Corn Bunting

Lade - hot, dry and sunny, s2 - A couple of mid-summer like days, and balmy nights, improved the moth catch nicely with 15 species last night and five new for the year, although there was nothing particularly exciting apart from a Shark which I don't get very often. Also of note were several parties of high-flying, raucous Common Terns over the cottage this morning.
  It was heartening to hear and see the first Romney Hythe and Dymchurch train for over two months chugging along the track today on a test run; infact when I heard the whistle I rushed outside like a tourist to catch a glimpse of it, even though it was only JB Snell the diesel locomotive. While the service is not back up and running yet, it somehow gave a sense of hope that normality will return one day soon.

 

The 200` wall mirror at Lade is often used by birds as a perch, particularly when there is little wind as this morning with a pair of Oystercatchers asleep at one end and a preening Grey Heron at the other.  

 

                               Cruise ship anchored in the bay

  On the local patch a flyover Corn Bunting heading towards the Kerton Rd pit calling was a bit unusual as they tend to avoid the shingle, but just inland on Romney Salts they still breed in small numbers. The warmth had the desired effect around the ponds with plenty of emerging damselflies and at least one Hairy Hawker, while several monster Common Carp thrashed around  spawning by the willow swamp.
  A visit to a sultry Dengemarsh this afternoon was largely uneventful with only two Hobbies on show above Hookers reedbed, plus the usual array of waders, wildfowl and raptors across the wetlands.

                               Egyptian Geese are now a common sight on the wetlands