Around and about

Knowing that this coming Friday is my only angling opportunity, until after the West Country wedding excursion, I decided to take a drive across to the flatlands to check out the situation with Black Dyke and some of the side drains. Gin clear water and associated luxuriant weed growth is what I encountered, thus am now convinced that these venues will remain off limits until after a serious period of frosts? So Friday seems likely to involve a return to the RMC, unless I get the heads up about another venue! Whilst I was wandering about it seemed silly not to go that extra mile and check out what was happening on Worth RSPB Res. Fairly quiet would be a fair assessment yet it really is an impressive habitat which has been created and will surely continue to attract good numbers of common wetland species plus the inevitable oddity as well.

Six, of the eleven, Egyptian Geese out on Worth RSPB Res.

I didn't encounter another soul whilst on my wanderings and spent the time pointing the camera at anything of interest that I happened upon. The recent Corfu holiday has certainly impacted upon my mind-set and I am now far more willing to look at a life form as opposed to ignoring the creature involved. 

Wall Brown - not at all common around East Kent these days.

Male Migrant Hawker - numerous around the area but still nice to see.

There were good numbers of common ducks present and I also managed to spot a Great White Egret, my second in two days! I slowly made my way back towards the van seeing a Common Buzzard, a very agitated adult female Peregrine and a smart male Stonechat along the way. 

Back at the bungalow I needed to get my arse into gear and get the grass cut. It had been over a month since I last did it and boy did it show? Mission accomplished in just under an hour, the garden looks a whole lot better for the effort involved. I was doing a bit of "dead-heading" around the garden planters when I stumbled across two Nursery Web Spiders, sunbathing on the solar panel of one of the garden lights. Straight into Corfu mode, the 18 - 55 mm lens with a 20 mm extension tube was fitted to the camera and I grabbed a few images of these very common inverts.

There was a Great Spotted Woodpecker, very briefly, at the garden feeders this afternoon. It certainly wasn't the adult male, yet I didn't get a good enough view to see if it was the original bird or yet another individual. Overnight the moth trap had attracted a few visitors with a very smart Scarce Bordered Straw being the pick of the bunch. Two each of Rusty-dot Pearl and The Delicate were the only other candidates for migrant activity so my wait for a 2024 Radford's Flame Shoulder continues!