RSPB Dungeness, Kent

Dungeness is a strange place but yet full of wildlife and also the the first reserve the RSPB opened. Its quite a large area with wetland, shingle and scrub habitat ideal for species like reptiles, waders and migrant birds.

i was mainly after one of these, the wasp spider a non native species that comes in on ships so often found in coastal areas. i'd heard they were on the reserve but never found one until i asked a local birder who told me to look near the ARC hide car park and sure enough found this large female! he also mentioned seeing a sand lizard though i didn't see any.

Hidden in the scrub was the this beauty a hawk moth catapillar.

the hazard of taking images on a bank holiday is lots of people are around so while creeping up on this marsh frog some kids ran over and spooked it!

This common blue butterfly was the highlight of my day with such vibrant colours though tricky to get close to.

An apology to Marsh Frogs

In a earlier post i mentioned that marsh frogs were out competing our native frogs but after i had a walk along the royal military canal in kent found a healthy population of both common and marsh frogs there. it also seems that the local grass snakes have greatly benefited from the marsh frogs as a extra food source!

I'm not advocating the release of non native species at all but it seems these little frogs actually benefit a lot or our wildlife including some of the rarer species.

i took a trip to dungeness in Kent and its no coincidence that the bitterns breeding there, purple herons showing up and other amphibian loving birds all do very well at this site because of the marsh frogs for a food source.

even in romney marsh where rare species like medical leeches and great crested newts can be found are benefiting from the marsh frogs with the leeches sucking there blood and newts eating the tadpoles.

so from the bottom of my heart sorry marsh frogs!...

... but not to sorry they still have the potential to spread Chytrid a deadly amphibian fungus and at the end of day shouldn't be in Britain but if they are here may as well enjoy them!

Kent

Visiting Kent over the weekend i took the chance to do the odd shoot in a few places. i found kent a very strange place to take pictures in as its a very falt county but has enormous amounts of natural beauty.

on the first day i visited Dymchurch a large beach with a good population of black headed gulls

afterwards i went along romney marsh in search of a invasive the marsh frog. they were introduced from hungry in the 1930s and have since spread across large parts of the south east. they are twice the size of native frogs and as well as out competing them tend to eat them!

on the way back i came across this unusual dragonfly not sure on the species but lovely coloration

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