Summer 2009 August1st August and over at West Hythe, there are a lot of common darters around now, they spend allot of time perching so very obliging for photographs. Common darters appear about mid June until well into October and very widespread so you probably wont be disappointed, the male is red and the female yellow.
This is something you will see wasps doing, apart from flying around you at picnics! Its shaving off wood from a bench which it will take back to the nest to be used as building material. Wasps may be a nuisance some times but they do catch a lot of flies to feed the young on.
The damsons are ripening and will be ripe for making jam, jellied or stewed soon. Below further along on the canal a solitary moorhen chick looks to its parents for food.
Wild teasel flower on the bank while red-eyed damselflies lay their eggs on the canal, the male holding on to the female as she does so.
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2nd And I am at Langdon Cliffs and met by the lovely sight of rosebay willowherb growing there and further along quite a few common blue butterflies this one is on a birdsfoot-trefoil or bacon and eggs because of the yellow and bacon colour.
This is a good area for linets, the males perching on top of bushes making them quite visible. One of my favourite finches with the rosy pink heart shape on its breast.
At various points along here you get views of the face of the chalk cliffs and here in this photo you can see how the chalk has been weathered away being so soft, leaving the very hard flint more and more exposed until they fall to the beach below which seems to consist entirely of flint pebbles.
I came across a very pretty wild flower, one that I hadn't seen before called a harebell a delicate little plant.
There are a lot of six spot burnets around as you can see from this photo of them gathered on a greater knapweed.
Another first for me was this common toadflax I found hiding in the long grass looking a bit like a garden snapdragon.
And lastly a nice view of a great black back gull from below, you can see its black back showing through making it recognizable from the smaller herring gull.
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9th Also over at Langdon Cliffs and got a nice shot of a great black back gull and you can see that it is moulting some of its wing feathers, that's the awkward looking gap in the wings.
Also spotted this dove which I am pretty certain is a rock dove, its markings are spot on but it could be a feral pigeon.
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11th West Hythe short trip to there but productive. I saw a female brown hawker and I got some good shots when it landed on the trunk of a tree.
Also found this wild flower called a water mint, this plant likes damp places such as rivers, lake sides and marshes. It is strongly aromatic and has hairy leaves.
Elder berries are on show now looking succulent and asking to be made into jam! And the alder is bearing its green fruit.
Old man's beared drapes it's self over bushes and trees, there is a feeling that summer is drawing to a close.
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12th Here was a nice surprise. On a trip to Canterbury I came across this little oasis of wildlife in the middle of the city. The sign reads 'This Area Is Planted With Wild Flowers'.
17th I visited Geraldine Aldridge's garden, another lovely wild oasis amidst the kept gardens of the Dover suburbs. You can read about her garden in the Forum but the highlight was on lifting a tarpaulin, there underneath were three slow-worms. One moved off quickly but the other two stayed enabling me to get this photo.
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21st And a little bit of romantic drama going on in the front garden by my front door. A female garden spider being courted by a male and he had to be very careful! He first attentively started along her web until he got close to her all the time making the right vibrations, when he got to her he was taping her and then she became passive so that he could mate with her. Unfortunately I had to brake off and when I got back he was her next meal, I don't know if he succeeded or not!
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21st Later that day I went over to Weast Hythe which turned out to be rewarding. There were quite a few red eyed damselflies laying there eggs, the males holding on to the females while she deposited them on to water weeds. Also on the water were a large number of pond skaters, these are scavengers feeding on insects that fall into the water.
Sitting on the bank was a marsh frog, this one wasn't too bothered by my presence they usually jump into the water as soon as I appear! Hawking over the canal were a number of migrant hawkers and I managed to get this shot of one in the air which is quite difficult but they do hover more than other dragonflies and they obligingly rest on branches for some time, usually from about six feet upwards.
The damsons were looking ripe, a lovely sight at this time of the year.
The last couple of things to see were a red admiral butterfly, looking smart in its red white and black. And a brown hawker which landed a little to far off on a oak tree, you can tell this one was a male by its pinched waste.
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23rd Over at Stodmarsh the Grove Ferry end. At a pond there there were a few young marsh frogs and on visiting the first hide by the lake I saw a green sandpiper together with lapwings.
Later in the day I went to the lakes at Chilham and there had a charming view of great crested grebes carrying their chicks on their backs. There was also a number of coots and swans on the lake and on closer look groups of whirligig beetles. These small water beetles gyrate on the surface and have split eyes, the top part for seeing above the water and the lower part for seeing under the water.
By the side of the lake grew an attractive wild flower called purple loosestrife making a splash of colour.
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