Saturday 26th April

I was out between 6am and 9am this morning. Bright and sunny and quite warm by the time I left. I counted an amazing 18 Nightingale this morning, along with my first Turtle Dove (my 90th species for the year), 11 Whitethroat, 11 Blackcap, 7 Swift, 4 Swallow, 5 Reed Warbler, 6 Cettis, 3 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Cuckoo, 3 Willow Warbler, 5 Chiffchaff, 2 Green Woodpecker, 1 Great Spot, 2 Song Thrush, 1 Kingfisher (my first for a while), 1 Reed Bunting, 3 Shelduck on the Medway.

Nightingale - one of 18 today

Turtle Dove - distant but you can see what it is!

Non-bird sightings included a pair of spiralling Speckled Wood in the west scrub, 1 Male Orange Tip, 1 Water Vole, 2 Slow Worm, 1 Newt Eft and a Bee Fly.

Later I visited again with my 3 children running riot. I was hoping for some more butterflies as it had warmed up. I was pleased to add my first Grizzled Skipper for the year (excuse the terrible picture, the butterfly wouldn't allow close approach and my 2 year old was hurtling towards it so I fired off on frame very quickly from 20 feet away!!) Also 1 Small White, 3 Peacock and another Orange Tip.

Grizzled Skipper (east scrub)

This week there have been some other interesting sightings seen here by others. An Otter was seen just down river on Wednesday and a Grasshopper Warbler in the Sunken Marsh area on Friday....