Long shot, hit the target, missed the bullseye

Today turned into an exciting day and then ended a frustrating day. I started off at the Bill on the Seawatch where highlights included the 'resident' male Serin which I finally managed to get a photo of, a couple of Black Terns, some late Brents, a influx of Med Gulls and a Black-throated Diver. Ebird list HERE. 

I then went to Medmerry in search of the Collared Pratincole that had flown east from Farlington a couple of days ago. As usual with these things it was a long shot but any excuse to have a nice long birding walk at Medmerry is a good enough for me. Earlier in the Spring I had spent several days looking for the Least Sandpiper on the Peninsula after it dissappeared from Hampshire and then soon after Paul and Sam found it at Medmerry so it's worth a shot when vagrants are moving in this general direction.

There were plenty of Med and Black-headed Gulls aerial feeding so I started checking the flocks for the Pratincole. I got to Stilt Pool and then decided to walk down to the breach just to look for Spring waders. As I walked along the beach I walked up the bank to keep checking the marsh and then almost unbelievably there was the Pratincole hawking over the marsh. I got the chestnut underwing and the white-trailing edge and then I quickly went for my camera to get a record shot and through the camera could see it get mobbed by a Med Gull and lost it in the view finder so switched back to bins but couldn't see it. I then put the news out and then presumed would pick it up again. I checked the single photo I took which was just a blurred shaking mess.  Three hours passed, Marc, Sarah, Paul and Ian joined the search and nothing and then I had to go back for the school run and pack for Kuwait tomorrow. Later in the afternoon several other people tried and Ian, Marc and I returned in the evening for another couple of hours and nothing again which really surprised me as I expected to quite easily see it again hawking over the marsh in the evening when the insects were lower. 

So basically, unless it's found again at Medmerry or somewhere else on the Peninsula what was originally really exciting turned into one of the worst birding scenarios- a single observer sighting of a good bird with no photo which is basically just a horrible end to an exciting occasion. Ebird list from Medmerry HERE.

The moth trap was quite lively last night with several new for years. A few photo highlights below. Now on 465 for the garden and 153 for the year. Migrants last night included the first Rush Veneer for the year, a Turnip, 5 Diamond-backs and a Rusty-dot Pearl. 

The Selsey male Serin- been around a month now. The hazy shot is due to the only rain yesterday that we've had in weeks getting into my lens. Really don't like that about this new standard birder's set up of the Canon R7 and 100-500 - just the slightest rain on the tube and it fogs up.  

Brents- still going 

Whitethroat

Yellowhammer. Nice to see some clouds in the sky in this persistent high pressure Spring. There was actually some rain on Sunday night and yesterday. 

Pinion-streaked Snout 

Portland Ribbon Wave

Pug sp. Not sure on this. Maybe just a weakly marked Freyer's but could be something else. 140525 update- CMR agrees it's a Freyer's.

Light Brocade- always nice to see 

Weekend round-up

It was mainly a family weekend with Steve's clan down for the weekend but I did a couple of hours at the Bill on Saturday morning HERE- three Arctic Skuas were the highlight and on Saturday afternoon we went out on a fishing trip into Bracklesham Bay with the kids. Surprisingly very few birds- just 5 Common Scoters and a few Med Gulls, Sandwich and Common Terns but we caught quite a few fish. 

Today after catching up with work we spent a few hours at East Head on the beach and I was keeping my eye out as there were 9 Poms in the Solent, first hanging around the Hampshire mouth and then slowly they made their way through with several seen past the Bill. I didn't pick up any from East Head but was pretty distracted. The guys also had a Long-tailed Skua off the Bill so obviously Spring is still uncoiling out there. 

This evening I had a quick look at Ferry and walked to Mill Lane and back HERE. Not much changed since my last visit- an increase in Blackwits to about 20 on Ferry, the Snipe and a couple of Shoveler are sitll there and there were still about 26 Whimbrels out in the harbour with a few Grey Plover, Knot and Dunlin too. 

Arctic Skuas (above and below) chasing a Med Gull below. Arctic Skuas in this part of the world winter offshore Southern Africa and globally breed across the whole of the Holarctic and winters across the southern oceans. Poms have a more restricted global breeding range (not on Iceland, Greenland or Fenno-Scandanavia but across the rest of the high Arctic) and they also have a wider wintering range, even wintering in the North Atlantic and everywhere south too down to the Southern Ocean. 

Sanderlings- there were still a few waders moving. Similar to Turnstone, Sanderlings also have a near cosmopolitan wintering range but all breed in the high Arctic so birds migrating north past here now could basically come from anywhere south down to South Africa.  

Adult and third-summer Great Black-backed Gull 

Plenty of young birds around now- Dunnocks here 

The moth trap has picked up as the temperatures have gone up a bit again. Spruce Carpet was new for year

The first Satin Wave this year

Nice to get the first Cream-spot Tiger of the year . Now on 463 for the garden and 137 for the year

This decent Starry Smoothhound was our prize catch on the fishing trip (actually caught by Iris who caught more than all the boys together) 

We got quite a few of these Lesser Spotted Catsharks

Apart from all the sharks the only other type of fish we caught was this Black Bream 

The Medmerry Trail

Took a walk today along the Medmerry Trail to check for Red-footed Falcon which have been influxing regionally for the last few days. Didn't mean to walk so far but eventually walked all the way to Ham and then back via Ferry. 70 species of nearly 500 individuals HERE with highlights including the Corn Buntings at Ham, loads of Warblers along the hedges, House Martins and Swifts going over and Peregrine, Hobby and Kestrels but alas no Red-footed Falcon today. 

