Sandwich Bay

Tuesday October 16

Some heavy rain sometime during the night should have cut down on the moth numbers .  77 of 22 species was surprising. New for here were, Palpita Vitrealis, Scarce Bordered Straw, Pine Carpet, and Turnip. 

Having entered the fast route into the SatNav, the journey to Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory was fraught. Most of it was narrow, single track without passing places, through the North Downs. A thick brown leaf cover on the track and overhanging trees forming a dark tunnel cutting out the sun, did not improve the unease. Very fortunately, we only met two cars, both near a wider verge. It was a relief to reach the coastal plain. And.... we are well accustomed to narrow single track roads in the Hebrides.

The Observatory is on a private estate where we had to pay a toll to enter. Only £1 to a very pleasant man who also gave us directions. Parking in front of the entrance, we immediately spotted someone emptying the rubbish, holding a Robinson trap over a dustbin. Yes, they’d just finished emptying two traps which had been set out in the car park overnight.  We were invited into the large shed where the warden, Stefan, the trap man who is the bird ringer and a woman who turned out to be Vice Chairman at the Obs. She was checking identification of the special moths in the pots beside her. We were made very welcome, they even rummaged through the egg boxes to see if there was anything of interest for us. 

A Deep Brown Dart certainly was. 

Unfortunately, we didn’t mention L Album Wainscot which is common here. The pots contained: Plumed Fanfoot, Gem, Blair’s Mocha, Small Mottled Willow, Golden Twinspot and a Spolella recurvelis. Apart from the Willow, all new for us.

Golden Twinspot

Plumed Fanfoot

Scarce bordered Straw

Oak Rustic

Blair's Mocha

(Apologies for the truly appalling photographs of good moths. Dark shed, filthy pots.)

An interesting spider.......

Pam wanted a coffee, Stefan stopped to chat. He’d trained at the UEA, been a helper at Bardsey for three years, volunteered at Sandwich during time off and then got a job here. He was made warden a few months ago. We were invited to return whenever we wanted. We want.

After a drive to Pegwell Bay, where  we couldn’t find anywhere to park overlooking the sea, we returned to the cottage by a very much more acceptable route.