Whitethroats and Sand Martins at Leybourne Lakes

Quite a few Whitethroats, Sylvia communis, were to be found, defending territories or setting up nests.

I think the one I was photographing here from the first bridge across the stream might perhaps be a male, as although its head wasn't so clearly grey as I would have expected, it wasn't truly brown either. There is quite a clear eye-ring, and I rather think that the brown on the head might be superficial and might be about to wear off. It is still quite early in the season, and most of the females have perhaps not arrived yet. It is known that the males arrive first, and prepare "cock-nests" for the approval of the female. This bird does seem to be the same bird throughout (there appears to be a dimple in the forehead just to the left of the beak in at least some photos), there was a distinct pinkish tinge to the breast, and it was singing well in between visits to the nest, on the other side of the stream, so it is at least possible that it is a male.

The next two pictures are perhaps more clearly a male, if indeed it is the same bird!! To be honest the only thing I can really suggest is that it is an adult, partly because it must be as it is nest building, but also because the iris is not anywhere as dark a brown as would be expected in a juvenile bird, and so the light brown of the iris clearly contrasts with the dark pupil in the centre! The inside of the eyelid is said to be reddish, and I wouldn't strongly disagree, although I wouldn't strongly confirm either!

The beak is also quite well shown in the picture below. The upper mandible is dark horn, the lower is flesh-yellow except at the tip where it is also dark horn. The cutting edges are flesh-yellow. The inside of the mouth is yellow-pink.

The legs are brown (not as pale brown as I have read) with the toes perhaps slightly darker.

In the nominate subspecies, Sylvia communis communis, the moulting process is a complete moult post-breeding before migration, although perhaps partly suspended for the migration period, and then a partial moult pre-breeding.  In the Eastern subspecies, volgensis, rubicola and icterops, the post-breeding moult is partial, and the pre-breeding moult complete.

Nominate males then arrive on the breeding ground with fresh head and body plumage, i.e, the head and body will tend to be browner than the text-books generally suggest. The wings and tail are likely to be more worn, perhaps explaining why it is very difficult to see the normally stated white edging to the tail in this particular bird.

The post-breeding moult is primaries and secondaries descendent, working from P1 outwards towards P10, and S1 outwards towards S6. The suspension of moulting, if it occurs, is more likely to delay the moulting of the secondaries than the primaries.

While I was watching the whitethroat, there was also a Moorhen fussing about on the bank, before it slowly swam off.

The Muscovy Duck was by the feeding area:

The Greylag Geese were present in small numbers around the feeding area, looking in good condition.

One pair had three fairly new goslings.

The Mallards are looking well paired up, and svelte! Here is a drake.

There was one Muscovy drake as well.

Way out in the middle of the Ocean, there were Sand Martins skimming over the water and feeding, but too far away to be more than a blur in the photo.

There was an Andrena species female solitary bee in the shelter by the side of The Ocean, with a shiny black top to the abdomen, but I couldn't be sure of the species. Quite possibly Andrena nitida? (2021 guess).

A breezy grey Broadwater with the warden

This amazing green wood stain is caused by Green Elf Cap fungi, Chlorociboria spp., and is one of the components of the famous intricate marquetry known as Tunbridge Ware.

Lots more information on Chlorociboria and Tunbridgeware on Tom Volk's page,

There is some incredibly rare Chalybeate wet woodland there with the iron staining the mud bright orange-red and the green Greater Tussock Sedge, standing bright green among the orange surrounds.

The ground flora in and around the muddy pools is springing into emerald life:

This dead hedge helps with health and safety, and also reduces the risk of dogs entering the water, which could cause a lot of ecological damage, as well as risking the dog itself becoming at the least very dirty and stinky!

The RSPB have some really good interpretation signs, informative with great visuals:

This log-pile is on one of the smaller heathy patches near the car-park with refuge patches close by - unfortunately clear of adders when we checked this morning!

Holborough Marshes

A very pleasant walk around Holborough Marshes, starting off in warm sunshine, getting gradually cooler and just caught by the first start of the rain as we approached the car at 6:30 p.m. Then off to Pam's for lamb champ chops cooked by Paula, with Monty smelling strongly of the marsh ditchwater. Nightingales singing strongly!

In the narrow strip of woodland leading out to the river wall just at the start of the reserve, there were four Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria, all of them that I saw likely to be males. They were in apparently obvious territories, from ground level to about waist height, and I saw one duel. One was already quite battered, and it seems that each individual adult only survives for approximately one week, perhaps feeding off honeydew up in the canopy. These will have over-wintered as chrysales. There will also be over-wintering caterpillars, an almost unique scenario amongst butterflies to have these two options, which still have to form chrysales and which will then be on the wing from sometime in May in their turn, peaking in June. It was impossible to tell if there were three spots or four spots on the top of the hind-wing in these insects.

This is the same butterfly's head in close-up, demonstrating the irridescent hairs:

While photographing the Speckled Woods, the camera caught the underside of a Greater Celandine leaf, Chelidonium majus, with its long thin silky hairs:

Here are the flowers of the Greater Celandine, with the same silky hairs, this time on the outside of the sepals.

One of the high points was a female Gooden's Nomad Bee, Nomada goodeniana on a Dandelion flowerhead (Taraxacum officinale) - apparently they seem to be seen on these quite often . The lack of any red on the abdomen, the unbroken yellow bar on T2, the yellow tegulae, the yellow tubercules (many on this specimen) all point to this species. The orange antennae have no black on them and have only 12 segments, the eyes are reddish rather than green spotted and the abdomen has only 6 tergites, so this is a female.