Corn Bunting, Medmerry. Five or six birds present including two singing males. 

Peregrine- not a common bird round here. Only seen three or four this year

Male Kestrel-not the falcon we are looking for but smart looking bird

Whimbrel in Ferry Channel

A call I'd never heard before alerted me to a female Pheasant alarm calling to her young- not all of them heard in time

Oak Nycteoline was the highlight last night. One Rusty-dot Pearl and 4 Diamond-backs were the only migrants. Had a Painted Lady at Medmerry. 

Uber-local

Decided to stay uber-local today and walked from the Lodge to Ferry this morning for a quick walk HERE before the school run and then spent the rest of the day at the Lodge planting out the vegetable beds etc

Cuckoo and Little Egret were the garden highlights. 

Spot Fly, Whinchat and Bee-eaters were seen on the Peninsula today so will get myself out tomorrow a bit further. 

Blackwit (above) and Avocets (below) on Ferry 

This group of waders were out from the Tramway- from the silhouettes looks like 2 Knot, 2 Turnstone and 8 Dunlin and not sure on the bottom two birds- maybe Ringed Plover on the left and another Dunlin?

The moth trap has been quiet again with temperatures dropping to 6 C- Oak Hook-tip above. Now on 130 for the year 

White-point, a possible migrant. Also had Rusty-dot Pearl and 5 Diamond-back moth so a few migrants out there

Getting there with the self-sufficiency beds. Basically after Holly's dad Bryan taught me about food growing I've selected the absolute easiest things to grow (perennials and fruit bushes and trees are the best because you just plant them once and they produce every year without too much fuss). So in the image above there's Leeks, Onions, Cauliflower in the foreground bed, Sweetcorn and pumpkins and peas in the middle bed (three sisters guild) and the fruit bed at the back (Raspberries, Strawberries, Black currants and a Lovage plant in the centre for a bit of layering). Potatoes and Blackberries in the patio pots. All the fruit trees (200 of them! Cherries, Pears and Buckthorns for the birds and honey fungus breaks) are doing well and the ducks are growing incredibly fast- still a good few months before we can expect any eggs.  

Slowing down

The colder northeasterlies are back and things have been pretty slow off the Bill. This morning's log HERE. Highlights were a Hobby in-off, a few Whimbrel and Commic Terns moving and I just about glimpsed and heard a Serin that Ian had coming in. 

It's amazing how persistent the high pressure has been this Spring- almost a constant daily backdrop to the whole last two and a half months. Just a slight re-orientation is either bringing in continental warm air or colder polar air, both dry. Meanwhile the Sahara has had it's wettest winter in years with huge numbers of migrant moths in Southern Europe. Shame the wind is northeasterly but exciting to wait for the wind to come up from the south again. 

I felt a bit birded out this afternoon so I took the opportunity to take the kids to the park and do some gardening around the Lodge. Still did some garden birding HERE, Whimbrel, Shelduck and Cuckoo were the highlights with singing Blackcaps, Chiffchaff and Whitethroats and Swifts and Swallows overhead. 

Hobby in-off the Bill 

More Whimbrelling past the Bill 

Yesterday afternoon I took the boys to Arundel WWT. List HERE. Highlight was a Cattle Egret in adjacent fields and watching the Sand Martins flying low over the water. On the way we quickly stopped off at Ivy Lake where there were 200+ House Martin and 50+ Swifts over the lakes there too. The cold strong north east wind was obviously keeping them low hunting for inverts. 

Nightingale, Chichester Canal

Had a very pleasant (albiet rather cold) morning in the company of the Nightingale (s) on Chichester Canal. Also Cuckoo and Raven and stacks of warblers. Ebird list HERE.

A Peninsula tick. Now on 191 and 166 for the year. 

Plenty of young Moorhens, Coots and Mallards along the canal

Been hearing Cuckoos everyday for the best part of two weeks but this was the first one I've actually seen

Water Vole on the Canal. Mammal tick for the Peninsula. Mammals now on the new local patch list from top my head are Water Vole, Wood Mouse, Short-tailed Vole, Common Shrew, Brown Rat, Common Mole, Roe Deer, Badger, Rabbit, Brown Hare, hedgehog,  Common Seal, Grey Seal, Bottlenose Dolphin, Pipistrelle Bat, Grey Squirrel 

Whimbrelling

At the seawatch this morning the only bird really on the move was Whimbrel with 22 moving east HERE and in the evening I did the walk from the lodge to ferry via mill lane and back where the main theme was once again Whimbrels with about 25 or so in the harbour. There was also a flock of waders that included 2 Knot (including a nice summer plumage bird), 1 Sanderling, 30 Dunlin, 4 Turnstone, 6 Bar-tailed Godwit, 15 Grey Plover, 12 Redshank and 2 Greenshank. Ebird list HERE.

There were about 8 Diamond-back moths in the trap last night indicating that migrants are making there way up here now so still hoping for something like a Striped Hawkmoth following the recent influx. 

Whimbrels moving east past Selsey Bill (above and below) 

Whimbrels in the harbour. In the week I had 38 at East Head, about 15 at Medmerry and there has to be 30 or so in Pagham harbour too so what with a few flocks moving along the coast at the moment too, there could easily be 100+ around the Peninsula at the moment. Also had a couple going over the garden recently. 

Redshanks in the harbour

Grey Plovers, 2 Knot, 1 Sanderling, Turnstone and Dunlin 

Diamond-back moth 

The first time I've had this form of Pale Tussock called 'concolor'