Sunday 13 March 2011

Sunshine Treats and Disappointments

A good day for butterflies yesterday in the sunny spells with 2 brimstones and a holly blue visiting the back garden. I thought it would also be good weather for finding basking adders so headed off to a couple of sites near the Medway towns and saw a further 3 brimstones at Meopham along with a brief glimpse of probably a peacock. At Queendown Warren the sun was still out but unfortunately the adders were not. This is a worry as I know the folks that perform regular surveys there have indicated a general decline and I don’t know how the hard weather in December may have affected them. Certainly the Kent reptile and amphibian group (KRAG) are concerned over a perceived decline and have setup a project to gather data. I did manage to see a couple of commas though, so a 4 butterfly day, not bad for early March, I think? I then moved onto a second site but by this time the sun had gone in so no real chance of finding anything.

I’m branching out into the world of motion sensor cameras and have been given one for a month to ‘have a go’. So I positioned it in a suitable place in my back garden last night, hoping that the elusive hedgehog that appeared a week back may make another appearance. Unfortunately I only managed to get pictures of the local cat population which confirms my suspicions that my garden is the local cat highway

Sad smile

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