Looking back over the year the following were the highlights:

1.The best of my garden moths wete 5 Convolvulus Hawk-moths recorded in September. Finally getting round to palnting the free packet of Nicotiana seeds from Atropos magazine paid off spectacularly.

2. The Great Grey Owl I photographed near Calgary was the bird of the year. I'd been trying to get good pictures of this species for a few years. This one seemed oblivious to a few photographers and caught 3 voles while we watched.

3. My Kent bird of the year was the Hobby which gave very close views on the ARC pit track at Dungeness on a miserable spring day.

 Great Grey Owl

 Hobby

 Convolvulus Hawk-moth

With -3c in the garden last night I think the mothtrapping year is over now. 2016 has been my best year in terms of the number of species recorded by a fair distance and the first time I've recorded over 300 species in the year. The 318 total included 6 new macro and 16 new micro species for the garden list.  The 2 most obvious factors involved here are probably: 1. Using a 40W actinic trap instead of the 6W model I've used for the past 16 years. 2. The fine weather this summer from mid July until well into September. The table below summarises my moth numbers from 2010 and although not strictly comparable it still reveals somthing interesting. Despite a record number of species the total moths trapped still didn't reach the numbers achieved in the smaller actinic trap in 2010 and 2011.

	2010	2010	2011	2011	2012	2012	2013	2013	2014	2014	2015	2015	2016	2016
	No.	Spec.	No.	Spec.	No.	Spec.	No.	Spec.	No.	Spec.	No.	Spec.	No.	Spec.
Macro Moths	5090	180	4833	187	2972	160	2719	160	2273	164	3515	186	4469	201
Micro Moths	1310	86	1215	96	1348	97	945	96	929	106	1006	108	1494	117
Total	6400	266	6048	283	4320	257	3664	256	3202	270	4521	294	5963	318

Unusually we chose the right day to visit Dunge this week where the sun shone on a calm day. However we only managed to tick off the usual suspects. On the ARC pit there was a Great White Egret and a Marsh Harrier. At the Fishing Boats, among the many Guillemots spread out over the calm sea, we noted 4 Razorbills and 4 Red-throated Divers. A Caspian Gull was feeding on fish scraps near the Fish Hut. After lunch on the reserve the Ring-necked Duck was still present near Boulderwall, 2 further Caspian Gulls and 2 Smew were on Burrows and another Great White Egret was on Dengemarsh.

Caspian Gull (1st W)

 Smew

 Little Grebe

Another relatively mild night meant my first Winter Moth of the year appeared.

 Winter Moth

Visited Dungeness on Monday this week but a gloomy day became wet in the afternoon and it was mostly a case of seeing the usual suspects. Milder nights however, have produced a couple of December Moths this week along with the ever present Light Brown Apple Moths.

December Moth

Dunge again today but struggled to find much new. The Tree Sparrows were showing well on the feeder at Boulderwall Farm and the Ring-necked Duck was on the same pool near there. The highlight was a Lapland Bunting seen and heard twice in flight along the Dengemarsh Road, over the stubble field and "Sunflower" field near Springfield Bridge. On the reserve from the Makepeace Hide my gull enthusiast friend managed to find: 1 Yellow-legged Gull, 1 Caspian Gull (2W) and a Scandinavian Herring Gull. We noted 2 Great White Egrets, 3 Buzzards and Raven during the day.

 "Argentatus" Herring Gull

 Tree Sparrows

  

Yesterday late afternoon there were 2 Short-eared Owls and a Barn Owl at Seasalter in the field behing the Sportsman Inn. Today I made the trip to Dungeness where the weather was dry and calm but rather gloomy all day. At the Hanson Hide a Water Rail showed well, and then at the Fishing Boats we noted 4 Velvet Scoters, 20+ Common Scoters and a Red-throated Diver was on the sea fairly close to the shore. After lunch we found 1 Dartford Warbler with around 3 Stonechats in the Kerton Road area before visiting the main part of the RSPB reserve. Here the Ring-necked Duck was showing well near Boulderwall Farm, and 2 Great White Egrets were also seen. The Long-eared Owl showed well in poor light, and Caspian Gull was seen on Burrows. The highlight came late in the day with a Hen Harrier in the Dengemarsh area.

Water Rail

 Red-throated Diver

 Long-eared Owl