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Local weather

Update

The Observatory can accommodate up to 9 people in two dormitories, you need to bring your own sleeping bags and it is self-catering. As well as Birdwatchers, we welcome people from many areas of interest including Moths, Butterflies, Bugs and Beetles or just a general interest in Nature and the local environment. Please forward any Dungeness recording area records to the Warden.
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14th Oct

It was fairly quiet for grounded migrants with two Merlins, a Firecrest, a Mistle Thrush and a few Song Thrushes and Blackbirds being about the best to be seen although the Wryneck made another brief appearance in the Desert. Visible migration was much more noticeable with 65 Skylarks, a Grey Wagtail, two Rock Pipits, two Bramblings,1300 Goldfinches, 780 Siskins and 56 Reed Buntings.
It was also a strange day offshore with a massive arrival of over 1000 Mediterranean Gulls into the area along with large numbers of Kittiwakes and Sandwich Terns and ten or so Arctic Skuas in attendance.


Mediterranean Gulls Icthyaetus melanocephalus   Dungeness   14th October 2018
Just part of the huge flock of Mediterranean Gulls and Kittiwakes feeding offshore today

Three Porpoises and a Grey Seal were also feeding offshore.

 The event of the day on the insect front was the finding and capturing of another Asian Hornet Vespa vetulina as it fed on Ivy flowers at the Lighthouse Garden and what a stunner it is. Sadly as it is considered a very harmful invasive pest species and it cannot be released back into the wild.


Asian Hornet Vespa velutina    Dungeness   14th October 2018
In the field shots.

Admiring the Asian Wasp - the first wasp to be twitched in Britain?




Asian Hornet Vespa velutina   Dungeness   14th October 2018
A few close-up shots 
With a mass arrival of migrant moths across the country as a whole our moth traps were actually fairly disappointing with just the pyralid Palpita vitrealis of note but it was very windy so we were probably lucky to get this, A Blair's Shoulder-knot was also caught - only the 12th Observatory record.

 Later in the day a Western Conifer Seed Bug was found at the Observatory. 
Western Conifer Seed Bug Leptoglossus occidentalis   Dungeness   14th October 2018

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