Autumn picking up

Trying to get back into the routine of spending Monday in the field now that autumn is picking up. After doing the moths I checked out Ferry (one single Black-headed Gull on this sorry looking state), Mill Pond Marsh and I then went over to east side and checked out North Wall, White's Creek, East side and Pagham Spit. Ebird list HERE, 67 species of over 1000 birds, highlights including two adult and one juvenile Yellow-legged Gull and thirteen wader species including a summer plumage Spotted Redshank in White's Creek and Greenshank, Green and Common Sandpiper at Mill Pond Marsh. Also had my first Shovelers of the autumn at Mill Pond Marsh where there were also some Teal and a family party of eleven Gadwall. 

There were a couple of mixed autumn passerines flocks too with Long-tailed and Blue Tits carrying a few Chiffchaffs and Reed and Sedge Warblers and a few family parties of Whitethroats about while a few Sand Martins and Swallows were migrating through. All in all, what with the blustery south west wind and all the migrants, today felt like the first proper day of autumn. 

The moth traps were busy last night with over 300 individuals of around 120 species. Highlights included a Hook-tip Grass moth (a lifer) and the first Pine Carpet for the year. Now 585 for the garden and 461 for the year. 

Juvenile Yellow-legged Gull

Black-tailed Godwits 

The main theme of the harbour is still large flocks of Med and Black-headed Gulls and the racous tern colonies 

Ringed Plover- intersesting that this one has quite a well defined orange orbital ring 

Juvenile Sedge Warbler 

Hook-tip Grass Moth, Platytes alpinella- a lifer. Not too  many records in West Sussex by the looks of it HERE

Pine Carpet 

Weekend

A bit of an artery hardening weekend with mainly shopping yesterday, chores this morning and then a school choir concert this afternoon. Managed to get out to have a look at the terns at Church Norton on Saturday for a couple of hours- still no Roseate Tern for me but still a spectacle there.

A few new moths but overall the number of moths has dropped off significantly despite the current heatwave. However the winds are pretty local and with some easterly in them so not too many migrants and the nights are very clear. Garden list now on 583 and year list 455. Aiming for 600 and 500 respectively by the end of this year with any luck. 

A couple of weeks away from a road trip to France with the family so counting down the days for the next adventure. The birding seems to be picking up on the Peninsula too with a big movement/arrival of Sand Martins and some Barn Swallows over the North Wall and quite a few new waders in including the first Spotted Redshank at Breach Pool this morning. Hoping to get out tomorrow to have a day in the field. 

Brown-veined Wainscot- a new for year

The concert was at Bishop Palace Garden at Chichester Cathedral which is really nice garden with some fantastic trees

Meanwhile back at our humble abode some of the socialist architecture softening gardening is beginning to make a difference to the front of the house with the help of some Gladioli and Lillies, the small tree planting and the climbers and trellis on the front of the house which hopefully will cover the front wall eventually. The caravan air bnb is more or less booked up every weekend now which is good. 

Bits and bobs in the week

I managed to get out birding a couple of times this week locally. The highlights have been the booming tern and gull colony at Church Norton and the beginning of wader passage at Mill Pond Marsh. I've still not managed to connect with the Roseate Tern that keeps appearing at Church Norton but the sight of the hundreds of Sandwich Terns, Little and Common Terns and hundreds of Med Gulls is incredible. 

The RSPB estimate about 100 breeding pairs of Sandwich Tern and 35 breeding pairs of Little Terns (More here) with many young already fledged but it's been a late start to the season and still plenty of juveniles to fledge.

Meanwhile at Mill Pond Marsh there has been one or two Green and Common Sandpipers, a Greenshank and up to 9 Blackwits. Sand Martins are also on the move at the moment with several over the garden and seen across flying over other areas of the Peninsula including Mill Pond Marsh. 

The moth trap has been the main focus of interest still with plenty of highlights this week. I made a couple of moth trapping investments this week, first a new Robinson's trap to go with the twin-actinic electrics I already have and I finally took the plunge and bought a Lepiled which has arrived but is missing a bit so not tested it yet. Now on 580 for the garden and 445 for the year. 

