

Gatekeeper

Six-Spot Burnett

Hobby

A passing Hobby and Marsh Harrier spooked the waders and gulls a few times. during the afternoon

One of my favourite river vessel, Thames Barge on the Swale , I haven't seen this one before named the Reperter, making its way into Faversham Creek.

What a place to spend a few hours or longer on a summers afternoon!

Banded Demoiselle on the River Darent

The River Darent that runs along the boundary of Lullingstone country park is my favored area for Banded Demoiselle, just need to find a sunny aspect and you are sure to find the male Banded Demoiselle in good numbers.

 They tend to sit out on the riverside reeds or overhanging vegetation where they wait for the females to make an appearance, sometimes just a fly by,  but two or three males will launch themselves after the female trying to impress her with their fluttering display flight.

The males are quite distinctive once you know what you are looking for. The only real confusion species I guess would be the Beautiful Demoiselle, unfortunately I have never seen one of these and I'm sure this is not the right type of river habitat for them.

 These male Banded Demoiselles are right little posers and you can usally get a few nice shots of them.

 The females on the other hand are more elusive, probably with good reason, but just as photogenic as the males if you can find one. they do blend in with the riverside vegetation quite well so maybe I,m just missing them.

I was fortunate to find three different females on this occasion, couldn't find any last year.

This female had very brown wings and brown eyes making it look like the Beautiful .
Demoiselle female, while the other two had the typical light green hue

A few other damsels were seen along the river edge, including the Common Blue damselfly and the Large red damselfly.

Common Blue

Common Blue

Large Red

Silver-Washed Fritillary at Shorne !

Found myself back at Shorne Woods Country Park today giving my Grandson some clean fresh country air as he took his morning siesta.


As I walked around the Fishing lakes looking  for that elusive Downy Emerald Dragonfly that I caught a glimpse of last week, the usual Emperors were still patrolling up and down the lake, the females ovipostering in the thick weed near the end of each lake every now and then, Black Tailed Skimmers were basking on the sun dried mud at each fishing station around the lake, Ruddy Darters  were everywhere, especially the females, a few Red eyed Damselflys were still to be seen on the lily pads. but no sign of the Downy Emerald.


As I walked around the back of the lake a large comma type Butterfly caught my eye nectaring on a plant which I believe is called Hemp Agrimony but I could be wrong.


It was certainly attracted to the flowerhead allowing a close approach, unfortunately no camera, just my trusty old Samsung  android which I managed to get some photographs of this very obliging butterfly.



I could now see that it was a Fritillary of some sort, and not the Dark Green Fritillary that I am familiar with, this was much larger, I could clearly see a very pale blue shimmer to the lower edge of the wings, and this  Fritillary had what looked like three very pale bars on the underside of the wing, not spotted like the Dark Green.

Unbelievably, I had stumbled on my very first Silver Washed Fritillary.

This one looks like a female, very approachable, which was fortunate for me,  having only my mobile phone camera to record this historic sighting for me.


The male has four distinctive black veins on its fore-wings, these apparently contain special androconial scales that are used in courtship, known as " sex brands" must be a similar brand as seen in the small skippers.

A Butterfly of the woodlands, I'm surprised I have not seen one before, very large, very beautiful.

Silver-washed fritillary

Elephant in the garden !!!

I could hardly believe my eyes as I checked the Skinner moth trap in the garden, I've been waiting nearly two years for one of these beauties to find its way into my moth trap. and there it was, unmistakable in all its pink and olive gaudy colouring, nonchalantly resting on an egg box.

 Slightly smaller than I imagined, and my first thought was Small Elephant, but the broken pink line down the middle of the abdomen confirmed its identity as a Elephant Hawk-moth, larger of the two similar species.

I know very little about these, I tend to wait until I come across a creature, before I read up on whatever I have seen.

So why is it called an Elephant Hawk-moth was my first thought, and the name comes from the caterpillars resemblance to an elephants trunk, the head and thorax are more slender than the rest of the body and, this can be said to look like an elephant's trunk.

Another interesting feature on the caterpillar are the two large eye spots behind the head, the caterpillar can retract its head into its thorax giving the appearance of a snake like creature, the two eye spots also suggest a larger animal which may startle a predator.

So of all the Hawk-moths the Elephant Hawk-moth is one of the commonest, no surprise there then, they are said to be attracted to garden light traps, attracted to honeysuckle, fuchsia and similar tubular type flowers. they rest up under their food plants.

Elephant Hawk-moths are on the wing from early May through to September, so theirs still a chance of another making its way to the garden.

The caterpillars are fond of Rosebay willow herb so I guess a good place to look for them , although the caterpillars are said to feed at night, so maybe not that easy to find.

After having a good look at this beauty, I placed it in the middle of  a garden shrub where it stayed all day before disappearing into the night

Hope I don't have to wait so long for another Hawk-moth to find its way to my garden.

House Sparrows doing well !

The house Sparrows that visit my small suburban garden appear to be doing very well again this year, with plenty of juvenile birds chasing their parents around the garden begging for food.

The highest number I have counted at any one time was twenty seven, but it's difficult to get an accurate count with all the coming and going.

I was surprised to read that the House Sparrow are one of those birds that's mates for life and rarely moves more than a few hundred yards from where they was born. So I guess it's important that there's a good food and water supply in the area in which it ranges.

It got me wondering how the House Sparrow population generally was doing after its dramatic decline in the last few decades, it appears that numbers are slowly increasing, but this recovery is described as 'fragile and needing support' especially in urban areas.

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) has produced a free factsheet. in which it outlines the needs required to provide this support.

I wondered how my garden fared with these needs, good in some of the requirements bad in others.

"The House Sparrow requires favorable feeding conditions, these have been reduced by paving for off-street parking, building on gardens and the use of decking,"

I must admit I do have Off street parking at the front of the house, but I feel I have more than made up for this by having a higher proportion of deciduous shrubs and a smaller proportion of concrete in my rear garden, feeding also supplemented with plenty of bird feeders.

"House Sparrows need thick cover to escape from predators, roost and socialise. Hawthorn, ivy, bramble and wild roses can provide such cover."

 I have Plenty of cover in the form of Ivy and other garden shrubs,And I know for a fact that a good number are roosting in one particular Ivy covered shrub, so not too bad on that account.

"Nest sites have also been lost, with many people now opting for plastic fascias and soffits instead of wooden ones, which would have gradually rotted, creating nesting holes. Modern roof tiles differ in their design from traditional ones, again reducing nesting opportunities."

Oh dear, I do have UPVC fascias and soffits all around the house with a fairly newly tiled roof, so no nesting opportunities here I'm afraid. but some nesting activity going on close by maybe.

"Increased levels of cat predation and competition for food with species such as Collared Dove and Woodpigeon might also be causing problems."

Once again Guilty of owning a cat albeit a very old cat, whose bird catching days are probably numbered. 

The occasional Woodpigeon and Collared Dove usually feed on the small amount of spillage from the House Sparrow feeders so no real problem there.

All in all not too bad. food, water, provision for cover, roosting and rest all provided just falling down really on nesting availability, something to think about maybe for the future.