Plumed Fan-foot

Lade - warm, dry, overcast, light airs - I had high hopes for a decent moth catch last night and although numbers continued to be stubbornly low there was a Plumed Fan-foot, which was new for the garden trap site and the 318th species of macro-moth. It was a poor specimen, but new none the less, and long expected as it now regularly comes to light at local moth traps across the Dungeness NNR.

                               Plumed Fan-foot - new for the Plovers trap

  Over the pits and around the willow swamp Willow Warblers continue to trickle through along with Common Whitethroats, Reed and Sedge Warblers. Common and Green Sandpipers noted around the margins and a count of 56 Knots was noteworthy on the bay amongst hundreds of Dunlins and Sanderling, that now includes juvenile birds.

                               Golden Plovers still in summer plumage

RSPB - Over the weekend we had 55 Golden Plovers and a leaucistic Pintail on ARC, a Great White Egret on Dengemarsh and all the usual wildfowl and common waders elsewhere. Today Whinchats were reported from Dungeness and Galloways, plus another Caspian Gull at the fishing boats.
Folkestone - At a family gathering in Grove Road this afternoon someone pointed skywards and said, "look and all those seagulls". So I did, and there up in the wild, blue yonder was an astonishing sight of around 200 Mediterranean Gulls hawking insects over the town. Also noted along the tree-lined railway embankment a Sparrowhawk feeding two noisy fledglings every so often with prey.