Non-stop Birding July to December 2023 Review

Here's the second half of this year in pictures. As usual this blog logs the activity on projects which are part of Little Oak Group HERE. 

 JULY

A mid-summer visit to the Bulgaria project in July was mainly focusing on moth trapping. Birding highlight was this fantastic juvenile Eagle Owl. 

Breeding birds on our project plot included Golden Oriole (above dog fighting a Roller), Turtle Doves (below) and Nightingales. 

Moth trapping highlights included these great looking Bulgarian rarities; Black and white Dart (above) and Candlestick Dart (below) 

Nice to finally catch up with Goat Moth in Bulgaria 

This stunning tiny longhorn moth, Neomorpha fasciella was another moth highlight from the Bulgaria trip

The big July news from back home at the Old Vicarage was that the estate went up for sale ahead of our move to a coastal homestead next year. A surprisingly poor month for moths due to lots of rain and wind but we did get a few highlights including the Reed Smudge (below) 

Summer holidays started at the end of July so we headed out to Gran Canaria for a family holiday. In between the foam parties and sandcastles I managed to do a bit of birding and twitched Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch (above) - arguably the rarest breeding bird in the WP. 

African Blue Tit (above) and Plain Swift (below) were great to see on Gran Canaria

Gran Canaria Giant Lizard was a herping lifer 

Gran Canaria landscape

Holiday shirts all round 

AUGUST

The weather improved a bit in August and had some good moths including our first Beautiful Marbled at the Old Vic (above) 

Blair's Mocha on a family trip to Selsey was another lifer 

It was a good month for Underwings with Blue Underwing/ Clifden Nonpariel (above), Red Underwing (below) and Dark Crimson Underwing (below that with another Red Underwing) 

Portland Ribbon Wave was another July moth lifer on Selsey 

The Old Vic mini-farm in August 

SEPTEMBER 

A few good garden moths in August included this stunning Convolvulus Hawkmoth 

A night's moth trapping at Beddington added a new species to the local moth list- Cydia interscindana

Dewick's Plusia at the Old Vic was a good one and there was also a good run of Delicates (below) 

It was back to the Bulgaria project in late September with Arjun and Roger. Highlights included River Warbler (above) which was an overdue lifer . We recorded 179 bird species during the two week trip Trip report HERE, Later we also added Little Bittern, Firecrest, Ortolan and Night Heron from the noc-mig. 

Roger and I took a short trip within a trip down to Burgas where the migration was fantastic. Little Gull (above) and Great White Pelicans (below) 

Penduline Tit (above) and Gull-billed Tern (below) in Burgas

Arjun found a couple of fantastic birds in Kamen Bryag - Caspian Stonechat (above) and the 2nd Dusky Warbler for Bulgaria (below) 

We did a bit of ringing with Pavel at Branta Birding Lodge- this beefy male Spanish Sparrow was fantastic

Pavel and Arjun at Branta Birding Lodge ringing station 

The moth trapping at the Bulgaria project site was fantastic with several Bulgarian rarities discovered which will be the subject of a data paper for the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences . By the end of the trip the project site moth list was on 316 species HERE

Willowherb Yellow Underwing was one of the moth highlights 

We also made some good progress with the habitat improvements at the project site with the base for the pond excavated 

OCTOBER

A good period of moth migration resulted in Scarce Bordered Straw at the Old Vic and a nice haul of rarities at Portland including Banded Sable (second below) and Dark Mottled Willow (below) 

Birding highlight of the year was a trip to Corvo with David. Absolutely epic. On our first day we caught this Grey-cheeked Thrush. Trip report HERE. A few other highlights below. 

Grey Catbird- mega! 

This Surf Scoter flying over fields was a surreal sight 

Philadelphia, Red-eyed and White eyed Vireo (above, below and below that respectively) 

David found this gorgeous Bay-breasted Warbler 

I found this gorgeous Wood Thrush 

American Bittern was an overdue WP lifer and a real stunner to boot 

Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Nice to find this Common Yellowthroat

Eastern Wood Pewee (above) and Adult Yellow-crowned Night Heron (below) 

One of the most amazing things on Corvo was the number of catharus thrushes present- Swainson's Thrush (above) 

An unresolved identification issue concerns this apparent American Moorhen- more to follow on this 

The moth trapping was a bit dissappointing on Corvo (but only had a travel LED). Slender Burnished Brass (above) was nice to see as usual and Chevron Snout (below) was a lifer .

NOVEMBER

We published the latest Azores Rare Bird Report HERE and also published a summary of the Corvo 2023 epic birding season on Birdguides HERE

Attended the Natural Eye Exhibition with Dingers in November 

Did some work on American Moorhen identification at Tring 

Had a welcome surprise in the November moth trap- a late Olive-tree Pearl 

DECEMBER

December was a month of goodbyes with finally moving out of the Old Vicarage (above) and also saying goodbye to Mike Netherwood (below) 

After getting settled in our temporary rental home I did a bit of local exploring at the adjacent Cuttlebrook Nature Reserve and saw a few nice local bits including this Great Egret feeding on flooded fields by the rental house