Breeding birds survey and odonata survey

A good days surveying today, birds followed by odes and butterflies, although plenty of paper work this afternoon to make up for it.
This morning there was an obvious increase in migrants with cuckoo, turtle dove, lots of reed warblers, black caps and a single garden warbler. the latter two were singing and fighting over the same territory, a great chance to hear both songs side by side.
Moths have been a bit bleak of late, partially due to my lack of effort but I managed to flush a streamer this morning along with a few micros awaiting id.
The dragonfly survey went fairly well with 4 species- 16 large red, 8 Variable, 4 blue tailed damsels as well as 3 hairy dragonflies. A few more bugs about too.

More damsels

This afternoon I managed to add another damselfly species to the list, there were at least 10-15 Variable Damselflies out at Reserve X. As far as i can see this is a pretty early record, but hardly surprising considering the warm weather of late. Hope to get photos tomorrrow.

Weekend in Norfolk

A weekend spent in Norfolk based at Watton in the Brecks. As such i managed to add a few species to the year list including, Stone Curlew, Wood Lark, Tree Pipit, Crossbill, Tawny Owl and Garden Warbler. Not too bad considering it was a non birding weekend!
A couple of moths were also caught for good measure, both new for the year too....However I still need to id them, hopefully it can be done with the photos.

Migrants at Pegwell

A good day for birds today at Pegwell, partially due to the fact I had a guided walk this morning and a disturbance study in the afternoon, basically all day in the field with bins round my neck and scope on the shoulder, beats the office! On the 'signs of spring' guided walk we saw a good selection of migrants including Chiffchaff, whitethroat, Willow warbler, Whimbrel, lesser Whitethroat, Blackcap, Swallow, all in fairly good numbers also a single Sedge warbler, Buzzard and Marsh Harrier. A fantastic performance of 2 displaying Sparrowhawks was probably the highlight for most. Other than that were 8 common seals, a couple of early purple orchids and 200+ Common Twyblade orchids, both orchid species were showing rosettes and short spikes only, but it should be quite a sight in a couple of weeks!
This afternoon the Whimbrel continued coming and going with Phil having a day total of just under 200 which is probably a site record. Other than that 2 Greenshank, 240 Dunlin, 10 smartly plumaged Grey plovers were amongst the more usual fare. While locking up this evening a Spotted redshank was feeding distantly with an additional Greenshank. The Spoonbill and a Serin were also seen 1st thing this morning but not by me.