Non-stop Birding Review 2024- July to December

 Here's a photo summary of the second half of 2024 on this blog which documents day to day wildlife, nature and conservation news from our endeavours at Little Oak Group.  January to June photo highlights HERE

JULY

We spent most of the month on family holiday in Australia visiting Holly's aunt and cousins and exploring. Ebird trip report HERE. Got to be one of my favourite foreign trips and already planning on going back. A few highlights included the Black Cockatoos including Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo (above) and Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo (below) 

Galah- depsite being common, still stunning

Western Spinebill - one of the 17 or so endemic species in Western Australia 

Wedge-tailed Eagle

Another highlight was visiting Broome Bird Observatory, one of the best locations on the planet for waders. Despite being out of season there were still several thousand birds around. Spot the Asian Dowitcher (above) 

Absolutely loved the mammal watching in Australia. Short-beaked Echidna (above) and Quokka (below) 

Western Grey Kangaroos 

Top of the target list was Saltwater Crocodile

An added focus of Jacob's and mine trip north to Broome was finding the famous dinosaur footprints of the region 

Isaac had a good time too

AUGUST

This month we were back to Little Oak Lodge for the start of autumn migration. Having flocks of hirundines on our garden wires was magical

Local birding highlight was this cracking adult summer Semipalmated Sandpiper on the Ferry Pool found by the local vicar

Plenty of other local autumn migrants including a good showing of Spotted Flycatchers 

Garden mothing highlights included this Starry Pearl- not a bad one for the garden list! 

Other garden mothing highlights included Oak Eggars (above), Yellow-legged Clearwing (below) and Beautiful Marbled (below that) 

In Augsust we also published the latest Portuguese Rarities Report which includes all the latest Azores records 

SEPTEMBER

There was great local birding in September, the highlight was this cracking adult male Red-backed Shrike at Church Norton 

Osprey over the garden was nice 

Plenty of autumn waders in the harbour including Whimbrels (above)

White-tailed Eagle over Pagham Harbour was a September highlight 

Meanwhile in the garden moth trap there were plenty of new moths and highlights including Blair's Mocha (above) and Marbled Fern (below) 

A trip to Corvo in late September (the 20th aniversarry of Corvo birding) produced some nice highlights including Trindade Petrel (above), Red-eyed Vireo (below) and Semipalmated Sandpiper (below that- a nice juv to compare with the Pagham adult above) 

First-winter male Bay-breasted Warbler - another highlight of the trip 

OCTOBER

A trip to the Bulgaria project in mid-October was a time of year we hadn't visited before. Black Redstarts (above) were more or less everywhere

Firecrest at Cape Kaliakra (above) and Black Stork over Kamen Bryag (below) 

Grey-headed Woodpecker at Kamen Bryag was a new species for the  Ebird hotspot 

The main purpose of the visit was to carry on with creating the wildlife pond on the project plot. Need to return in Spring 2025 to finish this off. 

Meanwhile back at Little Oak Lodge we compelted the garden office and the garden shed. Garden birding highlights included a flock of 8 of so Hawfinches regularly flying over the garden.  

October garden moth trapping highlights included this Echium Slender (above), a 2nd for West Sussex and plenty of migrants and local specialiites including Flame Brocade and Radford's Flame Shoulder (below) 

NOVEMBER

The theme of November was the crytallising winter scenes with Brent Geese flocks and other waterbirds arriving locally and filling up the harbours 

There seemed to be plenty of Dartford Warblers (above) and Rock Pipits (below) around 

White-speck was the highlight of the garden mothing(above with a Large Wainscot) 

DECEMBER

The birding highlight of the month (so far) was this Black Brant, once again found by the local vicar (he is doing something right, I might need to start going to church if I want to find something good round here) 

Pretty-barred White- a first for West Sussex. Nice to find a mega moth (and also had a 2nd for the county in October and plenty of other rarities). The goal for 2025 is to actually find a decent local bird which so far I have skillfully managed to not achieving. 

The local population of Cattle Egrets appeared to disperse across the Peninsula with flocks visible from the main road feeding amongst the local livestock 

Little Oak Lodge Update

We've been slowly making our way through the landscape design works for the green space at home. Since we've moved in we've completed the main raised beds, built the garden office and garden shed, planted nearly 200 trees as a perimter hedgerow, planted a few fruit trees, set up the bird feeding station, dug out the car parking area planting beds, set up the composting areas, set up the log sheds and filled them up, set up the herb garden and this week Matt and I cleared out the ditch in the front of the property and dug out the planting beds in the front garden.

