Arachnophobes look away!

The Wasp spider, Argiope bruennichi is one of our more exotic looking spiders. It is actually a native spider of Mediterranean areas, and has only recently colonised parts of England. It was first recorded in 1922 and is mainly confined to the south coast. They live in long grass and low vegetation. Because the egg sac is made on grass leaves, this spider can only become established where grass is not regularly managed. This is the time of year to look out for this spectacular beast in the long grass along the cliff tops and in the paddock.

The male is much smaller than the female. He waits at the edge of the female's web until she has shed her skin to become mature. He then takes advantage of the fact that the female's jaws are soft to mate with her in safety. Many males, however, are eaten while mating, so let that be a lesson to you!

Other Wildlife The strong winds today meant that most birds stayed buried in the bushes and Butterflies refused to fly. There did appear to be a small passage of Swallow but these may have just been local movements. A good summary of the birds seen at Bockhill can be found on the KOS web site.

National Moth Night - the reality

National Moth Night is run on different dates each year as different species of moths, like butterflies, have different flight periods. This year four species were particularly targeted, Chalk Carpet, Jersey Tiger, Four Spotted Footman and Cousin German. The first two have previously occurred in my garden, the third has be caught by Nigel Jarman in Kingsdown but the fourth only occurs in the highlands of Scotland (I don't know about the name!). As well as the target species it a chance to see what is occurring across the country. Moths are very sensitive to environmental changes and are a good indicator as to just how badly we are mucking up the world. This year has not been a good year probably because of the very poor weather in June and July, but it's long term trends that matter. Never-the-less I ran four traps last night, three in my garden and one at Copperfield, Tim burdens garden.

Two of the species we did catch were Swallow Prominent and below Iron Prominent.

These are the target species we didn't catch!
Four-spotted Footman, photo taken by Nigel Jarman at Kingsdown in August last year.


Chalk Carpet above and Jersey Tiger below, taken at St Margaret's in August 2006.

Altogether we caught 209 moth of 53 species

The birds and the Bees

I couldn't resist leaving St Margaret's this morning, for a visit to Oare Marshes, KWT reserve.

Close to the viewing areas along the road several waders were within camera range, this Ruff for example.

The main object of everyone's visit however stayed at an excellent range for scope views but much too far for a proper photograph, so you'll have to take my word that the splodge in the middle is a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. This is the fourth record for Kent (provided it is accepted by the Records Committee) the others being :Elmley, adult, 27th-28th July 1985; Sandwich Bay, adult, 4th-13th September 1987 and Grove Ferry, adult, 30th-31st August 2001. The lure of this attractive wader has been too much for me and I've seen them all.

Bees
Next to the Paddock is a small "field" known as Amy's Field and here there are several beehives. It is tempting to imagine a Bee-eater or several Bee-eaters sitting on the telephone wires here, but so far it's just a dream. With the strange summer and the fact that the lack of bees is always making the news I wonder how they are doing this year.

The entrance looks busy enough, but how much honey are they producing?

National Moth Night

Just a note to tell everyone that it is National Moth Night tonight. It's when all of us eccentric "mothers" (pronounced as in moth) try do coordinate a survey round the country. Despite the stupidity you here on the radio (Today Programme) most moth are beautiful and really just night flying butterflies. I'll be putting three traps out in the garden, if anyone is interested they'd be welcome to pop round, and in the morning I'll be identifying what's in the traps from about 6.15 am onwards. Last year NMN was on Sept 23rd and as well as the very rare "passenger" I caught 35 species including 5 Feathered Ranunculus.

Two Months on

The last time I gave a progress report on Gloria and Tim's new house was two months ago. As we hope it won't be too long before the roof beams appear and get "craned" into position I though a quick view of the house, and the site meeting on the left would be appropriate.

Wildlife This is still one of the quietest years I've know for birdwatching and I was still feeling that way after a search around Hope Point yielded only a couple of juvenile Willow Warblers, two Lesser Whitethroats, "tacking" from the scrub and a few Common Whitethroats.

A look over the cliff, not too near the edge, I'm a bit of a coward with heights, gave this odd view of a Little Egret, examining the rock pools. As I moved away from the point, some excited gulls and the characteristic "pruuk pruuk" call alerted me to two Ravens over head. Unfortunately the moved off quickly, escorted by several Herring Gulls and I didn't manage to get a picture. These two have made a few guest appearances along the Kent coast since spring, but they don't seem to have settled down. There were several Painted Ladies but not many other butterflies along the cliff top.

This evening I took a look at the site of the proposed wind farm again. Certainly, even at this time of year quite a few Gulls move through the area on their way to roost, but a surprise was a Common Buzzard "digiscoped" from about half a mile.

Transport Connections

Although Station Road runs to the centre of the Village the station is at Martin Mills, 1.5 miles from the Red Lion.

The Station is neat and tidy but wouldn't win any awards for the architecture. It's a fair way from our house but we do hear the occasional "toot" from a passing train.

If you decide that the mile and a half walk to the Red Lion is too far for a refreshment break the Ugly Duckling is a free house with a decent collection of beers.

It isn't so far to go for a bus and there is a good service to the village, although the roads are a bit narrow in places and it can get a bit jammed up.

Spot the difference between the two buses, one coming and one going, answer tomorrow, no prize.

This is a more leisurely was of getting about and provides fertiliser for the roses at the same time.

Wildlife I spent a rather pointless half an hour sea watching and apart from five Gannets and a trickle of Kittiwakes there was nothing of note. I had hoped that the northerly wind would bring some Skuas but it seems they stopped when they got to North Kent.

