Drying Out

This morning I was housebound as a gas engineer was sorting out what the whys and wherefores of replacing out rather ancient gas boiler.

I did wander up to Pegwell Bay this afternoon, where a group of people were engaged in some sort of stamina ritual, who could look at the same bush the longest. The tide was already dropping and most of the waders were too far out to photo. There didn't seem to be many smaller shorebirds. A Whimbrel was the closest and I must admit that I do rather like these pint sized "curlews". Nothing in the background was going zit zit, so perhaps the Cisticola had gone.

A look at the Restharrow Scrape on the way home revealed that it was even drier than the last time I looked.

This view of the scrape was taken in April, it is much the same areas as the photo above, I wonder how much rain we need to fill it up again?

I stopped to watch a group of Grey Partridges along the Ancient Highway, sure the most reliable place to see this shy species the country.

Tamarisk Peacock (Chiasmia aestimaria)

I hadn't intended to post about moths today, but this little chap changed all that. When I took it out of the trap I was pretty sure I'd nor seen one before and when I could find it in any of the books I've got it did seem to be interesting. I posted a rather poor picture of it (in a pot) to the UKmoths discussion group, and within minutes the answer came back, a Tamarisk Peacock. This is the fifth record for the UK and all have been east Kent, the others are: Sholden (16.08.04), New Romney (28.09.04), Greatstone (07.08.06) and Folkestone Warren (10.09.08).