There was a very small arrival of migrants this morning with 20 Willow Warblers and singles of Whinchat, Redstart, Spotted and Pied Flycatcher while 12 Golden Plovers, 100 Swallows, 20 House Martins, a Grey Wagtail, 12 Yellow Wagtails, a Tree Pipit and three Siskins passed overhead. Seawatching was hard work with four Arctic Skuas, two Mediterranean Gulls and three Grey Herons being the only birds of note.
Two Porpoises were feeding close inshore.
Very quiet again. A Swift, five Lesser Whitethroats and 25 Yellow Wagtails were of interest on/over the land. Seawatches were also slow going with three hours producing just 13 Whimbrel, four Curlew, 292 Sandwich Terns, two Arctic Skuas and a Balearic Shearwater of note.
Twelve Porpoises and two Grey Seals were feeding offshore.
This unusual aberrant Small Copper was also found in the Trapping Area. It is probably the named aberration brunnescens.
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| Small Copper Lycaena phlaeas ab.brunnescens. Dungeness 30th September 2023 |
The morning seawatch was notable for 21 Balearic Shearwaters which flew west although at very long range along with 11 Teal, ten Dunlin, 372 "Commic" Terns, three Black Terns and seven Arctic Skuas. There was barely a migrant on the land although the Wryneck was seen again and singles of Spotted Flycatcher and Redstart were of note. Three Grey Wagtails and 17 Yellow Wagtails also flew over.
Four Grey Seals and at least 21 Porpoises were feeding fairly close inshore.
A Red Underwing moth was trapped overnight.
The Wasp Spider population in front of the Observatory increased to nine females.
Very quiet. Three Whimbrels, two Redshanks and two Tree Pipits flew over and three Mediterranean Gulls passed west offshore.
At least 22 Porpoises were feeding offshore.
A Delicate and the tortrix Celypha rufana were trapped overnight. A Holly Blue was seen in the Observatory Garden again.
An Ornate Shieldbug and a Mediterranean Stick-insect were seen around the Observatory.
A small arrival of migrants on the land occurred with a Merlin, 70 Sand Martins, 40 Willow Warblers, 25 Lesser Whitethroats, a Whinchat, two Spotted Flycatchers, a Tree Pipit and a party of nine Crossbills.
A few uncommon moths included a Rest Harrow, a Vestal, a Red Underwing, three Delicates and a Scarce Bordered Straw. A Holly Blue was seen in the Observatory Garden.
The Wryneck made some brief appearances again and a Spotted Flycatcher and a Grey Wagtail was also seen.
A Grey Seal was feeding offshore.
An Ornate Shieldbug was found at the front of the Observatory.
A bit of movement offshore included three Whimbrel, 18 Knot, a juvenile Caspian Gull, a Yellow-legged Gull, 113 Sandwich Terns, four Little Terns and an Arctic Skua. A Wryneck arrived in a private garden this evening and a Garden Warbler, two Spotted Flycatchers and 70 Yellow Wagtails were also seen.
Four Porpoises and two Grey Seals were seen offshore.
Moths trapped overnight included a Palpita vitrealis, a Box Tree Moth, a Vestal, a Peach Blossom and an Ear.
An evening search for the rare crickets produced eight Large Coneheads, seven Sickle-bearing Bush-crickets, a Southern Oak Bush-cricket and a Mediterranean Stick-insect.
Two Mediterranean Gulls and three Arctic Skuas were seen offshore and 60 Yellow Wagtails and a Tree Pipit flew over.
Six Porpoises and two Grey Seals were feeding offshore.
Six Ornate Shieldbugs and six Wasp Spiders were seen in front of the Observatory. Two Mediterranean Stick-insects and two Southern Oak Bush-crickets were seen in the garden.
There was a westerly trickle of birds offshore with a 90 minute watch producing two Mediterranean Gulls, 125 Sandwich Terns, three Black Terns and an Arctic Skua.
There was a thin scatter of migrants on the land with 35 Willow Warblers, two Spotted Flycatchers, a Pied Flycatcher, a Grey Wagtail, 60 Yellow Wagtail and four Tree Pipits.
Eight Porpoise and four Grey Seals were feeding offshore.
A Rosy Wave was trapped overnight.
Two Southern Oak Bush-crickets were seen in the Observatory garden.
