Barn Owl

Dungeness - muggy, overcast, NE 3 - An oppressive feel to the weather today due to the wind petering out by mid-morning. At the Patch 100 Common Terns and the same number of immature gulls on the beach. A Wheatear by the Experimental Station site looked fresh in and the Peregrine was perched on a pylon by the power station. At the Trapping Area the Rosy Pastor had stayed over from yesterday and spent some time perched atop a sallow before resuming feeding on caterpillars and the like lower down in cover. Common and Lesser Whitethroats also in song here.

                                Distant shot of the Rosy Starling

Lade - A couple of visits to check for any downed hirundines or Swifts over the lakes in the occasional light showers drew a blank; what on earth has happened to the Swallow migration this year, I`ve not known it as poor as this before.
  Our evening visit was a little more rewarding with distant scope views from the bridge of a Barn Owl hunting the rough ground behind the `mirrors`, and the first I`ve seen in ages. Marsh Harrier and Buzzard also noted, plus a male Sparrowhawk returning with prey to a nest site. A Fox provided an entertaining interlude as it was mobbed by a pair of Magpies concerned about their squawking nestlings in a nearby nest. Several times they made a combined attack on the bemused Fox with one bird actually tweaking its brush! Eventually Reynard could take no more and slunk through a gap in the fence into the caravan park.
  We left site just before lights out to the sound of thunder rumbling over the distant `uplands` of Kent and not a breath of wind to disturb the limp Union Flags of the Brexit voters next door.

                                Reynard and Magpies