Monday 28th August 2006 Photo Update
Saturday August 26th 2006 Sandwich River Boat
Trip
We
had some nice views of Common Seals, some being very
inquisitive and getting fairly close to the boat. (Graham Crick)
Friday 25th August 2006 Sandwich
Bay
SBBOT
A visit to Sandwich Bay in the afternoon to look for Dragonflies on
the Restharrow Scrape and Middle Field Pond. Unfortunately a substantial
amount of cloud drifted in shortly after arriving suppressing activity
somewhat. 6-8
Red-veined Darters along with a number of Common Darters on
Restharrow Scrape with several Emperor Dragonflies and Migrant
Hawkers. Good numbers of Small Red-eyed Damselflies with a few Azure
and Blue-tailed Damselflies were all that were present. As
I cycled through the estate on the return journey, several Giant
Puff-balls sat very conspicuously in the sheep fields. (F Solly)
Monday 21 August 2006 Old Hoverpad Pegwell
James and I walked to the hoverport later in the
morning and were surprised by a familiar sight - a fine Monarch
sailing past us along the clifftop!! I thought 'ah, there goes a Monarch'
but then got a bit more excited when I remembered just where I was! James
later relocated this orange vision on the hoverport and I was able to grab
a few photos before the rain stopped play. A great butterfly to see on
ones local patch. (Dave B & James)
Monday 21st August 2006 Old Hoverpad
Pegwell
Dave
Beadle phoned in the late morning to say he'd seen a Monarch Butterfly
between the cliff top and the Hover-pad so I went back down at 12.00.I
gave it an hour but didn’t see the Butterfly unfortunately. A Green
Sandpiper was heard calling somewhere in the bay while I was there.3+ Humming-bird
Hawk-moths, numerous Painted Lady and a single Clouded
Yellow were on or around the hover-pad. (Phil M)
Sunday 20th August 2006 Kingsgate Thanet
Kingsgate. Rather blustery and mostly cloudy during a morning
wander. About 200 Migrant Hawkers - a number of which were falling
victim to the recently fledged Hobbies and
20 Common Darters were the only things of note. Conditions were
fall from ideal for Butterflies however a number of Purple Hairstreaks
were showing well. (F Solly)
Saturday 19th August 2006 Old Hoverport
Pegwell
Having finished the traps, I decided to check out the Buddleia on the
Hoverport. Much of it had finished which concentrated things a little.
Reasonable numbers of Painted Ladies and Red Admirals and
frequenting the largest patch of Buddleia was a fine Camberwell Beauty,
my first in the UK. Other butterflies included Comma, the Whites,
Speckled Wood, Common and Holly Blues, Gatekeeper and Meadow Browns
(F Solly)
Saturday
19th August East Cliff to Langdon Hole Dover
I decided that as it wasn’t raining I would go on per suite of one of
these Camberwell Beauty’s that have been seen in Kent. So I
started walking and checking all the Buddleia bushes and flowers along the
lower cliff path, I had Painted Lady and a nice Hummingbird Hawk
Moth. As I started to take the cliff path up towards Langdon I had Red
Admiral, Comer and numerous Small White’s. Once on the
high clff path near Langdon Hole I had several Chalk-Hill Blue and
some stunning views of 6 Spot Burnet. After nearly fours
hours of searching the Camberwell Beauty wasn’t to be found.
