Folkestone & Hythe Birds

August

6th - A Painted Lady and  2 Harbour Porpoises at Samphire Hoe.

July 

30th - the first 2 Painted Ladies at Samphire Hoe. 

23rd - 2 Harbour Porpoises off Samphire Hoe. 

21st - A reasonable selection of common butterflies at the Gun Site included a Speckled Wood, a Comma, 5 Large Skippers, 5 Marbled Whites, 6 Gatekeepers and 11 Ringlets.

16th - Southern Hawker at Saltwood Castle on the 13th, and Purple Hairstreak recently at Cheriton. Just a single Silver Y was of note at light at Hythe.

 Southern Hawker and Purple Hairstreak - Brian Harper

 12th - Rather quiet recently for lepidoptera and odonata, mostly due to the rather cool and breezy weather. Marbled Whites (below) have still been easy to find as have some of the other commoner butterflies such as Small Copper (below), Large Skipper, Meadow Browns etc. A Ringlet at Samphire Hoe earlier in the month was a new species for the site. The only moth of any real note was a very early Feathered Ranunculus at Hythe on the 1st.

Marbled White and Small Copper - Cheriton, July 2008 - (Brian Harper) 

June

4th - This Large Skipper was photographed at Pond Hill Road, Cheriton (Brian Harper). The first I've heard of locally this year.

  
May

An Italian Wall Lizard at Little Switzerland, Folkestone Warren (Martin Collins) and a female Black-tailed Skimmer at Samphire Hoe (Ian Roberts) recently.

23rd - Still fairly quiet but Dew Moths continue to be seen at Samphire Hoe and a freshly emerged Cream-spot Tiger was found. 

21st - This Broad-bodied Chaser (one of our commoner dragonflies) invited itself into my conservatory!

 Broad-bodied Chaser - Hythe - 21st May (Ian Roberts)

14th - A Grey Seal again off Samphire Hoe. 

10th - Large Red Damselfly at Saltwood Castle:

 
Large Red Damselfly - Saltwood Castle -10th May (Brian Harper)

9th - 5 Dew Moths at Samphire Hoe. Not many moths to light yet but a nice male Lime Hawk-moth in the trap at Hythe: 

Lime Hawk-moth - Hythe - 9th May (Ian Roberts)

8th - The first Small Copper of the year at Samphire Hoe. 

7th - A Cream-spot Tiger at Samphire Hoe and still 4 Clouded Yellows there. 

 Cream-spot Tiger and Wall - Samphire Hoe - 7th May (Ian Roberts)

6th - There have been Clouded Yellows present at Samphire Hoe since late March (presumably locally bred) and today 4 were present, along with c.12 Wall butterflies. Large numbers (9,000+) of Early Spider Orchids (photos below: Ian Roberts) are in flower there and a Grey Seal was fishing offshore.

March 

29th - An early Clouded Yellow reported at Samphire Hoe.

13th - Strong winds and heavy seas somehow pushed a Harbour Porpoise over the seawall - an amazing sight! (photos: Paul Holt)

January 

19th - at least 15 Sea Mice (Aphrodita aculeata) had been washed up on the beach at Hythe (photos: Ian Roberts).