Tuesday 8th. July 2014

The most recent bird survey at Down House produced 18 species , the best being Yellowhammer and Sparrowhawk , along with a Roe doe in the long grass in the large meadow that I came across almost accidentally , giving no chance of a picture . Fortunately the Violent Helleborines can't run away ,

and 6 flowering spikes were found . Hopefully they will escape the browsing of the deer . I stopped off at High Elms on the way back , still no sign of White-letter Hairstreak and Silver-washed Fritillary numbers were slightly up , but no White Admiral sighting this time . Hope things improve for Kent Butterfly Conservation's visit the weekend after next . In the bottom glade I watched a

female Small Skipper carefully choose a specimen of Yorkshire Fog grass , before laying a batch of

eggs , then re-fuelling on Red Clover before laying the next batch .
Still making early morning visits on the Common for Purple Hairstreak , but these too are still to be

found . The visits did produce my first local Gatekeeper , along with a female Silver-washed

Fritillary , still tucked up with a male Meadow Brown , enough said on that subject , and a nice fresh

Comma . The Brambles might not have produced the hoped for PHs , but they were crawling with grasshoppers and crickets , in various stages of development . Roesel's Bush-Cricket seemed to be the

most advanced , identified by the cream/green edging to it's pronotum . Whereas the Meadow

Grasshopper ( on the left  and the Conehead , unsure if it is Long or Short Winged at this stage , still have a lot of growing to do to catch up .
This morning I made a visit to Sevenoaks Reserve , starting in sunshine , but with cloud rolling in .
From Willow Hide , the Great Crested Grebes are down to just one youngster , mind you , it was

making enough noise for two , constantly calling for food , which the male seemed to be supplying in a constant stream .Lots of Canada and Greylag Geese doing their morning ablutions , and over on the

island , a Little Egret that was doing it's exercises , starting on the parallel bars , before hopping up to

the high bar amongst the Willow branches . Even the Odonata was in short supply , a couple of male Emperor Dragonflies , a male Brown Hawker , a few Banded Demoiselles , the males showing the

damage from aerial battles . Whilst looking for Small Red-eyed Damselfies , which I didn't find , from the last fishing swim on Long Lake , I got the feeling that I was being watched , and on turning

round , found this 'imported killer' coming towards me along the concrete path , an American Mink .

I had no time to change settings , but just pointed the lens and fired off a few shots , before it disappeared into the bankside vegetation . I couldn't even back off , or I , and the camera would have finished up in Long Lake . Over the other side of the site , the only interest I found was a possible

leucistic Greylag Goose , but I kept thinking it might have something to do with the white goose that I have seen several times on site . On getting back to the car park , I mentioned the Mink at the Visitor Centre , and was surprised that they are only allowed to monitor rather than trap the species at this time of year , while it decimates unknown numbers of breeding native birds and wildfowl .