Walking the dogs this morning I came upon a curious little bird that was racing up and down the muddy edge of a pond and abruptly stopping to have a look at me
I'd no idea what it was and so took a few long-range snaps
I hadn't noticed its bright yellow spectacles until I looked at the photographs
My Observer's Book of Birds tells me it's a Little Ringed Plover "a rare vagrant now become a Summer visitor".
Not far from this chap I found several Common Blues which have now fully emerged here
Whilst watching the Blues I heard a Cuckoo and a Turtle Dove calling, so all in all a very pleasant start to my day!
Perhaps it was finding a Little Ringed Plover that prompted me to go down to Dungeness, although it wasn't rare birds that I was interested in but rather butterflies and in particular the Small Coppers.
I found the place in full bloom
And certainly there are Small Coppers to be found amongst the flowers as you can see, but those still present are rather worn and fewer in number
But those left still ornament the flowers
Nonetheless,there has been a "changing of the guard" at Dungeness for just as this first generation of Small Coppers is now in its dog days, so the Common Blues have taken over and are now plentiful
I also found this poor one which although able to fly had deformed wings
In addition to the numerous Common Blues I saw several Small Heaths
A Small Whites, 2 pristine Small Tortoiseshells, a Peacock
(which despite its condition was flying strongly!) 2 Red Admirals and, best surprise of all, 4 Painted Ladies
It seems there's some migration going on.
Back home I found 2 Red Admirals in the garden
So the day started with a Little Ringed Plover then went on to include Common Blues in profusion, my first Painted Ladies of the year and encouraging numbers of Red Admirals compared with last year: very nice!