Fairly quiet with seawatching producing a Mediterranean Gull, two Little Terns, three Black Terns and three Arctic Skuas of note. Three Crossbills were seen in the Trapping Area and 40 Yellow Wagtails flew over.
The highlight of the day though was a Monarch butterfly which spent a few minutes in the Moat in the morning. Two Holly Blues were also seen.
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| Monarch Danaus plexippus Dungeness 22nd August 2023 |
The best from the moth traps were a Cryptic Fern and a Jersey Tiger.
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| Cryptic Fern Horisme radicaria Dungeness 22nd August 2023 |
There was a small arrival of migrants on the land with a Green Sandpiper, 50 Willow Warblers, 15 Lesser Whitethroats and a Pied Flycatcher. Two seawatches eventually produced 202 Sandwich Terns, 22 Little Terns, six Arctic Skuas and two Balearic Shearwaters of note.
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| Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca Dungeness 21st August 2023 |
Eight Porpoises and two Grey Seals were feeding offshore.
Notable moths trapped overnight included a Small Mottled Willow, an Antler and a Delicate.
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| Antler Cerapteryx graminis Dungeness 21st August 2023 |
A Holly Blue butterfly was also seen.
Nearly all the interest was offshore where seawatching produced five Sanderlings, three Mediterranean Gulls, 204 Sandwich Terns, three Little Terns, four Black Terns and 20 Balearic Shearwaters (including one flock of 16 birds). It was quiet on the land with just 47 Sand Martins, 12 Yellow Wagtails and two Grey Wagtails of any note
Four Porpoise and a Grey Seal were seen offshore.
Moth trapping produced a Small Mottled Willow - a fairly scarce migrant.
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| Small Mottled Willow Spodoptera exigua Dungeness 20th August 2023 |
A Lesser Emperor dragonfly was seen in the Desert.
Two Teal west offshore, two Greenshank, a Whinchat and 35 Yellow Wagtails were the only birds of note.
Two Porpoise and a Grey Seal were feeding offshore.
The moth traps were very busy overnight and produced a Small Fan-footed Wave, two Red Underwings, a Jersey Tiger, a Hoary Footman and five Cydia amplana.
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| Cydia amplana Dungeness 19th August 2023 |
A Holly Blue butterfly was seen during the day. and an Ornate Shieldbug was found in front of the Observatory.
A Green Sandpiper and a Greenshank flew over the area and two Mediterranean Gulls flew west at sea.
Four Porpoise and a Grey Seal were feeding offshore.
A torchlight search for rare othoptera produced 11 Large Coneheads, seven Sickle-bearing Bush-crickets, a Southern Oak Bush-cricket and lots of singing Tree Crickets,
A Wasp Spider was found in front of the Observatory.
Very quiet with just a flock of 36 Bar-tailed Godwits west of note.
Two Porpoises were seen offshore.
Large numbers of Tree Crickets were singing in the evening.
A juvenile Caspian Gull was seen at the fishing boats but it quickly drifted east and out into the bay. The afternoon seawatch produced a Mediterranean Gull, 89 Sandwich Terns, 46 Common Terns and two Arctic Skuas. Two Spotted Flycatchers were seen at the Long Pits.
Eight Porpoises were feeding offshore.
Two Holly Blue butterflies were seen in the Trapping Area and a Red Underwing moth was trapped overnight and four Hummingbird Hawkmoths were seen during the day.
Seawatching produced an unusual record in the form of an Egyptian Geese west along with 117 Sandwich Terns and 118 Common Terns.
Six Porpoises, five Grey Seals and a Common Seal were feeding offshore.
A fresh southerly breeze brought a bit of movement of seabirds with three Balearic Shearwaters of particular of note along with 127 Sandwich Terns and 48 Common Terns.
Four Porpoises were feeding offshore.
Very little to be seen after yesterdays arrival. Over 2.5 hours of seawatching saw just a Little Tern and an Arctic Skua of note.
Three Porpoise and a Grey Seal were feeding offshore.
Today saw the first large arrival of migrants on the land. Numbers were typically dominated by 200 Willow Warblers along with 15 Blackcaps, two Garden Warblers, 40 Lesser Whitethroats, 60 Whitethroats, four Spotted Flycatchers and a Redstart. A Hobby was also seen. An afternoon seawatch produced a Mediterranean Gull, 84 Sandwich Terns and 43 Swifts.
Very quiet with just two Arctic Skuas offshore of note.
