AS LONG AS ITS BLACK

Wednesday at Dungeness with Malcolm McVail,first stop the Patch where good views of passing Pomarine skuas were had  and four Black Terns were feeding,luckily one came onto the beach to rest among the Common Terns thus enabling a size comparison to be made.

BLACK TERN

From here to the RSPB reserve where the undoubted high was the return of the Purple Herons

PURPLE HERON (see July 2010 PURPLE HAZE)
Other notables were Knot in summer plumage, Cuckoo,Hobby and Common Sandpiper.

RED KNOT

CUCKOO
Apologies for the standard of photos but  all taken at a fair distance from subject.
 There was  tension in the air at Fan Bay on Thursday morning  when the female Raven was not very happy with my presence,not that I was anywhere near to the nest site,this unusual behaviour led me to believe that the youngsters had or were about to fledge.

FEMALE RAVEN  NAGGING AT ME

My suspicions were confirmed this morning (Saturday) when three young were sat on the cliff edge with mother in attendance nearby.They have started flying around too so they will soon be gone and another successful breeding season will be over for them.

Back to Thursday, the Peregrine was sat on his favourite flint on the way out but on my return he was doing a quick circuit round the clifftop

PEREGRINE
Attention turned to butterflies on the lower tramway where Adonis Blue,Small and Common Blue,Dingy Skipper,Green Hairstreak,Small Copper,Small Heath and Orangetip were all found as well as a Cinnabar moth.

ADONIS BLUE

GREEN HAIRSTREAK

CINNABAR MOTH

LINNET AT LANGDON HOLE

LINNET AT FAN BAY There are more meadow pipits now and three singing corn buntings on the cliffs but only a single pair of yellowhammers and zero stonechats,whitethroats are everywhere and about three lesser whitethroats in residence.