What a beauty! But you can be forgiven for not knowing that this is a moth. A female Belted Beauty – and they are wingless! Recently Sally and I were lucky to be taken out to monitor a colony of this rare moth. Alan, the Butterfly Conservation representative and recorder for Mull and Iona (and […]
Twenty-seven of us arrived at this beautiful reserve, where we were joined by Terry who had driven from his Suffolk home. Wicken Fen has been owned by the National Trust since 1899 and as our friendly greeter Martin explained, they have a 100 year project to expand the reserve even further. Swallows flew all around […]
Our group met at Riverside Country Park for the first of this season’s Tuesday morning walks. Our key target species was the nightingale. Two birds had been heard singing a few minutes earlier so we set off with great expectations. We stopped, on route, to watch singing whitethroats – some of the group heard lesser […]
On a fresh and overcast Sunday morning, seventeen of us met in the car park at the Sevenoaks Kent Wildlife Trust Reserve. we then quickly reassembled by the horse field, to try and spot the ring ouzel that had been sighted previously. Thankfully, a couple of our eagle-eyed members found a resplendent male, flying low […]
How many of you knew that 2019 is the “Year of the Fly”? Apparently, flies are being celebrated all over the world and here in the UK, as the weather warms up, there are activities that you might like to get involved with. But why bother? Surely flies are just here so that birds can […]
Twelve members met at Oare Marshes KWT reserve on a bright and sunny morning. The early arrivals had brief views of a short-eared owl followed by a good view of a red kite. However, a little while later, the short-eared owl played the game and gave everyone great views as it quartered over the reeds […]
A select group of 10 keen and optimistic bird watchers set off on this sunny morning to explore the RSPB reserve in Blean Woods. Being Sunday, bird watchers were outnumbered by dog-walkers and runners, who were also enjoying a day free of the gale force winds that had been with us for the previous week. […]
As Norman and Sandra commented in their trip report for Elmley, one of the highlights of the trip was seeing and hearing two male corn buntings. During the day we saw five marsh harriers flying together, over 3 thousand wigeon, lapwing and redshank display flights, and avocets prospecting for a nest site. Not bad eh? […]