May 15th
It was sunny again this morning and the easterly wind had dropped compared to yesterday as we walked from Chamber's Wall to Coldharbour and on to the Oyster Farm lagoons. It's still relatively quiet but we did manage to count 9 Whitethroats, 2 Blackcaps, 8 Goldfinches, 10 Swallows W, 1 Common Tern, 11 Mallard, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 1 Shelduck, 2 Redshank, 4 Mute Swans, 2 Greylag Geese, 13 Oystercatchers, 26 Sanderling, 7 Turnstone, 6 Ringed Plovers, 2 Grey Herons, 6 Stonechats, 2 Wheatears, 2 Yellow Wagtails and 1 Cuckoo.

Sanderling and Turnstone moulting into summer plumage ready to fly north to their breeding grounds

During the day 2 Red Kites flew W over our garden at Bishopstone, one at 1200 and one at 1500.

First year Red Kite

Chris Tedder had a walk from Chamber's Wall to Shuart. Though it was quiet for birds there were good numbers of damselflies and she recorded a lot of Azures, a couple of Blue-tailed and Common Blue, several Red-eyed and a number of Variable Damselflies. She also recorded 8 Hairy Dragonflies and her first Small Heath butterfly of the year.

Variable Damselfly - Chris Tedder