Also been getting on with work around the Lodge. Matt was here yesterday and worked on the roof , clearing the gutters, sanding down the fascias ready for painting next week and also did the lawns and a bit on the mini-farm. 

Sandwich and Common Terns and Med and Black-headed Gulls at Church Norton

Plenty of juvenile birds around including Med Gulls 

There was an emergence of flying ants over the garden yesterday morning which attracted hundreds of Med and Black-headed Gulls. Apparantely the flying ant swarms only occur in mid July during temperatures above 22 C and light breeze. Winged virgin Queens and winged males take to the air to meet and mate and then the Queens go off to start a new ant colony- the males go off to die. The females are larger than the males. 

Moth highlight of the week was this Crescent Striped - a lifer

Large Clothes Moth- another lifer

Another Bright Wave

Drinker- new for year and always great to see

According to Obsidentify this is likely to be a Channel Islands Pug? It does seem to show the elongated discal spot. 120725 update- yes confirmed by CMR. Another lifer. 

The Ni Moth lure is consistently attracting Dewick's Plusia- up to three and also a few Silver-Ys. No Ni moth yet.

Plumed Fan-foot appeared for the first time this week for the year

The new (second) Robinson's. Can run two Robinson's a night now, one an MV and one twin-actinic. Once I get the Lepiled going will be able to run three traps. 

View from the scaffolding while its still up . Might have to try one of the moth traps up here. 

So the goose comes with us everywhere now 

Knepp Wilding

I finally got the chance to visit Knepp Wilding yesterday. I drive past it on my way to and from London but rarely have the time but I finished early yesterday so took the opportunity. I only had time to walk the Purple Emperor route but it was a nice introduction.

It's July and it was sunny and windy so birds were quiet, Ebird list HERE and the butterflies were mainly keeping to the sheltered areas too. 

I was hoping to have dinner there and buy some produce but the shop shut at 5pm. Must remember in future that the shop is open 9-5, the cafe is open from 9-11 for breakfast and then lunch at 11-4 (last orders 3pm) and the restuarant 12-4 (Wednesdays to Sundays only). Will stop off again as it's literally a 5 minute diversion from my normal route. More interested in trying the beef than seeing most of the wildlife (pretty standard stuff anywhere else in Europe but wonderful to see in the UK).

More about Knepp HERE 

Purple Emperor (above and below)- looks like a female with no purple sheen despite various angles and also looks like the white markings are extensive too. Females are generally very elusive so if it is a female it was quite lucky to get a decent photo. This was only one of two I saw, the other presumably a male, glided across a ride in the high canopy. It was a record year for Emperors at Kneep this year with 283 recorded on a single day, national media story about that HERE. Purple Emperors are most active from around 11am to the early afternoon so I was pretty lucky seeing any on a late afternoon/early evening walk.

Purple Hairstreak- plenty of these 

Painted Lady

Gatekeeper was the most numerous butterfly species - also had a presumed Silver-washed Fritillary dashing past and good numbers of common butterflies- Comma, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood, Small and Large Whites, my first Ringlets of the year, Meadow Brown. 

White Storks of course (above and below)

