The Lyons Share

I've been feeling a little tired recently so I thought I would go for a gentle stroll at Malling for an hour looking for beetles and leave it at that today. I did see quite a few beetles, four species that I had not seen before including this camera shy Silpha laevigata. It wasn't until I got home that I realised it was hiding under Round-headed Rampion leaves (in Sussex, it wouldn't be just some common plant!). I was wandering along thinking about how much more relaxed beetling is compared to twitching birds and wondered whether my twitching days are over. I spotted four of these funny little beetles that I have also seen at Southerham, it's Opatrum sabulosum. I also found a Pancalia that looked remarkably like schwarzella, will need to get that one checked too though.

I got home, logged on to BirdGuides and within five minutes I was back in the car hurtling towards Arundel WWT to twitch the Little Crake, which I was looking at within an hour and just goes to show how fickle I am. My first bird tick (and even vertebrate tick)  for some time. Got brief but OK views and thanks to Jacob Everitt for letting me use a photo, take a look at Jacob's blog for great photos of rare birds and more. The sound of a plopping Water Vole right underneath me did make me think that something expensive had fallen out of my pocket. I finished the day on 3225 species.