First Sand Martins

Lade - warm, dry and sunny, light airs - As the summer sunshine beats down (and its set to get even hotter by mid-week) my pessimism of earlier in the month concerning butterflies was unfounded. Walking our usual transect along the old railway line delivered a host of grassland butterflies, mostly Small and Large Skippers, Meadow Browns, Small Heaths, Marbled Whites, several Common Blues and Small Coppers and at least two Essex Skippers.

    Viper`s Bugloss in full flower

                               Common Blue and Meadow Brown


  Around the ponds two Emperor dragonflies and a Four-spotted Chaser were on the wing, while a Cuckoo called from the willow swamp. On south lake Pochard numbers were up to 55, Coot 180, Great Crested Grebe 26, and as we headed home for breakfast, two Sand Martins dropped in to hawk insects, thereby announcing the `official` start of autumn migration! This tiny hirundine is hard to come by in spring, but over the coming weeks until early October, peaking in late August, tens of thousands of Sand Martins will pass through the Dungeness wetlands to pause awhile before making the short sea crossing over the English Channel and south to Africa.
  It was a steady night around the garden moth trap with another two Sussex Emeralds.

                               Black-winged Stilt, ARC

 The Black-winged Stilt that put in a brief appearance on Solstice morning was relocated on ARC (MC) and still present this evening along with a host of Lapwings, Little Egrets and Black-headed Gulls. Hundreds of wildfowl, Coots and grebes were spread across the still waters, while Common Terns came and went with fish for hungry nestlings on the raft. Cuckoo, Green Woodpecker and Lesser Whitethroat noted at the pines.