Monday 13th September

A long overdue visit to Ditton was fairly quiet. The scrubby areas here look to have great potential but the site is small, seems not to be on a flyaway and is quite heavily disturbed so I've not done too bad to have Black Redstart, Hawfinch and Mealy Redpoll in the past! Today's avian highlights were a Bullfinch, Sparrowhawk, Whitethroat and a tit flock consisting of Long-tailed, Blue and Great Tits with what was presumably a Chiffchaff in tow.



With not much on the bird front I concentrated on what was on the ground. A Common Lizard was found in the usual spot in the SW corner and a Migrant Hawker was flying despite the spitting rain. There were large colonies of mushrooms, especially under the Silver Birches including those photographed below:




Also a couple of new plant species for me; Wind Eyebright(Euphrasia nemorosa) and an unidentified Campanula sp.




Moving onto Easterfields, East Malling, large flocks of corvids (Rooks, Jackdaws, Crows) and Pigeons (Stock and Collared Doves, no Turtles today, and Wood and Feral Pigeons)were feeding on the recently flayed field. I hoped for a passerine amongst them but could only locate 2x Pied Wagtails.



Back at work, evidence of a roaming Badger on one of the headlands.