Gary Howard's birds and wildlife

Having spent a fair chunk of Saturday at Dungeness I did n't imagine I'd be back so soon!

Jenny and I took the boys to Lullingstone to look for butterflies late morning, probably later than was ideal, but we'd been having a lazy morning.

We walked to the golf course and found the grassy banks on the edge of the fairways alive with Dark-green Fritillary's.  It was quite spectacular, I'd estimate that there were around 200 Dark-green Fritillary's on the wing. A single Marbled White flew past and there were plenty of Small Skippers.

Bird-wise it was nice (and sadly now unusual) to hear several Turtle Doves.

We drove to Eynsford Castle for a picnic - the kids idea! Sitting in the shade of the huge flint walls my pager alerted me to the discovery that the White-tailed Plover that has been doing something of a circuit around England had finally got to Kent and was now on the ARC pit.

The boys did not want to go to Dunge - a water-fight at home was apparently more of a lure so I dropped them and Jenny at home and shot down to Dungeness.

Lullingstone

Dark-green Fritillary

Twelve-spot Burnet Moth

As I arrived at Dungeness and drove towards the south end of the ARC pit I could see a small crowd assembled. I drove past, clearly they were not watching anything. Just then my phone rang - Marcus Lawson said" it's showing from the viewing screen". I turned the car round, shouted the news to James Hunter and some of the assembled birders and drove back to the north end.  A few minutes later we were enjoying fair views of the fabulous White-tailed Plover. The first record for Kent and my 350th species for the county.

 As the afternoon passed to evening the light conditions improved and we got some very decent views with scopes and photographic opportunities got better too. As I'd now driven the 60 odd miles back to Dunge I decided to stay 'till dusk and not worry about missing the World Cup Final - I'd catch the highlights.

ARC looking south towards the point.

White-tailed Plover - first for Kent and my 350th species for the county!

After nearly 3 hours watching the plover I joined James Hunter and Andy Lawson to look for roseate tern at the fishing boats and along the beach near the patch. We were not in luck but we had close to 40 Med Gulls - mostly adults and a few juveniles. A smart male Black Redstart feeding along the power station perimeter fence was a bonus.