(Graham Crick)
Saturday 19th August 2006 Shuart Lane (09.10 - 10.10hrs)
A walk along the farm track at Shuart provided me with some excellent
views of dragonflies. Migrant Hawker and Common Darter were
the most numerous, but I did come across a superb male Southern Hawker
enjoying the morning sunshine. Butterflies were restricted to a Common
Blue, several "Whites" and a scattering of Red
Admirals. As there has been an upsurge in interest of late, I located
three Roesel's Bush Crickets on call! Rather good fun scrambling about in the grass looking for the
little sods, don't suppose I'll really ever grow up! (Dylan)
Thursday
17th August 2006 Lydden Kent Trust reserve
We popped over to Lydden this afternoon in search of a Wart-biter Cricket
and thanks to Francis' directions we found one. It’s taken me well over
a decade to come across this beast of the Cricket world - a brilliant
insect and an insect ambition realised at long last. Lots of other insects
were seen: Butterflies included numerous Chalkhill Blues, Brown Argus,
Silver-spotted Skippers, 1 Brimstone etc also lots of micro
moths (mainly Pyrausta despicata's, Agriphila tristella plus
the odd Oncocera semirubella) plus a few of the local
Geometrid speciality Straw Belle. Crickets and Grasshoppers
included Great Green Bush-cricket, Dark Bush-cricket, Long-winged
Cone-head, Field Grasshopper, Rufous Grasshopper, Common Green Grasshopper
and Meadow Grasshopper. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any Stripe-winged
Grasshoppers. I was surprised to find a Wasp Spider on the
reserve I wasn’t aware they were there? (Phil
M and Dave Coppen)
Wednesday 16th August 2006 Sandwich Bay
Photographed in the middle field at the SBBOT
today 1 Small Copper and 1 Wasp Spider. (Graham Crick)
Thursday
10th August 2006 Pegwell & North Foreland
I’ve been doing a bit of 'rummaging' around a few grassy/bushy areas of
Thanet looking for bits and bobs of insects and arachnids. Dave Beadle
informed me there were lots of Wasp Spiders on the clifftop at
Cliffsend / Pegwell and it turned out there were 20+ occupied webs on the
section between the coastguards cottages and Little Cliffsend Farm. Look
around the
short grass and low vegetation on the west side of the path in front of
the Horse paddocks. Between Pegwell and Dead Mans Paddock (North Foreland)
I’ve managed to find 4 - 5 species of as yet unidentified species of
Grasshopper (I’ve got a book in the post so I should be able to
sort them out soon) plus most of Thanets Cricket species including a brown
morph of Long-winged Conehead which I booted out of the grass
on Pegwell clifftop. It would appear that Long-winged Conehead is
one of the easiest species to find these days - they are very common both
at Pegwell and North Foreland. The one omission to my Cricket list is Speckled
Bush Cricket - a reasonably common Cricket locally but a pig to find
when you’re specifically looking for one! (Phil M)
Monday
7th August 2006 Kingsdown
Night of August 6th.This Silver Diving Beetle came to the MV light
last night. We did get a Lesser Stag Beetle too but I forgot to
take a photo of it. (Phil
M)
Saturday
5th August 2006 Pegwell Bay
Whilst poking around in the grass looking for Crickets and Grasshoppers
with my nephew this evening, I came across this cracking Wasp Spider.
My first ever sighting at Pegwell. The only Crickets I could find were Roesel's
and Short-winged Conehead though I could hear lots of Dark
Bush Crickets calling from the Blackberry bushes on the Country Park.
(Phil 'n' Oliver M)
Saturday
5th August 2006 Pegwell Bay
This
Clouded Yellow was flying near the garage pools at Pegwell Bay
today. (CW)
Saturday 5th August 2006 Elephant hawk moth Caterpillar
The photograph of this beautiful Caterpillar has been
sent to the website by Colin Taylor from Swanmore Hampshire, it is an Elephant hawk moth Caterpillar
(Colin Taylor)
Saturday 5th August 2006 Kingsgate
A wander around the Golf Course in a couple of the sheltered spots
produced a few Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters and 2 Common
Blue Damselfly. Very much reduced numbers of the usual grassland
Butterflies but good numbers of Purple Hairstreaks. A Wall Brown
is the first I have seen there for a couple of years. (F
Solly)
Saturday 5th August 2006 Dumpton Garden Thanet
I spent a couple of hours playing around with my
digi-scoping gear in the garden. Plenty to see, but insects are not the
most co-operative of subjects when it comes to photography with my
equipment! Loads of Painted Ladies visiting the Buddleia bushes
along with 2 Comma, 2 Gatekeeper, 1 Meadow Brown, 4 Holly
Blue (2nd generation) and the odd Large White, Peacock and
Red Admiral. A very tatty Hummingbird Hawk-moth appeared
briefly, and may have been the individual I saw last night as I was
switching on the Moth Trap? Loads of Hoverflies and Bumble-bees,
completely wasted on me, but I did record my first Migrant Hawker
(Dragonfly) in the garden today. (Dylan)
Friday
4th August 2006 Pegwell Bay
An hours rummaging around the grass and Rush beds at Pegwell this evening
turned up 3-4 species of Grasshopper plus a few Roesel's Bush Cricket
and
Short-winged Conehead. Good fun too! (Phil M)
