Monday 31st. March 2014

Whilst in the throws of painting the outside of the house , I have managed a few visits , resulting as follows ;

A grey , morning visit to Kelsey Park in Beckenham , found the Nuthatch pair 'mudding up' the entrance to their nest hole . At one visit , one of the birds went in , and seconds later , a Rose-ringed

Parakeet clamped itself onto the entrance , then proceeded to attempt to enlarge the hole with it's

strong bill . As it did so 'her indoors' sat a metre away watching , and no doubt giving advice . After several minutes , I became worried about the Nuthatch trapped inside , and with clapping making no difference , I shook one of the bushes below the hole and the two RRPs flew off , for how long I do not know . The Nuthatch emerged immediately , and the pair resumed the repairs . If you remember , last year the problem was a Magpie and the previous year , a GSWoodpecker .

Also seen on he visit , at least 5 juvenile Grey Heron , 3 pictured here ,

a pair of Egyptian Geese , where the Beck enters the lake , and several Coot and Moorhen sitting on nests . A quick look up on the Common with things starting to warm up , found at least 4 Chiffchaffs in song and 10+ Brimstone on the wing , including 2 females .

I made another visit to New Hythe , without being caught this time , hoping for a Nightingale , but failing , but did find a Water Vole that dived down and returned to the bank with a reed stem , which

it started to eat , but then froze when a second animal appeared . The second animal slowly

approached , then the two animals squared up to each other  and had a bit of handbags , with the

original animal retreating , leaving it's meal to the intruder . I failed on the Nightingale , but did have two singing Blackcaps near the Treatment Works entrance .

A visit to the Adder site overlooking the M25 produced this Bloody-nosed Beetle / Trimarcha tenebricosa , so called as when threatened , exudes deep red blood from it's mouth and various joints , to warn off it's attacker . I also doubled my Adder sightings to four males .

An afternoon visit to Hutchinson's Bank , just over the border in Surrey , produced 10 Peacock , 6 Brimstone , 7 Small Tortoiseshell and a Speckled Wood , my first non-over wintering butterfly of the year .





A second juvenile Adder , born last Autumn was found on one visit to the Greensand Ridge , along

with several males , one pictured , and the odd female is also showing up . A subsequent visit this

afternoon found things have moved on somewhat , with this male , above , already in breeding colours , guarding a female . Only time will tell if he will succeed in mating with her , when other males realise she is around .