POOCH IN THE PINK

Cheeky chappy Ben enjoyed taking a breather beside this colourful patch of sea pink plants on the saltmarsh along the Strood seawall on Friday 22nd.

Male yellow wagtails were singing at either end of the seawall walk, this one on a bush at the Strood Hill end, while nearer the caravan site another male was singing from some telegraph wires beside a pond at the back of the fields.

One cuckoo was calling from the trees on Ray Island and then later was seen flying with a second cuckoo, presumably a female, both crossing the Channel and then over the Strood fields to the caravan site, the male calling continuously as it flew.

Other birds noted were one sedge warbler, 4 singing reed warblers, one singing corn bunting, 3 singing reed buntings all along the dyke, 35+ stock doves feeding in the fields, one oystercatcher seemingly nesting in the bare field, pair of Mediterranean gulls passed over, 15+ swifts, 20+ swallows, pair of little terns on the mud in the Channel, pair of avocets, 5 ringed plover, four common terns hawking up and down, male pochard in flight and a sparrowhawk on the Ray.

Crawling along the top of the seawall was a group of 30+ caterpillars that looked like those of the ground lackey. Normally they would be on the nearby saltmarsh feeding on the various plants there, not going walkabout in single-file.

Clouds drifted across from the west in the early evening, leaving the sun to shine through one or two gaps in the clouds onto the Strood Channel.