I walked down from the Access Trail along the Bourne Valley looking for birds, butterflies and planning issues!
It was very nice to see some Small Tortoiseshell Butterflies, Aglais urticae, sunning themselves along the path. I recorded 6 for the Kent BBCS website. This year I seem to be seeing more of these than I have in the last three years, which is very good news as their numbers sank like a stone a few years ago. I cannot tell whether these are the last of the overwintering individuals, or the first of the mid-summer ones.
There are starting to be more damselflies around and I saw a good male Common Blue on the nettles by the river.
After Monty had had a good runabout, I put him on the lead and allowed him to cool down while I tried to work out the ghostly birds flitting in and out of the shadows. There were a family of Great Tits with newly fledged young, which were seen in deep in the canopy but very difficult to photograph. The light face patch looks more yellow and the features in general are only poorly defined, although the wing stripe is a good clue for identification.
There were two magpies in the general area of Hayes Farm, apparently one smaller than another, so I suppose that the smaller one might have been a recent fledgeling.
It was very nice to see some Small Tortoiseshell Butterflies, Aglais urticae, sunning themselves along the path. I recorded 6 for the Kent BBCS website. This year I seem to be seeing more of these than I have in the last three years, which is very good news as their numbers sank like a stone a few years ago. I cannot tell whether these are the last of the overwintering individuals, or the first of the mid-summer ones.
There are starting to be more damselflies around and I saw a good male Common Blue on the nettles by the river.
After Monty had had a good runabout, I put him on the lead and allowed him to cool down while I tried to work out the ghostly birds flitting in and out of the shadows. There were a family of Great Tits with newly fledged young, which were seen in deep in the canopy but very difficult to photograph. The light face patch looks more yellow and the features in general are only poorly defined, although the wing stripe is a good clue for identification.
There were two magpies in the general area of Hayes Farm, apparently one smaller than another, so I suppose that the smaller one might have been a recent fledgeling.
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