Warm, dry and sunny - The summer heat wave continues, although thankfully not as intense as over the weekend when the temperature on our garden thermometer in New Romney hit 30C on Saturday afternoon. Out and about around the peninsula has revealed little change to the bird life with most of the warblers now into second broods and Sand Martins fledging from the wall colony on Burrowes. Post-breeding Pochard and Lapwing numbers are on the rise across the wetlands where a handful each of Avocets and Common Terns are in breeding mode and the female Red-crested Pochard is now down to a single duckling on ARC. While there has been a few confirmed Redshank, Lapwing and Oystercatcher fledglings in Kerton quarry, elsewhere across the reserve few wader chicks have survived the ravages of predation.
Moth numbers and diversity, on the other hand, have picked up considerably over the past week with the humid nights delivering amongst others three new species of macro to the garden trap: Lime Hawk-moth, Four-spotted Footman and Leopard Moth. A session out at St-Mary-in-the-Marsh with Chris P produced a different range of species including a gorgeous Peach Blossom and a very worn Striped Hawk-moth.
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