Not much to report from the trap-a 2nd March Moth of the year was the best recent record.  At Dungeness today a few Sandwich Terns went past on the sea, there was a Wheatear by the Old Lighthouse, an Iceland Gull at the patch and briefly on the reserve, where a Yellow-legged Gull was also present. A Peregrine flew overhead and one of the Long-eared Owls was showing well.The Ring-necked Duck was also present but distant on Tanner's Pool. The Garganey was elusive but on our 4th and final attempt it showed well on Cook's Pool.

Garganey

 Long-eared Owl

Not much to report. Just 1 new species for the year list: My 2nd ever record of Pale Pinion.

Pale Pinion

A very mild night on Saturday with a minimum of 11c meant 34 moths in the trap this morning, which compares with 36 trapped in a whole month in March 2016.

10 Early Grey, 9 Common Quaker, 7 Hebrew Character, 3 Clouded Drab, 1 Chestnut, 1 Common Plume, 1 Diurnea fagella, 1 Dotted Border (New for the year) and my 2nd ever Shoulder Stripe-following the 1st a few days ago.

 Dotted Border

 Diurnea fagella

 Shoulder Stripe

Nothing new from the trap. Yesterday morning I finally managed to see a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in Bossenden Wood and in the late afternoon 2 Short-eared Owls showed well at Seasalter in the warm sunshine.

 Short-eared Owl

Seven species of moth in the trap this morning: Common Quaker, Clouded Drab, Hebrew Character, Early Grey, Red-green Carpet, Common Plume and, Shoulder Stripe. The latter is new for the garden and brings the total species for the site to 570. Made an early afternoon visit to Oare Marshes this afternoon. I failed to find any Garganey but a Little Owl was seen in one of its usual locations.

Shoulder Stripe

 Early Grey

Red-green Carpet

The second Garden Moth Survey night of this year produced 4 Hebrew Characters, 2 Common Quakers and the first March Moth and Light Brown Apple Moths of the year. The latter is of course an Australian species that was first recorded in Britain in 1936 and has been spreading ever since. It is the most common micro moth in my garden and has been recorded in every month except February. The March Moth was only the 6th record in 18 years.

 March Moth

 Light Brown Apple Moth

Clouded Drab and Beautiful Plume both new for the year in the moth trap this morning, and there was still at least 1 Black Brant with around 2000 Brent Geese at Seasalter this lunchtime.

Beautiful Plume

Black Brant

Just Hebrew Characters and Common Quakers in the moth trap recently. Made another visit to Dunge today in pleasant weather conditions. At the ARC pit a Great White Egret, Little Egret and 3 Marsh harriers were noted. Near the Patch there were 2 Grey Wagtails on the power station wall by the water treatment works. At the Patch there were 100s of gulls. An Iceland Gull was seen (but not by me) and a Little Gull showed well after a long wait, another was also seen. A Harbour Porpoise also showed briefly. Back on the reserve, the drake Smew and Ring-necked Duck were at the far end of the pool next to "Cook's Pool" near Boulderwall Farm. A Great White Egret, Little Egret and 4 Ruff were seen on Burrows, and the 2 Long-eared Owls  were again behind the dipping pond. Four White-fronted Geese and 3 Ruff were seen from the Dengemarsh hide. A redhead Smew and another Marsh Harrier were seen on the walk back to the Visitor Centre.

Grey Wagtail

Long-eared Owl

 

Since my last post I've had just 3 Common Quakers in the moth trap. I had a reasonably successful day today at Dungeness despite very windy conditions. We started at the ARC pit where there was 1 Great White Egret and a Marsh Harrier but not much else. At the the patch we found 1 Iceland Gull on the beach and 2 Fulmars flew past the Fishing Boats before lunch. In the afternoon we couldn't find the Ring-necked Duck on the RSPB Reserve, but the 2 Long-eared Owls were showing well behind the dipping pond in good light. A drake Smew was present on Burrows and 2 more Great White Egrets were noted on the reserve. Four White-fronts were seen from the Dengemarsh hide and a couple of Corn Buntings were around Springfield Bridge along with 2 more Marsh Harriers.

Long-eared Owls

 

 Smew