Nice to actually see the stream in the ditch after clearing it all out and cutting down the roadside. Hopefully we can encourage more water plants in here

Next jobs to do is erect bird boxes (particularly House Sparrow boxes) and will then probably have to focus on jet spraying and re-pointing the patio and cleaning the conservatory (boring stuff). Will have to find the money from somewhere to plant up the beds we've dug although I might go heavy on the bulbs this year before a more permanent planting scheme. I might start growing stuff from seed to save money although will need to buy a greenhouse for that or annex the Conservatory.  Later in the winter/early Spring we can sow the wildflower meadows and plant up the raised beds (at the moment got winter broccoli, sprouts and onion sets).

Ultimately the goal is to increase biodiversity and carbon storage on site in addition to developing a bit of self-sufficiency with food growing and home energy production (the logs from our tree surgery business waste). Been setting the biodiversity monitoring baselines this year with the moth trapping on irecord and ebird garden recording. Should be able to quantify any biodiversity gains.  

Jacob filling up the feeders 

Been using the long winter's nights to get through some project work. Just finished writing a couple of papers on Azores Pelagics and David, Vince, Pedro and I are just beginning our 20 year review for Corvo for Dutch Birding and Birdwatch Magazine. Arjun has got through the Ebird and Rarities Report Data to add to the Azores Bird List log and today I got through the latest batch of Portuguese Rarity Committee votes. Also been getting through some work on the Beddington Farmlands campaign being led by Tony from the Wandle Forum. Dimiter was at the Bulgaria project site in the week and reports that our wildlife pond is holding up which is handy! Also been getting ready to shut down the Tree and Garden business for a week over Xmas and sorting out the end of year figures and the annual reports etc.  The background to our project and business framework is HERE. 

On the subject of work that's been interesting lately as we've done a few jobs for the London Wildlife Trust and have a job at the London Wetland Centre early next year and more London Wildlife Trust jobs too. I was doing the annual figures this week and things seem to be holding up pretty well.     

So seem to be getting there. Despite all the work it all seems a bit depressing out there so very pleased that it's the winter solstice tomorrow and we start heading towards Spring and the emergence of more colours and life. In order to brighten things up a bit I treated myself to an early xmas present of giving the campervan a paint job and body work makeover and got some internal repairs done. 

Almost good as new! 

Pagham Harbour- Goldeneye

I did East side this morning from dawn to high tide (around mid-day). 75 species of over 8000 individuals in nearly four hours. Ebird list HERE. Highlight was a female Goldeneye on Pagham Lagoon (the first I've seen here since I first started birding on a day trip in 1987). There was also 3 Sandwich Tern, 3 Marsh Harrier, a Peregrine, 2 Rock Pipit, Dartford Warbler and Firecrest.  

Noteable no shows today were most of the Brent Geese (about 3000 probably staying at the fields at Church Norton), Song Thrush, Redwing and Fieldfare (very few on the Peninsula it seems), hardly any Little Egrets in the harbour and I presumably just got unlucky not seeing Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Kingfisher, Yellowhammer, Grey Wagtail, Greenshank, Spotted Redshank and Whimbrel. I didn't bother doing Ferry so there would have been Shoveler and Avocet there too. So hyperthetically from my rough estimate there are over 11,000 birds in the harbour of at least 85 species.  

Only one Bar-tailed Godwit from what I could see. I picked up some Cattle Egrets in the cattle fields on Lockgate Road. The Cattle Egrets have been scattered around the Peninsula recently mainly in fields off the Selsey Road with groups of up to 35. 

Also had a Common Seal. I usually forgot to report these but often have two or three from East side. 

A mild spell has resumed now so I had the moth trap out last night. 11 December moths was all I had. Another Levant Blackneck was caught last night, this time in Surrey so I'll try again tonight in hope.

Female Goldeneye

Golden Plovers (above and below). At least 1000 on the mud and got to have been 4000 or so Lapwings. 

Rock Pipit- I'm looking forward to see what these birds look like in Spring. This for example is already quite contrasting with a strong supercilium. 

Cattle Egrets out in the Peninsula fields. They seem to have dispersed from the breeding area by the North Wall and Halseys Farm and are getting all over the place. I even had one when I went to pick up the Campervan (which has a very tidy makeover). Seen them up as far as Hunston on the Peninsula and see them most days now while driving up Selsey Road to Chichester. 

Female December moth (above) and male and female (below) . The female is larger, has different markings and does not have feathered antennae.