For many of those that joined us for this morning visit to Lullingstone Country Park, the highlight was our visit to the Orchid Bank on the golf course. By the time we reached the bank the sun was shining and lots of butterflies could be seen. The star species was probably the Dark-green fritillary which, […]
Last Tuesday the group visited the RSPB reserve at Cliffe Pools. We were greeted in the car part by a nightingale in full song – a rather good start to the day. The breeding colony of black – headed gulls on the islands was very impressive (and noisy!) with about 2000 pairs. Keen gull watchers […]
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 […]