Baldbirder: Ross Newham

Turkestan Shrike at Dunwich Heath NR - a stunning wee chap! #RareBirdsUK #SuffolkBirding

Whinchat at East Malling Resaerch Station this lunchtime - has been knocking about with a few Stonechats this week. #KentBirding @kentishplover.bsky.social #birding

Red-breasted Fly showed well, but briefly, in South View garden at Dungeness this lunchtime. #KentBirding #RareBirdsUK

Clouded Yellow (F) and Common Blue at East Malling this week - enjoying some wildflower-smothered headlands. Best we enjoy them for last few weeks we have them! #KentNature #UKButterflies

Lesser Grey Shrike (Winterton) and Lesser Yellowlegs (Etton Maxey) - a great double-act in the sun today. #RareBirdsUK

Nice alula you got there Rachel.

Kentish Plover found by @seasalterbirder.bsky.social - distant by the time I got to it... #KentBirding

Lovely Grey Phalarope at Mercer CP, Surrey, after the office today. Hopefully it’ll reorientate back out to the open ocean. @rarebirder.bsky.social #UKBirding

Male Red-footed Falcon at Elmley NNR this lunchtime - a stunning little performer! #RareBirdsUK #kentbirding @rarebirder.bsky.social #UKBirding

Any thoughts on who would be interested in the specimen?

#KentNature

Tiny (3mm) Ant on the office desk this afternoon (East Malling). ObsIdentify comes up with Crematogaster scutellaris (mainly). Possibly rare: probably imported. @ianbeavis.bsky.social @kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social @kentfieldclub.bsky.social

Queen of Spain Fritillary butterfly at Pantlife's lovely Ranscombe Farm reserve, this afternoon (14:05). @plantlifeuk.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social #KentNature

A black beetle with distinctive orange shoulders, on a brick wall that has holes in the mortar. (Sitaris muralis.)

Foreground shows at least 3 black beetles with orange shoulders in a big pile. They all have weird reduced elytra that don't fully cover the wings or abdomen. Background shows another beetle. All are on concrete with sandy surface.

A very distended S. muralis in a glass tube. Abdomen is dark brown, rest of beetle is black apart from distinctive yellow-orange shoulders. Beetle is right way up but legs scrunched under it as dead.

A hole in brickwork/mortar with spider webbing forming a tunnel, in which a large dark coloured spider sits among at least 2 dead Sitaris muralis beetles.

A particular feature of the site is that is has a population of Sitaris muralis that was first noted by @baldbirder.bsky.social in 2024 and was back in force this year. The beetles parasitise nests of Anthophora plumipes. [2/]

Fun aren’t they!

Orange-shouldered Blister Beetles starting to emerge at their colony in East Malling today. #KentNature @kentfieldclub.bsky.social

A very nice find Sarah! #kentnature

Nice one!

Lovely stuff!

Lots of lovely fun and a darn sight better than the juvvy ‘Pink Stinks’ that occur more commonly in Autumn. Worth a quick evening trip…

Stunning Rose-coloured Starling at @dungenessbirdobs.bsky.social this evening - one of two great finds today by Jacob at the Obs (other being Bee-eater). #KentBirding #RareBirdsUK

Slightly late to the Hudsonian Godwit party at Titchfield Haven NNR this afternoon - ten years after my first. Very smart adult female bird that had the decency to lift her wings on a few occasions... @rarebirder.bsky.social @gnhbirder66.bsky.social #RareBirdsUK #UKBirding

Whiskered Tern on Hookers Pit, RSPB Dungeness, this evening. A super little performer! #KentBirding #RareBirdsUK @rspb.bsky.social

The Roseate Tern at Normandy Lagoons is sporting a ring - didn’t feel like a @btobirds.bsky.social ring given ‘different’ address line at the top…or perhaps I’m imagining things! #seabirds

A few caterpillars showed well yesterday, including: Small Eggar (Martin Down NNR), and Blossom Underwing, Mottled Umber and Lackey all in woods near Chiddingfold, Surrey. #TeamMoth #nature

Wood White in woodland near Chiddingfold yesterday - seemingly delicate butterflies as they tentatively investigate flower heads. #UKButterflies

Marsh Fritillary at Martin Down NNR yesterday - lots on the wing there at the moment. Always fun to see. #UKButterflies

Roseate Tern at Normandy Lagoon, Hants, yesterday putting on occasional stunning ‘fly pasts’ as it heads out to feed. #UKBirding #Seabirds

Five Red-footed Falcons yesterday evening at Carlton Marshes SWT - a bonus end to the day! #UKRareBirds

Blue-winged Teal, Spot Sand and Great Reed Warbler - a busy day in the field which started with Poms, Whimbrel, Barwits and CScoter passage at Dunge. #UKRarebirds