Fallow Deer

White Storks over Knepp

Wilded habitat over Knepp. Great to see but rather alarming that semi-natural habitat should be such a novelty in the UK, this extensively managed scrub habitat is widespread in places like Bulgaria. It would be interesting to see a Bulgarian's reaction to paying £110 (220 lev) to go on a safari through this kind of habitat to see Turtle Doves and Nightingales (roadside and garden birds there) or to pay £175 (350 lev- half a week's wages) for a pasture to plate meal- basically garden pork and veg is pretty standard for rural living Bulgarians.  Interesting that basic habitat and standard of living for everyone a century or two ago is now high end luxury- nearly two centuries of Capitalism has in many ways made everyone poorer. Let's hope that with western national debt deficits at nearly 100 percent to GDP, the populists like Trump gutting out democracy, driving inequality, creating an extremely volatile financial system (the Big Beautiful Bill should tip the scales by creating too much of a a wealth inbalance in the US with rich getting richer and the poor poorer, tensions there will surely boil over?) and the whole world being able to see clearly now that Zionist lobbied western systems are relying on mass child killing in Gaza to sustain themselves all set to the background of escalating climate chaos and ecological meltdown... let's hope that the end to this system cycle is near. With the AI singularity predicted to be reached by 2030 which also coincides with global 2030 agenda targets ( from e.g. the World Economic Forum), there's some hope that we are edging closer to escalating system collapse and regeneration.  Can only hope that the AIs build in Knepp style farming systems across Europe and the UK in a more effective way than the increasingly watered down EU-exit agricultural reform bills, less influenced from the lobbying powers of the NFU and corrupted human political algorithms.  

The market garden at Knepp- absolutely buzzing with insects

KNEPP WILDING

Dissection Results

Mike Bailey has kindly and expertly got through the latest batch of moths I collected for dissection in June from Little Oak Lodge. The results were interesting and confirmed a few field identification including Small Grass Veneer, Platytes cerussella, the Brown Bagworm, Taleporia tubulosa, Four-spotted Yellowneck, Oegonconia quadripuncta, Teasle Marble, Endothenia gentianaeana, Sallow Tortrix, Acleris hastiana, Lettuce tortrix, Eucosma conterminana, Dark-streaked Tortrix, Acleris umbrana and also confirmed some Rustic and Marbled Minor specimens. 

There were also some new for garden species including Common Lance, Bactra lancalana, Thistle-case Bearer, Coleophora peribenanderi, Clothed Case-bearer, Coleophora mayrella, Common Grey Tortrix, Cnephasia stephensiana, Yellow-oak Case-bearer, Coleophora flavipennella, Black-streaked Tortrix, Epinotia signatana and Large Grey, Scoparia subfusca.

Thanks Mike for some fascinating results. Full on rabbit hole mode. Garden list now on 574 and year list 436. 

Common Lance, Bactra lancalana

Four-spotted Yellowneck, Oegonconia quadripuncta

Yellow-oak Case-bearer, Coleophora flavipennella

Thistle-case Bearer, Coleophora peribenanderi 

Black-streaked Tortrix, Epinotia signatana. There were several field identifications already suggested for various sources, all different to the final id. 

Lettuce tortrix, Eucosma conterminana

Common Grey Tortrix, Cnephasia stephensiana

Teasle Marble, Endothenia gentianaeana

..and a couple of recent micros which I don't think need dissection- Elegia similella (above) and Honeysuckle Grey, Athrips mouffetella (below) which is a lifer I think

Weekend round up

There was a surprise pulse of moth migration on Friday night in a westerly wind with the third Striped Hawkmoth this summer, a Dewick's Plusia and a few Diamond-backs and a single Rusty-dot Pearl. Last night was a lot quieter. I was woken up at 430am by the rain and had to bolt outside to put the moth trap under cover- I had completely forgotten that rain was even a thing. 

The rest of the weekend was spent doing the usual family stuff. We visited a new attraction today- Aldingbourne Country Centre. The kids loved it as it was a mix of farm animals and kids activities but a bit of an act of martyrdom for the parents.  

 

Striped Hawkmoth (above and below) 

Another stampede of Elephant Hawkmoths. 12 today with double figures most days this summer with up to 23 in a night. Clearly something going on as they are one of the most numerous species in the trap and clearly having a fantastic year. 

Dewick's Plusia- always a treat

Rosy striped Knot-horn- a chalk specialist on it's wanderings 

Dark Streaked Tortrix,  A.umbrana. A lifer I do believe

Obsidentify has this as Agonopterix propinquella which seems to fit 

Olive 

Have invested in 100 more specimen pots for the dissections- been stacks of micros in the last few weeks waiting for identifications

View from the scaffolding over the back garden with Kyle's Emus in the background