😲

RSPB Worth Marshes, clear blue sunny sky but chilly start. Areas sheltered from the breeze soon warmed up raising hopes of first odonata of the year. Not to be disappointed - a male Variable Damselfly, Coenagrion pulchellum - our earliest ever, previously 18th April in 2024. #KentNature #odonata

The Glossy Ibis was on the wet fields on Blue Pigeons (not Bluebell) Farm on RSPB Worth 🙂

Butterfly enthusiasts needed in Kent!

We're working with @kentwildlife.bsky.social to recruit more butterfly surveyors on nature reserves in Kent. Can you ID butterflies and spare some time to walk a transect? If so find out more below, we'd love to work with you!

buff.ly/llcOz1Y

Many thanks for your expert comments/guidance Richard - I'll feedback to our records committee and we'll review / duly caveat our record of the 2009 bird. 👍

In addition there are a further 12 records (of 14 individuals) of Willow Tit in the period 1973-1987 at the Bay followed by a gap of 22 years until the 2009 bird.

apropos your comment above - the first record of Willow Tit at Sandwich Bay was on Aug 22 1968 was described as "a pale brown-mantled calling bird probably of the western/central continental race P.m.rhenanus" (sic) with a continental Coal Tit recorded on the 23rd.

Not that I'm aware of Richard. Would have to go back into the archives/logs to check but I believe the bird was seen and heard well. There is a theory (no more) that the bird was caught up in a large influx of continental Coal Tits the previous autumn.

Marsh Tit, Sunday, Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory. Only 7th definite record, the last ~30 years ago when 3 present Oct 22nd 1996. An unidentified ‘brown' tit July 6th 1999 & a Willow Tit on April 5th 2009 was almost certainly of continental origin as no evidence of breeding in #Kentbirding since 2005

Excellent. Hope/planning to join you / EBG survey group.🤞

Canary Islands Large White, Pieris cheiranthi, to be included in category of “critically endangered” after probable extinction in Tenerife. Sobering to think we saw one of the few remaining on @mariposanature.bsky.social tour in March 2024. The Madeiran Large White, P. wollastoni, already extinct.

Ah yes - the dulcet tones of the Black Francolin 😬

....and another trip down memory lane while dusting off the cobwebs in the archives at Sandwich Bay....

#KentBirding

...and just in case you are ever thinking of tucking into a nice plato de mariscos for lunch (with a bottle of chilled Albariño obviously - or Vinho Verde at a pinch) - you had better check those clams!! They don't mess about on Fuerteventura! 😱

Thanks to wet spring on Fuerteventura, a running stream in Barranco de Las Penitas. We came across this male Epaulet Skimmer, Orthetrum chryostigma. Confused for a while due to golden immature mid-abdominal segments - not illustrated in various guides cf. a typical more mature male nearby #odonata

Really sorry to hear that Roger.

While on Fuerteventura kept an eye out for day-flyers. Masses of Banded Sable (Spoladea recurvalis) plus Silver-Y, Scarce Bordered Straw, Striped Hawkmoth & Crimson Speckled. Best find were eggs & larvae of Polytela cliens making short work of the bloom of Brown Bells, Dipcadi serotinum. #teammoth

Amen to that!

#KentBirding

A pair of Sahara Bluetails, Ischnura saharensis, in tandem. But it wasn't just the inverts making merry. We saw Spectacled Warblers, Fuerteventura Stonechats and Cream-coloured Coursers with young on the @mariposanature.bsky.social tour - as well as these Spanish Sparrows - mamá y los dos niños.😀

Another pierid from Africa that colonised Fuerteventura & Lanzarote is Greenish Black-tip, Euchloe charlonia. Previous @mariposanature.bsky.social tours struggled to see it but no worries this spring. They were 'everywhere' although as wind picked up they favoured sheltered areas - they're not daft!

Last year I thought was lucky to see a single Corsican Dappled White, Euchloe insularis, on Sardinia. This year with @mariposanature.bsky.social we've been knee-deep (almost) in the related (same genus) endemic Fuerteventura Green-striped White, E. hesperidum. Very active so a challenge for the 📷.

Another Island, another Bluetail. This time it's Fuerteventura with @mariposanature.bsky.social. A once-in-a-decade green spring has resulted in an explosion of invertebrates - first up the Sahara Bluetail, Ischnura saharensis, an African species that has colonised most of the Canaries. Espléndido!

Lucky you!😀

A charming family party on Worth Marshes in Kent in January - we call 'em Granada Geese down here...

A young person is holding a bird in their hand. Wording below reads: young bird observatory visitors programme. bto.org/ybov.

Apply for our Young Bird Observatory Visitors Programme grant ➡️ www.bto.org/ybov

Each year the BTO provide a number of grants of up to £250, to support young people looking to visit one of the accredited British and Irish Bird Observatories.

Closing date: Sunday 1 March. #UKBirding

I don't think it definitive/diagnostic but any photos / video grabs of the spread tail Martin? - t6 looks very clean and white

Thank you - appreciated!

@britishdragonflies.bsky.social #KentNature

Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly, Ischnura pumilio, immature female ‘aurantiaca’, Dragonfly Pond, Sandwich Bay, 16th May, 2025. First breeding record for Kent

Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly, Ischnura pumilio, immature female ‘aurantiaca’, Dragonfly Pond, Sandwich Bay, 17th July 2025. Second wave emergence.

Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly, Ischnura pumilio, mature female, Sandwich Bay, 11th August 2025.

Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly, Ischnura pumilio, mature male, Sandwich Bay, last of the year, 19th September 2025

Bad weather so cracking on with 2025 Sandwich Bay Dragonfly report. 30 sp & Zygoptera section done. Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly breeding confirmed; a surreal experience of surveying pumilio thru 'swarms' of Dainty Damselflies - a scenario inconceivable 2 years ago. 🤯@britishdragonflies.bsky.social