Dungeness at last!

Lade - warm, dry, overcast, light airs - With muggy, still overnight weather conditions perfect for moth activity, it was no surprise to see the garden trap well loaded this morning when I threw the towel over it just after 4.30am. Of the 23 species of macros eight were new for the year including, two Privet Hawk-moths, Common Wainscott and Common Marbled Carpet, the latter a moth I rarely catch.

                               Common Marbled Carpet

              

                               Privet Hawk-moth


  The past couple of mornings outback have been a bit samey with just the breeding Little and Great Crested Grebes, Coot and Mallard on the water showing off their young. A pair of Common Terns went over calling yesterday along with a Redshank and four Mediterranean Gulls likewise. A Sparrowhawk took one of the juv Starlings from a flock foraging on the shingle ridges and a Green Woodpecker showed for the first time in ages, otherwise all was quiet on the bird front.

                               Mallard with nine ducklings

  However, wandering along the main track searching for orchids and lamenting the lack of butterflies in general we came across a freshly emerged Marbled White, one of my favourites and a week or so earlier than is normal. It sat amongst a riot of colourful, scorched plants, basking in the weak sunshine and affording superb views, as well as conjuring up one of those special moments that you get from time to time in nature, especially when you consider the various stages of transformation that it has had to go through to reach the final imago. Its always best to enjoy Marbled White`s while they`re on the wing as they only have a single brood with a short two month flight period during high summer.

                                First Marbled White of summer

This afternoon after a hiatus of some ten weeks due to lockdown we paid our first visit to the Dungeness Estate. Mercifully, the overcrowding of last weekend had relented and there were few people present. Walking down the concrete road towards the fishing boats, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Linnet and Stonechat were all noted in song, plus a distant Wheatear perched atop an old shed.
  I decided on a seawatch; not something I would normally do in early June with an easterly airflow, but these are far from normal times. Barney found an old bit of wood to chew on and I settled down for an hour scanning the Channel seeing pretty much bugger all apart from several passing Common Terns, Black-headed Gulls and Cormorants and a couple of Porpoises offshore.
  But it mattered not a jot; a seawatch from the boats was another box ticked on the road to normality, whatever that may be in future...

                     "Woof-woof, ten weeks without seawatching - pure bliss, woof-woof!"