I always think myself lucky to live in the south of England where the weather is considerably warmer than the north most of the time. We surely are getting some incredibly warm weather this month and after another week of dry, sunny weather I feel that winter will hit us hard down here at Dungeness!
By now, our summer visitors should have left us but we are still receiving reports of swallows and whitethroats here! We've had another spoonbill drop in to day and our cattle egrets are still around on the reserve and up to 7 have been seen at one time this week. Follow the cows and the cattle egrets will surely be there too!
Plenty of butterflies being seen as well including tortoiseshell, painted lady, peacock, small copper and clouded yellow. Plants don't know what to do with themselves and some such as the vipers bugloss and dog rose have started flowering again.
Bitterns have been seen frequently by Hanson hide at ARC. This one got very up close and personal with Graham our regular visitor (and pretty much official reserve wildlife photographer!)
There are also plenty of waders to be seen including ruff, snipe, black-tailed godwit, hundreds of golden plover and lapwing.