Close encounter of the Plover kind.

A late afternoon high-tide, nice weather and the urge to photograph some waders had me load my bike into the back of the car and head for Back-sands Scrape. When I arrived Steve Ray was already in the small hide and we had a pleasant time watching and clicking away for an hour or two.

Little Egrets are no longer a scarce bird but they are still photogenic.

I still haven't been able to see what they catch most of the time.

As usual the main group of Greenshanks spent their time asleep at the back of the pool, they seem to have some connection with Spoonbills, which normally do the same when you come across them.

One of the two Wood Sandpipers chose the area in front of the hide to feed.

This little hide must be the best place I've ever been to for photographing Wood Sands, and they are beautiful little waders.

A group of five Little Ringed Plovers dropped in and slowly worked their way round to the hide. For a good while they all fed actively.

Then it was bath time.

The a little fly round.

A good preen, making shore all the feathers are in good nick.

Then a good shuffle to get everything neatly in the right place.

And the finally a nice long snooze.

By this time the Wood Sandpiper was also enjoying a sleep.

Looking towards the Greenshanks I noticed a Wigeon standing up, I don't know if it had been there all along but I hadn't noticed it before.

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There were still a good few Green Sandpipers around. I think this one was trying to bring up a pellet, but I never saw it arrive.

One of the Greenshanks had left the sleeping party and busily fed its way towards the hide.

It actively swished passed the Wood Sandpiper, but that didn't cause it to even open an eye.

There was a bit of a commotion amongst the gulls when this Black-headed Gull arrived with a decent sized fish. I didn't see then end of the story as the other gulls forced it to fly off to protect it's catch.

On the way out I'd flush a Hare, but it disappeared quickly. Going back I put up two from the side of the track and although they sped off they did stop to look back, which gave me a chance of a couple of record shots.

My final view was of one sitting up in the evening sunshine. I think they are terrific animals even if they bolted off like startled rabbits.

More Than Just One

At the moment and until Monday there is an Exhibition of the art of John Hollyer.

Many things have changed on the Kent, and Sandwich Bay birding scene, but one constant for many years has been John's position as artist, almost, in residence at the Observatory.

Seen here in the exhibition, John has travelled extensively and as well as pictures of many of the birds and animals he has seen there are evocative scenes of towns and people encountered on these journeys. And of course there's also the pleasure of a good natter with John if you go to the show. I'm afraid that some of the colours haven't been done justice in the mixture of artificial and natural light, so apologies to John if any look a bit odd on my photos.

Cranes, of several species, feature on many of John's canvases, I rather think that they have a special place in Johns birding memories.

I rather liked this depiction of the strangely charismatic Bald Ibises.

As well as exotic places there are many local scenes from rural Kent, but I guess the Tiger is from the Indian sub-continent.

John is also a potter and some of his "three dimensional" art is also on show.

If you are local to the area it is well worth a visit to see John's the diverse work. Five of Johns black and white drawings were used on the covers of the journal British Birds, and he also won the PJC awards for a picture of Snow Buntings in 1988 (BB Vol 81, page 301).

I love this view of Fan Bay. A place I am very familiar with. This picture illustrates how the eye of an accomplished painter finds an essence in a scene so different from the photographs I've taken here. Thanks John, Pam and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

Air conditioned

The air-con on Pam's car has been playing up ( aluxury mine doesn't have) and having had a new part fitted I took it to be re-gassed today. I was going to walk to the downs at Temple Ewell, to look for Silver Spotted skippers but in the end decided on Bushy Ruff and an attempt at photographing the Emperor Dragonflies that would almost certainly be flying today.

It was hot, very HOT and I wasn't the only one feeling the heat when I got there. This Blackbird was "panting" to cool itself down. There were two Emperors on the lake and they spent a lot of time chasing each other at a good distance from the edge. Neither seemed to have a regular patrol route that took them close to a suitable position and I didn't see any egg laying. Last year one that I photographed had a couple of fixed areas where it spent a fair time hovering, but not so this year. I did take a few shots and having looked at them I've now pressed the delete button. Shame but hopefully there will be other chances.

While I was following one of the Dragonflies in the view finder, the familiar call of a Green Sandpiper rang out, and to my surprise one landed on the water weeds and algae right in front of me. It didn't hang around, Like Garbo it wanted to be alone and soon realised that the click of a camera meant that there was company close by. By the time I got back to pick Pam's car up I was really pleased that the air-con now worked and I could cool down on my way back.

Get Counting those Butterflies

A beautiful day, and after watching England pile on the runs, against an extremely poor Indian bowling attack I decided on a walk, confident that our bowlers would do the necessary without my help.

Birds were understandably quiet, both because of the season and because it was mid day, but I did watch a couple of Kestrels hovering over the cliff top. Just past the monument I noticed this rather delicate pale moth, and knew it was one I'd seen before. When I checked at home I found it was a pyralid, Sitochroa palealis, and that I had indeed caught one in the garden, back on July 22nd, 2004. It is associated with coastal areas in the south-east and the food plant is Wild Carrot, which is plentiful in the area.

There's been a lot in the media about butterflies and "The Big Butterfly Count". Click on the link to take part. I know that it is natural, but it is always the bright, well known butterflies that are in the limelight. The publicity uses a Red Admiral, and the poster shows a Small Tortoiseshell prominently. As in everything the less flamboyant individuals get less notice taken of them. Today there were loads of Meadow Browns around.

Gate-keepers, what used to be Hedge Browns when I wore short trousers are also out in good numbers, there's even a small colony in my garden.

One of my favourite "browns" is the Marbled White (it is in the brown family). This is a chalk loving butterfly and I can still remember the first one I ever saw, at St Mary's Bay, back in the 50's. It is one species that does seem to be doing OK round here.

There were lots of one of the iconic butterflies of Kent , the Chalkhill Blue, around today. My larger and more obvious than the other blues species they were in good numbers along Kings down Lees. I actually saw few birds here, with large numbers of House Martins congregating and sitting on some of the tiles on one of the houses. The do this every year when it hot, as if they are warming themselves on the hot tiles. On one roof there was a male Black Redstart chasing insects.

Looking towards Deal I could see a few people actually on Kingsdown "beach". Not easy to make sand castles out of the pebbles, but a short walk to the Zetland Arms for a pint! When I got home I found my faith in our bowlers had been fully justified.