Three Porpoise and a Grey Seal were feeding offshore.
Terns continued to move west with a 90 minute seawatch producing 173 Sandwich and 291 Common Terns along with 32 Kittiwakes and two Arctic Skuas.
Five Porpoise and a Grey Seal were seen offshore.
Pretty quiet. An hour's seawatch from the fishing boats this afternoon produced 30 Sandwich and 102 Common Terns and 17 Sand Martins heading west.
Singles of Porpoise and Grey Seal were feeding offshore.
There was a large arrival of migrants but almost all of the birds were around the northern Long Pits. Willow Warblers were the most abundant with 80 birds along with small numbers of Whitethroats, Lesser Whitethroats and two Garden Warblers. A Tree Pipit flew over the Observatory. The sea was very quiet.
Singles of Porpoise and Grey Seal were seen offshore.
Eight Mediterranean Gulls and the first Shag of the year were seen offshore. Fifteen Willow Warblers and a Garden Warbler were seen in the bushes.
Two Porpoise were seen offshore.
Fairly quiet. There was a small arrival of migrants on the land including 30 Willow Warblers, a Garden Warbler and a Pied Flycatcher. An evening seawatch produced 60 Kittiwakes, a Little Gull, a Mediterranean Gull, 70 Sandwich Terns, an Arctic Skua and 120 Gannets.
Three Porpoises and two Grey Seals were seen.
A Holly Blue was seen in the Trapping Area.
The day started fairly calm but more wind and rain arrived quickly and limited most of the observations to the sea. Even so, the sea was generally quiet with 5.5 hours of watching producing just 57 Common Scoters, 35 Knot, five Sanderling, a Dunlin, 53 Kittiwakes, a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull, 126 Common Terns, ten Arctic Terns and three Arctic Skua. A Green Sandpiper also flew over the Observatory at 0100hrs.
Five Porpoises and a Grey Seal were feeding offshore.
The moth traps were surprisingly busy overnight with the highlight of our fifth record of Gypsy Moth and also a Red Underwing of note.
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| Gypsy Moth Lymantria dispar Dungeness 5th August 2023 |
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| Red Underwing Catocala nupta Dungeness 5th August 2023 |
Today saw a small but varied arrival of migrants on the land. Of note were a Grasshopper Warbler, three Garden Warblers, a Pied Flycatcher and two Redstarts while numbers were provided by 30 Willow Warblers and 50 Whitethroats. A Greenshank flew over the Observatory.
Three Porpoise and a Grey Seal were feeding offshore.
A fine day for a change. There were a handful of migrants on the land with 200 Swifts, two Little Ringed Plovers, 15 Willow Warbles and three Tree Sparrows of note. Seven hours of seawatching produced 71 Kittiwakes, 35 Mediterranean Gulls (with another 150 anting high over the Trapping Area), a Little Gull, a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull, 118 Sandwich Terns, three Little Terns, 551 Common Terns, 375 "commic" Terns, a juvenile Arctic Tern, two Arctic Skuas, two Fulmars and 197 Gannets west.
Six Porpoise and two Grey Seals were feeding offshore.
A nymph Mediterranean Stick-insect was found at the usual spot at the Observatory and an Ornate Shield-bug was found in the rough ground at the front of the Observatory.
The stormy weather shows no signs of letting up and in fact today was probably the worst day for sometime. Virtually all the coverage concerned seawatching with 11.5hrs of watching producing 60 Common Scoters, three Whimbrel, a Knot, a Mediterranean Gull, three Yellow-legged Gulls, eight Little Terns, 101 Sandwich Terns, 995 Common Terns, two Arctic Terns, an adult Roseate Tern, a Black Tern, 11 Fulmars, two Manx Shearwaters and two Balearic Shearwaters. At least 500 Swifts also passed south-west.
Four Porpoises and two Grey Seals were feeding offshore.
Very little to be seen. A couple of Willow Warblers were seen in the moat and a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull was seen on the beach.
A Badger was seen in the Trapping Area.
An evening check for orthoptera produced two singing male Large Coneheads, two late-stage nymph Sickle-bearing Bush-crickets and about 25 singing Tree Crickets.
Very little to report on a miserable day of strong winds and rain throughout. Seawatching produced just five Shelducks east and 12 Little Terns west of any note.
Three Porpoises were feeding offshore.