In this side view the pattern of yellow bands on the tergites and sternites of the abdomen can be seen, as well as the long mouthparts seeking the pollen or nectar in the capitulum.

Nightingales at Leybourne

11 Nightingales together with Whitethroats, Sedge Warbler, Willow Warbler, Chiff-chaffs, Blackcap, Cuckoo, Blackbirds, Robins, Swallows, Tufted Duck, Little Grebe, Black-headed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Blue Tits, Great Tits.

What a lovely spring day, even if a bit cool and breezy.

My first leaf beetle of the year (how slow I am) on Salix caprea.

There was a nice chunky Andrena, quite possibly Andrena flavipes, on the Goat Willow, Salix caprea. Prominent abdominal hairbands make it one of the few of the reasonably identifiable Andrena species, long dark hairs on the last segment. I think I should knock the aperture down from f5.6 in these sort of shots to at least f16 to improve the depth of field, even if it means upping the ISO significantly.

This is a bivoltine bee, March-June and July-September, so the timing of the date today is good support for the ID. The bee is highly polylectic, but of course Salix is a fairly predominant pollen source at this time of year.

There was also an Eristalis species with clear abdominal lines as well, possibly .

Hamstreet Woods NNR

This was a great visit to the NNR with Phil to share my enthusiasm for both wildlife and photography.

Underneath a decaying log I found a disco fungus in the Ascomycetes, probably Mollisia and maybe Mollisia cinerea.

And a little further along the decaying wood there was a large red mite, very still!

There was a nice little white Springtail as well, but too out of focus.

On the top of a nearby stump was a possible Slime Mould, perhaps Lycogala terrestre.

On some of the birches we saw later there were some hoof or tinder fungus brackets, Fomes fomentarius, very common wherever there are Birch, or Beech further South I understand:

There were a few burrows about 15 mm diameter by the side of the main path. A large beetle perhaps?

Through the middle of the woods we came across some Wood Bittercress, Cardamine flexuosa, with 6 stamens in the flower and a lusher "jizz" to it than the Hairy Bittercress, Cardamine hirsuta.

Here is a nice photo of a Primrose, a Bluebell and a Wood Anemone all together!

There were also a few violets:

For birds, there were Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Nuthatches, robins, Blackbirds, Songthrushes, Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, Green Woodpeckers, Jays, Jackdaws, Woodpigeons and a Sparrowhawk circling high above the wood.

We saw one of the less than a dozen mature Wild Service or Chequer trees in the Woods, and bemoaned the lack of young trees there. The bark is wonderfully craggy and beautifully if discretely coloured:

It has NOT moved from Sorbus into Torminaria, so remains Sorbus torminalis.

The hornbeam is breaking buds and the leaves are expanding rapidly.

Oare Gunpowder Works on the first really hot day of the year!

A wonderful wander round the Country Park full of munitions production archaeology and natural history. Three Peacock, two Brimstone and four female Orangetip (?) butterflies. A nesting pair of Bluetits, Sparrowhawk, Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, Chaffinches, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Green Spotted Woodpecker, Woodpigeons, overflying Herring Gulls, Black-headed Gull.

Yellow-legged Mining Bees, Andrena flavipes ( a guess!), Lasioglossum poss calceatum, Episyrphus balteatus, Sphaerophoria sp.,

Ivy-leaved Speedwell, Veronica hederifolia, was in at least one spot in the ancient (rather dominated by sycamore) woodland, quite a common plant generally across most of the country, an early introduction by man (intended or not) and I think a very nice little plant to see. It is a "winter annual", probably germinating in autumn, spreading by seed. As the fruit ripens it bends downward, allowing the ants to collect the seed, attracted by the scent of the associated oily appendage.

Single small light lilac pink flowers with long stalks in the leaf axils, heart-shaped sepals (not always easy to see), petals short so said to be almost hidden in among the (claimed to be) slightly larger sepals, leaves with short stalks, veins only from base of the 5-7 lobed leaf, not from a central midrib, therefore "palmately veined leaves" (the only speedwell like this I think), small, softly hairy low-spreading plants, photos attached. Like the other Veronicas it has now been reclassified from the Scrophulariaceae (Figwort family) into the Plantaginaceae (Plantain family).

There are actually two recognised subspecies, ssp hederifolia (2N = 54) and ssp lucorum - aka sublobata (2N = 36), with different chromosome complements (Tetraploid and Hexaploid, as the seed is fertile?), I tend to think this is the latter, with longer flower stalks and lilac flowers with pale anthers which is rather less common, but typically found in woodland rather than arable/verges, although I think you really need it in fruit as well to give it anything like a reasonable guess (BSBI have an excellent online plant crib)! This subspecies does not seem to be recorded in this NBN 10K square.

Broadwater Warren with Tree Pipits and Woodlarks

A really nice quiet relaxing afternoon at Broadwater, much less windy than yesterday but not that much warmer. Tree Pipits definitely identified today, so I was reassured about my identification of them yesterday.

ID points include the clearly visible eye ring, the clear pale sub-moustachial stripe, the strong bill, pinkish legs, very curved (short?) hind claw, the change from the strong broad streaking on the breast to fine streaking on the flank, the whitish belly in contrast to the buff chest and flanks.

Clear dark centres and pale fringes to the feathers make the median coverts stand out very clearly.

This bird was singing its heart out: