A Cloudy Saturday!

I was out of the house this morning at 5.30am where on driving down to Reculver I saw the first of 3 Little Owls seen today. After parking up I walked on down to Coldharbour and back and hoped that at some point the clouds would break up and the sun would appear. I birded walking down the seawall and on my return decided to walk back below the seawall and look for butterflies. Birds noted in quite cloudy conditions with a stiff breeze were 3 Little Egret, 15 Oystercatcher, 6 Pied Wagtail, 12 Yellow Wagtail, 10 Swallow, 7 Common Sandpiper, 13 Dunlin, 6 Meadow Pipit, 2 Sanswich Tern, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Ringed Plover, 3 Whimbrel, 1 Wheatear, 6 Shelduck, 6 Redshank, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Marsh Harrier and 1 Whitethroat. With signs of the sun appearing I walked back in the hope that I could find and photograph a butterfly that so far has eluded the camera for me, the Clouded Yellow. As I walked the path the odd Essex Skipper flew up as did Gatekeepers and 3 Common Blue and then in front of me a yellow butterfly took to the wing briefly before landing again. It was a Clouded Yellow. It was still not that warm and thankfully for me the Clouded Yellow was still in the process of warming up which allowed me to spend c30 minutes with it getting a few photographs from different angles. 

Clouded Yellow

After a pleasant time with the camera I moved on noting 1 Painted Lady, 1 Wall Brown on the Roman wall and a handful of Large White. The plan was then to drive inland and look for the Lesser Emperor Dragonfly which was still present yesterday but when I arrived the clouds were already moving in fast and the sun losing its battle to shine. With the last bits of sun and a strong wind which didn't help I noted 2 Emperor Dragonfly, 1 Small Red eyed Damselfly, lots of Common Blue and Blue tailed Damselfly and 1 Willow Emerald Damselfly but unfortunately no sign of the Lesser Emperor Dragonfly which was not a surprise in the conditions. Hopefully it will remain into the new week for another visit and another photo attempt. No visit tomorrow but hopefully this will give me some time to do up some Chalkhill Blue shots from the other days trip to Lydden Downs.

Clouded Yellow