Bod Petrual

A nice walk around this Forestry Commission site, with some buzzards seen, and three wrens heard. Some different passerine calls were heard overhead and in the trees, but nothing I could distinguish for sure, except one Great Spotted Woodpecker that flew over the path, calling.

The Hypericums along the pathside all had black streaky lines on the petals, which, despite the key to the genus in Francis Rose, makes them Hypericum maculatum, or perhaps possibly the hybrid Hypericum x desetangsii. I think I need to look lower down the stem for the square section, and most other things seem to fit, translucent veins but no spots in the leaves, no stalked black spots on the sepals, . However the sepals might seem to be not quite blunt enough, according to the BSBI crib sheet diagrams.

There were Spiny Sowthistle and one clump of Perennial Sowthistle, a Hawksbeard, Catsear, Common Birds-Foot Trefoil, Meadow Vetchling, Gorse, Lesser Spearwort, Creeping Buttercup, Field Buttercup, Upright Hedge Parsley, Bramble, Greater Sallow, Birch, Rowan. Lesser Knapweed was nearer the car park. 

A Screech Owl while bat monitoring

While Pam and I were doing the second bat walk of the year, we heard an unearthly screeching across the fields towards Golden Green. A moment later a dark shape flew over and I called out "owl". Pam's torch revealed a pale body and wings, and we had seen a Barn Owl. The old country name was "Screech Owl", although this was the term also used for Tawny Owls and Little Owls, at least in some parts of the country. The sharpest call is however definitely that of the Barn Owl, Tyto alba.

As we were getting back in the cars we heard several Tawny Owls, Strix aluco, calling as well, slightly more tunefully.

Oare before the torrential rain

At the front of the East Flood there were a couple of Ringed Plover with the larger flocks of Golden Plover, resplendent in their black and gold.

Here is the best photo I got of the Ringed Plover, Charadrius hiaticula. The rounded cheek pattern is clear, and I am fairly convinced of the stout bill, but rather less so of the orange as opposed to pink legs!

There was a Meadow Pipit, with very clearly pink legs, feeding on the mud close to the road:

A Little Stint (on the left) was feeding and chasing a Dunlin around a muddy spit fairly close in,

Leybourne Lakes

Common Blue Butterflies were starting to roost on the flowerheads in the meadow, but the first butterfly I saw roosting was actually a Brown Argus, with the two spots vertically, rather than horizontally arranged:

and this is a male Common Blue,

and another, from the upperside,

There were some fascinating Rose Sawfly larvae, the more orange species, Arge ochropus, massacring the leaves on the wild roses in the meadow.

Cliffe Pools before the rain

Just made it to the first viewpoint before it started raining.

On Conoco, there were lots of Coots, Redshank, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, one Moorhen, five little Egret, and just one Tufted Duck. Met a nice chap called Marcus.

From the first viewpoint and the spot on the West side of Radar pool, there were some lots of Coots, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, with some Black-tailed Godwits and Avocets, Redshanks, two probable Greenshank, some Little Egrets, a few Tufted Ducks, Black-headed Gulls, one Grey Heron and also a Wren chitting off to the right. A group of Greylags flighted over, but the rain soon set in and I bailed out!

Oare Marshes

I think this is a Little Ringed Plover juvenile, as I cannot see a "bold white supercilium" as I would expect on a Ringed Plover juvenile. The hood could be pointed as well, it was difficult to be sure in this photo - confirmed in another, now that I know what I am looking for! A highly cropped photograph, so no further detail possible, but all of the repeated photographs were quite consistent. There were potentially two birds, but I think I only photographed one of them. Nothing proven though.

There were about 15 Little Terns fishing off the point and the mouth of Oare Creek.

Here is a Turnstone, one of a group of half a dozen in summer plumage picking at the seaweed on the rocks by the launching ramp:

and here is the same bird actually jumping quickly from one spot to another,

This is the Turnstone again in full colour, not a bad photo, head cocked.

and here in black and white:

and another photo, again in black and white to demonstrate the camouflage:

Dene Park

There weren't many birds around at all in the heat, but I thought I heard a Buzzard calling in the area of the Scambles. The Purple Helleborine is nearly over its flowering period now, and I think I might try to mark the position of this year's flowering spikes. The big spike on the West side of Path 2 is just by a big oak, 100 m from the nearest tip of the triangle at Ringlet Corner. I thought again that I should do something about the Rhododendron and Laurel

The Lesser Spearwort is flowering well in its small regular patch along the dark path, but not the wettest part of the path, and there is a lot of Broad-leaved Willowherb along the dark path as well. The Goldenrod is just about out as well. If anything I think it may have spread a little since last year. Another good yellow is Yellow Pimpernel.

In amongst the Large-flowered Willowherb there was what looked like Purple Loosestrife as well, by the path through Knights Wood just before Sooty Corner. I also saw the clump of Wood Sage along the return path.

I was glad to see some Eyebright in flower on the path through Knights Wood, and also along Path 2. Also seen were Enchanters' Nightshade, Upright Hedge Parsley, Mint, Self-heal, Common Figwort, Hedge Woundwort, Field Scabious, Common Fleabane, Marsh Thistle, Ragwort, Common Nettle, Bramble, Agrimony, Ribwort and also all three of Broom, Perforated St Johns Wort and Woodbine in fruit. There is also a resurgence of Creeping Buttercup, Wood Avens and Herb Robert, together with Coltsfoot in leaf. The Angelica inflorescences were attracting large numbers of flies and wasps.