Spring 2009 june4th Deer Park, a lovely sunny day and what a lovely sight the deer are back at the center of the park!
I think I must have been the first visitor of the morning as when others start walking through the deer move off to the west of the park. I managed to get fairly close and get these shots before they moved off a little.
A red-legged partridge made an appearance and then disappeared in to the long grass but not before I got a shot of him.
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When I got over to the small lake I spotted a heron over the other side perched in a tree. This is a favourite place for them when people come past, they wait for a while and when they think its safe they come back down. There are such a lot of fish in the lake, some of them are gold fish so easy pickings for a heron. My first foxglove of the year growing by the lake a beautiful flowering plant.
A male kestrel flew by and landed on a tree not far from me, a more striking looking bird then the female. Lovely chestnut back and slate grey with black ending tail.
There were deer in the wood and fields on the other side of the park to the south, I haven't seen so many over there before.
Made my way over to the large lake and to my good fortune came across a grebe's nest on the south side of the lake. As you can see the nest is built away from the bank on reeds and consists of wet water plants. When the grebe leaves the nest it pulls some of nesting material over the eggs to protect them from predators. This was a really great find for me, I have often seen grebes on lakes but I have never seen them nesting I shall have to come back in a few days to see how there getting on.
I left the park at the top and followed a path that lead past some very old beach trees that had been pollard in the past and having bags of character and asking to be photographed. The path had lush undergrowth both sides of it and there were lots of insect life such as hover flies, scorpionflies [this one is a female, the male has the end of its abdomen shaped like a scorpions tail] and a caddisfly. These were dancing about in the air in the undergrowth which must have been a mating display, the larva lives in the water on the bottom of lakes and encase themselves in a coat made from sand grains and sticks etc. to protect them selves.
I have included a photo of the large lake taken from the path.
This visit was very rewarding as you can see.
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7th and 8th saw me over at St Margrets at Cliff, I went to one of the spots where you can see the cliff face, but you have to be very careful along here as the cliff has no fence and is constantly falling away being only chalk. Here I spotted a herring gulls nest with three chicks and not very old, one of the chicks had slid out of the nest but managed to climb back in, a tense moment there as the beach was a few hundred feet below! Further along fulmars who also nest on the cliff face perch on the chalk face and looking very precarious!
The fulmars themselves are very challenging to photograph as they spend most of their time swooping out from the cliff and back again and very quickly!
Lots of skylarks over the fields back from the cliffs, a lovely summer sound high above your head and they are so very difficult to spot.
On looking down to the beach far below I caught sight of a peregrine flying towards the Deal direction and managed to get a shot of it but very far away!
Meadow pipits frequent the walk along here and I got some lovely pictures of one enjoying a good scratch!
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12th back at the Deer Park but first a blackbird has started to nest in the creeper in my court yard and is busily flying backwards and forwards with nesting material, should be interesting to see how it gets on.
As I got to the keepers pond by the road I could see the greylag geese parents had move their young up here from the large lake and how they have grown, chicks grow so fast and if you haven't seen them for a short while your surprised at the rate of growth.
At the large lake there was nothing to report on the nesting grebes the eggs haven't hatched. Near the side of the lake I came across a fallow deer in its dark form, I have noticed one or two here.
A couple of dragonflies near the small lake, a four-spotted chaser and a black-tailed skimmer.
Back near the car park I could see that the beech nuts were all ready on there way and there was a pretty little flower called a germander speedwell a nice finish to the trip.
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14th and 15th over at Langdon Cliffs Dover a glorious warm sunny day with endless blue sky.
As I walked from the car park there were a number of jackdaws and magpies picking up scraps left from the picnickers and I noticed as you can see from this photo what colours a magpie has for at first glance is a seemingly black and white bird.
Here and there was the flowering plant shown in the center below growing in the long grass giving a splash of colour. [ Can you identify it ? ] Try before you look! Fulmars were doing their usual swooping out from the cliffs and kittiwakes lined the flint ledges.
Further along my cliff top walk I suddenly caught sight of what I thought was a peregrine falcon flying towards me but later looking at the photos I could see it was a hobby.
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On the bushes by the path I heard a warbler and then spotted a whitethroat singing on the top of the bush.
Down in the downland grass here grow orchids and this is one very pretty one called a fragrant orchid.
Another attractive flower growing here is the viper's bugloss together with poppy's it is a great place for all manner of down land plants.
In a little valley dropping down to the cliffs I saw the hobby again landing on some bushes, I got as close as I could and got a few shots of it before it flew off.
On the way back I took another look at the kittiwakes and I could see one pair had a couple of eggs, a very precarious place to bring a family up!
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18th Over at the Deer Park to see if the grebes had hatched. On the way across the park to the lake I noticed a moth, [ Can you identify it? Shown below on left ] Try before you look! this is a day time flying moth and is very striking with its very dark bottle green wings with red markings, can be confused with the burnet moth which also flies during the day.
By the lake I had another interesting find, this was an immature male ruddy darter and as you can see is quite yellow in colour but will turn red when it matures. The female remains this colour into maturity.
Also came across a pair of blue-tailed damselfly's mating, all these blue damselfly's can be confusing so you will need a good field guide to tell them apart.
The grebes had hatched ! And I was lucky to see the chicks riding on the back of the male grebe to keep them safe, I had never seen this in real life before.
At the far end of the lake I spotted a fallow deer in the field opposite feeding on a ash tree, it was having to stand on its back legs to do this.
I called into West Hythe on the way back and got nice shot of a wren, a bumble bee feeding on flowering brambles and a tiny weevil. I was also lucky to catch this black-tailed skimmer in flight, they are so difficult to photograph in flight as dragonflies are so unpredictable, darting in all directions.
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19th First on this day I saw a young blackbird being fed in the garden out side my front window, I have heard a youngster somewhere in the front and caught the occasional glimpse but this was the best view so far.
Later in Seabrook, which is just out side Hythe I saw a heron lift off from beside the canal and was mobbed immediately by herring gulls which chased it mercilessly until eventually giving up, at one point there were three gulls in the chase. I felt sorry for the heron as the gulls were about as big as itself.
Over at West Hythe I got a nice view of a red admiral butterfly feeding on the brambles and a meadow brown which was a male it being darker than the female.
On walking back on the other side of the canal I heard a turtle dove and then sighted a pair in a ash tree. The call of the turtle dove is one of the sounds of the summer, its soft lazy warm call is a treat to hear.
Just over in the field by the canal they have made a pond and I noticed a young heron patiently waiting to catch a meal.
Back at the car park I saw two types of finches, a green finch and a goldfinch both charming birds. The goldfinch has a delightful musical call and was once kept as a caged bird for its song.
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23rd back at the Deer Park to catchup with the grebes. The grey lag goose family were back on the large lake, the goslings are nearly full grown now. The grebe family are out and about on the lake, two chicks getting quite big now and beginning to look too big to ride on there parents back!
A kingfisher flew to the island at the top of the lake were I was standing but proved to be too much in the shade for me get any photos.
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25th and 28th two brief visits to West Hythe. On the first I came across two things that I had not seen before, a mullein moth caterpillar, a very striking looking caterpillar about six cm's long and a willow warbler which is very similar to a chiffchaff but with more yellow on it and prefers bushes to trees.
On the second visit I had a charming view of a family of moorhens on the canal bank and a fascinating few minutes watching a pied wagtail catching damselflies over the water, it would catch quite a few before flying back to it's young and then coming back and doing it all over again.
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