A Pleasant Session

After having an early start yesterday I thought I would treat myself to a lay in and duly got up at 5am where not long after I was out of the house driving over to Reculver. I pulled in at the Nightingale sight but despite 5 minutes listening I could not hear the bird so moved on and parked up at the towers. I then walked down the seawall to Coldharbour before walking inland to Chambers Wall before returning the way I had come. The most noticeable thing this morning was it was pretty cold with a strong westerly wind blowing which meant the coat, hat and gloves had to come back out. The sun did eventually come through to produce a nice if a little chilly morning. Birds noted were 106 Swift flew west in the first hour of the walk with flocks up to 20 birds at a time, 2 Pied Wagtail, 5 Shelduck, 1 Turnstone, 7 Oystercatcher, 8 Linnet, 1 Hobby (148) flew east through the oyster farm at speed and some Auks flying west were identified as 2 summer plumaged Guillemots (149). There were 4 Wheatear including 2 male which gave me the opportunity to get a few more shots of this species and 1 Ruff was seen flying out of the oyster farm before moving off high west.

Wheatear

3 Yellow Wagtail were seen as were 6 Mallard, 1 Dunlin, 10 Swallow, 4 Tufted Duck, 5 Sedge Warbler, 3 Skylark, 4 Whimbrel flew west at sea, 6 Whitethroat, 1 Ringed Plover, 1 Eider offshore, 4 Reed Bunting, 1 Shoveler, 2 Gadwall and a call from Chris Hindle who was a few hundred yards away had me looking out at sea as 4 Barnacle Geese (150) flew west.

Barnacle Geese

As I made my way back the only other bird added was 1 Curlew so with an hour to spare I thought I would call in at Shuart to see if any butterflies would be out sheltering in the sun from the wind. As I walked through I saw 1 Barn Owl, 1 Long eared Owl was seen in flight briefly, 2 Blackcap and on the butterfly front I noted 1 Holly Blue, 1 Small Tortoiseshell, 5 Green veined White and my first Speckled Wood of the year posed for a few shots in the sunshine. With a bit of luck, the sun will be out in the week and maybe the temperatures will rise allowing a few dragonflies and butterflies to be seen and photographed.

Speckled Wood