Saturday 19th May

Out between 6am and 9am today - good to be out, the first time for nearly a week.
Again I did a more detailed count on my walk. I didn't however go along the Medway path or around the scrape - so the numbers are obviously an under representation of what is here.

It seems that in general the Nightingale are quietening down. I heard only 6 this morning. In addition to that I had my best number of Cuckoo for the year with at least 5 in the area - including the usual one by the west scrub/end of the Millstream and the one on the wires over the sunken marsh. 26 Whitethroat around with quite a few seemingly feeding young or birds on the nest. 12 Cettis heard today (I try and be careful with counts of Cettis as the habitually call and move so are hard to count with any certainty) 14 Reed Warbler, 2 Garden Warbler, 1 Turtle Dove, 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 100+ Swift, 10+ Swallow and 10+ House Martin. Only 5 Blackcap in song today, 2 Willow Warbler and 4 Chiffchaff.

Also nice to see 2 Grey Wagtail over the Millstream, 1 Lapwing over and 1 Stock Dove over. A juv Pied Wagtail being fed by its parent near the Paper Mill and 2 Green and 2 Great Spots across the area. A small colony of House Sparrow were nosiy and entertaining at the end of the Millstream.

FOUR SPOTTED CHASER

2+ Hairy Dragonfly, 4 Four Spotted Chaser and lots of Common Blue Damsels around. My first Common Blue Butterfly here for the year and a really neat Crab Spider on a Oxeye Daisy. These spiders are really interesting - they change their colour depending on the flower they are sitting on waiting for an unsuspecting insect to land. Also several Common Carpet moth on Nettles and 2 Slow Worm in the East scrub.

WHITE CRAB SPIDER

COMMON CARPET