Shoresearch, Snowdrops and Sunsets

Back in February I persuaded my lovely Mum to come along with me to a Shoresearch event. These are monthly happenings run by the Marine team at Kent Wildlife Trust and aim to record the marine species that are found on the shoreline. Different species are likely to be found depending on the geology of the beach. We went along to the Shoresearch at Copt Point in Folkstone. The weather was gorgeous! Sunshine for the entire time! There was also a record number of people who turned up, with some Wildlife Guides from France joining us. It really was a fascinating few hours - seeing creatures I had never seen before. Find more info at Kent Wildlife Trust - Shoresearch

Fabulous blue skies at Copt Point

Masses of egg wrack (Ascophyllum) - this is one of the only sites where this species of seaweed grows on natural objects

Sugar Kelp - Laminaria saccharina

Dog Whelks - Nucella lapillus

Sea slug - Acanthodoris pilosa

Shore Crab/Common Littoral Crab - Carcinus maenas

Small Spotted Catshark eggcase - Scyliorhinus canicula

Me searching the shore!

Beadlet anemone - Actinia equina

In comparison to the creatures featured above, these more common garden birds may seem dull to many people. However if you watch these little birds I can almost guarantee that you will be surprised at how interesting and endearing they can be. They are the perfect species to observe behaviour of, simply because you can get relatively close to them without them worrying about your presence. I saw an opportunity and took it. The neighbours may have thought I was odd hiding behind the sheets hanging in the garden to dry. Little did they know I was stalking our regular house sparrows and blue tits and watching them devour the fat balls we put out.

Mr and Mrs spuggy having a bite to eat

Gorgeous little blue tit

March 1st is a special day for my family so my Mum, my Auntie and I visited a sweet little church in Challock (Website Here) where there were hundreds of snowdrops. The sun shone occasionally through fast moving clouds and in the sunlight the early daffodils were gleaming and the snowdrops were shimmering.

I'll finish off with some pretty sunset photos from a few weeks ago. I love the wavy patterns the clouds have made.

Licking the ground - odd dog with a right mucky face!

Another post in quick succession from the last one. Just had the odd 20 minutes over the last few days to add to it. Tomorrow afternoon I will set aside some time to read everyone else's blogs and see what you have all been up to! I hope all my readers are well :)

Progression

The past week I have managed to take a huge amount of photos and haven't had the time to put any of them on here!

Something I have focused on with my photography recently is the development of different flowers in the garden and the insects which enjoy the flowers. My first example is the alliums, photos of which I included in my last post. It has been great to see the flower open up from the outside florets to the inside florets. The process could be described as a slow motion botanical Mexican wave! I think it would be fascinating to use time lapse photography to see this in action.

4th June

6th June

12th June

13th June

13th June

 

Another of the flowers in our garden came as a bit of a surprise. In the garden of the house I grew up in we had lots of red hot pokers. Mum apparently dug one up and brought it with us. Up until this year it had shown no signs of flowering. Cool plants that come in a variety of shades according to wiki! Their genus is actually Kniphofia and they were named after German physician and botanist Johann Hieronymus Kniphof. They also go by the names tritoma, torch lily, knofflers and poker plants.  

12th June

13th June

14th June

18th June

19th June

Not only have these vibrant flowers been developing, but also the housemartin's nest. They only started building it about 3 weeks ago and already they have pretty much completed it! Tremendous birds!

Progress by 13th June

Alongside the flowers already mentioned, the foxgloves are bringing yet more colour to the garden and the honeysuckle ensures that every time I open the back door my nostrils are filled with their gloriously sweet scent.

13th June

14th June

I shall finally leave you with some evening light and sunset photos from last Thursday...

Amazing how quickly the colours strewn across the sky can change!

Anyway I shall leave it there and will hopefully get another post in with more of my backlog of photos before I head to Glastonbury next week!

Thanks for reading :)

Sunshine and flowers

A common theme of my last few posts is sunshine and warmth! The garden is looking green and springlike and the flowers are vibrant and beautiful. There are possibly thousands of bees, all buzzing around the top of the eucalyptus tree and around the laurel bush. Bracken keeps chasing them and eating them. This doesn't bode well for the arrival of wasps as I think he will get a nasty surprise when he catches one of those!

 

There have been quite a few birds around, including blackcaps which we heard and caught a brief glimpse of. Also a lone red kite which is unusual to see down here. A very common visitor while I was at Uni in Reading, but a very welcome sighting over the house! I had almost forgotten how stunning they were! 

There have also been some more dramatic sunsets which I have captured leaning out of my Mum's bedroom window...

Bracken has had fun playing in the garden today, and meanwhile I have been using my old skills that I learnt in GCSE Resistant Materials to make a new bird feeder...

.... It was meant to look kind of abstract. I thought it might look more interesting with uneven sides. I hope the blackbirds and robins etc find the tasty meal worm morsels that I have put out for them!

Our afternoon walk was really warm again, shorts and t-shirt weather still! It seems we have a pair of kestrels that look like they have set up home in the small area of woodland behind our house. Fab!! They were being extremely vocal, which is the only way we knew they were there, as they were well camouflaged! 

Finally when I went upstairs to draw the curtains this evening I was instantly dazzled by a bright pink sun, which was just setting beyond horizontal fluffy clouds.

That is all for now folks. It is my birthday in a few days and I'm hoping all the bluebells will be at their best! This time next week I shall be on a plane to Montana! Very much looking forward to seeing my cousin James and celebrating his graduation, and also for our short trip to Yellowstone, which I am incredibly excited for!!

So until next time, thank you for reading :)