I was late switching off the garden moth trap so decided that, after the obligatory coffee fix, I would take a stroll around Pegwell Bay armed with the binos and camera kit, rather than get back into bed. With the sun shining brightly from a, virtually, cloudless sky it was certainly a very pleasant way to waste away a couple of hours.. If I'm brutally honest, birding was a real struggle with summer migrants very obvious by their abscence. The one species which did buck this trend was Common Whitethroat, of which there were many seen along my walk.
A pair of Cuckoos were present on arrival, but a guy was using a mechanical mower to keep the various footpaths clear, and they spooked because of the activity. A few Reed Warblers were chuntering away in the reedbeds along the coastal path, yet only one Sedge Warbler was heard singing near the Stonelees LNR gateway. A few Chiffchaff and Blackcap were also encountered, but that was very much the sum total of my passerine encounters. A couple of Whimbrel were calling out on the exposed mud in the bay and a pair of local Carrion Crows gave a Common Buzzard a hard time as it flew over the salt-marsh from the Sandwich Bay side of the estuary.
The most unexpected sighting of my foray was a good number of Green Hairstreak, butterflies, which were present in Stonelees LNR, as I made my way towards the seal viewing point. Not a single hirundine, or Swift, nor any terns were noted. As for Nightingales and Turtle Doves? Those days are long gone it would appear.
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