Harvest Time

The week or so of good weather has allowed the farmer to start getting his wheat in. I think that this particular crop is for animal feed and I don't think that the yield will be as good as it would have been had we had more sunshine. Now I'm used to the round bales of straw I think that they can look quite evocative on the field, but not in the Van Gough league.

This is Bay Tree Cottage, it is on the Corner of Well Lane and High Street, opposite the Village Shop. While not as old as Curfew Cottage it does date back to 1734, according to the plaque on the gate. It was up for sale for some time, but the board has now changed to sold. It is an attractive looking house in a small walled garden.

Moth of the Day. I quite like the pattern on this moth, simple but interesting. It is a Rosy Rustic and it does however

fall into the category of an Autumn moth, and just when the summer has arrived.

Other Wildlife. After a report of an Aquatic Warbler, seen at Hope Point yesterday we had a good but fruitless search today. There was nothing much around, even yesterday's Willow Warblers seem to have moved on. At Bockhill farm we did see two or three Migrant Hawkers, Aeshna mixta, and one Southern Hawker, A. cyanea. When they were flying together the larger more robust size of the Southern Hawker was noticeable. A male and female Sparrowhawk gave good views and on the butterfly front I was pleased to see my first Small Heath of the second brood.

For whom the Bell Tolls.

This is Curfew Cottage, the name plaque, above and left of the door, and shown here as an inset, has the name and a picture of the Curfew Bell. The story of the bell is in the parish records. There is an account, dated 1696, of a shepherd who, being lost one night, fell over the cliff and was mortally injured, but he lived long enough to bequeath to the parish five roods of land to pay for the tolling of a curfew bell at 8 p.m. from Michaelmas to Lady Day in order to warn travellers if they walked too near the edge of the cliff. The Cottage was once three farm labourers cottages and dates back 350 years. This probably makes it the oldest occupied dwelling in the village.


Best moth of the Day - Garden Tiger

Once a quite common moth in most of Britain, it seems to have declined in many places in the last few years.It flies in July and August, and will regularly visit the light-trap.The caterpillars are the 'woolly bears' of many people's childhood, and feed on a number of herbaceous plants.

Other Wildlife

The paddock was quite active today with several spotty young Green Woodpeckers feeding on the grass, using their long tongues to pick up ants. There were at least six young Willow Warblers, and about the same number of young Whitethroats feeding in the scrub and a small influx of Meadow Pipits in the grass area at the top end. There were several fresh Common Blues amoungst the Gate Keepers and Meadow Browns.

The Oak Eggar

The Oak Eggar, Lasiocampa quercus, does not feed on Oak, but is so-called because the shape of its cocoon is acorn-like. The foodplants are mainly heather (Calluna) and bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), but also include bramble (Rubus), Sallows (Salix), broom (Cytisus scoparius), sloe (Prunus spinosa), hawthorn (Crataegus), hazel (Corylus) and Sea-buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides).

The female above was in one of my moth traps this morning, and posed on a tree trunk for me before flying off. The female is mainly nocturnal. It is one of our larger moths with a wing span of up to 3 inches.

The darker male often flies in the day time, especially on sunny days. This is one I photographed last year on exactly the same date! This is one of our longest living moths with a two year life cycle. The hairy caterpillars hatch around August, and over winter, becoming active again the following April, when the feed through the summer. They pupate in September and the new moths appear the following year.

Other Wildlife. There was no repeat of the Black Kite excitement today. Yesterday Phil Chantler saw the Kite not far from Martin. It did occur to me that, to get from where we'd seen it to where it then disappeared, it might well have passed through the proposed wind farm site. Even when they are turning at their slowest, 10 revs per minute, the tips of the blades are travelling at about 80 mph (if my maths is right) so we might well have been identifying a corpse rather that a live bird if they'd been there.
I wasted a few minutes looking at a somewhat hazy sea this morning and my only reward was juvenile Gannets, out in the haze.

Summer Jumpers

In celebration of Kent winning the Twenty Twenty Cup I thought a picture of a cricket would mark their achievement.

This is a Speckled Bush-cricket, Leptophyes punctatissima. It is a follower of cultivation, often colonising gardens and parks. It is widespread in Europe and it eats the leaves of roses, raspberries as well as clover and dandelions. It does make a buzzing sound, but it is quiet and only audible from about 50 cm.

The Field Grasshopper, Chlorthippus brunneus, is common in the southern half of the UK, and is an inhabitant of dry grassland. It's song is the "ssst" sound so familiar in suitable habitats. When one male starts a second one joins in and produces an 'alternation' song. It is of course produce mechanically, by rubbing a ridge on a leg against a wing case.

Other Wildlife. After a series of phone calls and text messages I managed a brief view of a Black Kite as it flew north-west from the village at 10.45 a.m. Unfortunately I was in the Droveway, near Bockhill Farm, and I was told it had been quite close to my house. Had I stayed there I might have got a photo, but now through the camera it was a mere dot. It was obvious, while scanning the sky, that there was a movement of Common Swifts. I noticed about 20 Swallows sitting around on wires at East Langdon, when I was looking for the Kite. It seems as if some of our migratory birds have had enough of our summer and are preparing to leave.

The Natural History Museum has a site for British Butterflies called "The Cockayne Collection". There's a picture of a Chalkhill Blue similar to the female I photographed yesterday, it's called, ab. semisyngrapha.