A bit of a kick

An Atlantic storm went through yesterday and seems to have whipped up things a bit round here. At Selsey Bill this morning there was a Long-tailed Skua, a few Arctic Skuas, a Sooty and two Mediterranean Shearwaters- I managed to connect with the Sooty which is a Peninsula tick- now on 194 locally and 175 for the year. The Peninsula year list is now on a record breaking 207 with Bart, the top local lister, having seen 198 of them which is pretty incredible. 

After the Bill I joined Ian and Andrew at Church Norton where we had a Osprey and three Spoonbill and there were also three Spotted Flycatchers behind the hide.  

All of todays news from the Peninsula as usual on the blog: HERE

Spoonbill

Osprey

Juv Arctic Skua (above and below)

Spotted Flycatchers

This rather lanky Knot got us scratching our heads for a bit this morning 

Convolvulus Hawkmoths

Another day stuck in the family-industrial-military complex today but luckily there was a bit more action in the moth trap this morning with 3 Convolvulus Hawkmoths- the first this year. Holly found the first one last night feeding on the Nicotiana which we planted especially for this species, so great to see the plan worked. There were 10 at Portland the same night so some kind of regional influx. 

Supporting cast included 4 Scarce Bordered Straw, Dark Sword Grass, Small Mottled Willow, Delicate, Rush Veneers, Portand Ribbon Waves, Olive-tree Pearl, Corn Borers, Four-spotted Footmans, Kent Black Arches, Angle Shades and another Ni-moth (the third this year).  

Following some recent dissection results and recent records the garden moth list is now on 619 and the year list on 539. 

Schools are back next week and I'm off to Bulgaria with Kojak to carry on with our project out there.

Day in the field

Despite having a lot of work to do,  I needed to get a proper local birding session in, as it's been far too long- so I decided that being irresponsible was necessary and headed off into the field. I started off at Mill Lane Marsh and then walked from Halsey Farm to Pagham Spit and back. An impressive 86 species of over 1200 individuals in 3 hour 45 minutes, Ebird list HERE.

Highlights included a juv Black Tern and two Little Terns, two Spotted Redshank, Greenshank and Green Sandpipers, adult male Redstart, five Wheatears, Hobby and Peregrine and a bit of a mid-autumn feel with 4 Wigeon and a Pintail. 

Sandwich Terns, Common Tern and juv Black Tern (all above) 

Juv Little Tern

Adult Spotted Redshank

Wigeon- from what I can work out this is an adult female based on the covert pattern (see below, from Reber). The greater covert tips look like C/D which is either adult female or juvenile male but there doesn't appear to be enough white in the median and lesser coverts for a male. The rusty tinge to the head and upperparts also supports a bright adult female.    

Male eclipse Pintail 

Juv Cattle Egret

The head-started Curlew complete with project bling

Juv Black-tailed Godwit

First-winter Willow Warbler

First-winter Wheatear

More Sandwich Terns and a Common Tern 

Awesome duo- Clifden Nonpariel and Striped Hawkmoth

Doesn't get much better than these two in the same trap. 

Also 2 Scarce-bordered Straws, 7 Rush Veneer, 3 Rusty-dots, Olive-tree Pearl, Dark Sword Grass, 2 Four-spotted Footman and 7 Portland Ribbon wave last night.

The Isle of Wight and Dinosaurs

We spent the last four days on the Isle of Wight on the last of our family trips this summer holiday. It's not actually far from here- only 35 minutes to the ferry but the ferry takes about 90 minutes (with checking in time too). As the Isle of Wight is one of the top ten sites on the planet for dinosaur fossils, it became a mini-break of fossil hunting, dinosaur museums and dino-themed amusements for the kids. We inadvertently timed our visit with the arrival of ex-hurricane Erin which made camping a bit more exciting and sleeping quite challenging. 

We stayed at Grange Farm which is situated on the south west coast where the geology is comprised of the Wealden Formation which is famous for it's dinosaur fossils. In fact it was Grange Chine, our campsite, where the first Neovenator was discovered HERE.

We arrived on Sunday and after setting up camp we did a bit of exploring on the beach. On Monday we headed to Dinosaur Isle, a local council run museum which hosts the best fossil collection on the island. On Tuesday we spent the day at the Needles and in the evening we had a fossil walk with the local company Island Gems HERE. Today we spent the morning at the Whiteheart Animal Sanctuary, where circus tigers, lions and bears etc are re-homed and in the afternoon we visited Island Gems fossil shop at Godshill before getting the ferry back.

As dinosaurs stole the show, the birding took a back seat to their ancestors but I did pick up a couple of Ruff and a Green Sandpiper next to the museum and there was a bit of Yellow Wagtail and hirundine movement going on over the campsite.   

Looking forward to return to continue the search for our first dinosaur fossil find. There is a really good chance of finding a dinosaur bone fragment. 

Female and male juvenile Ruff- dino-descendents. These were feeding in the pool by the roadside next to Dinosaur Isle museum. 

Iguanadon footprint (natural cast) at Hanover Point

Despite a bit of seaching, we didn't find any dinosaur fossils but did find this prehistoric pine cone, a few molluscs and lots of fossil wood. After our recee this week will certainly return in the autumn/winter when there are more fossils to be found (due to less fossil hunters and more storms eroding the fossils out of the cliffs)

Dinosaur coast, looking east from Hanover Point with our guide, Tegan from Island Gems HERE

The famous Alum Bay sands (above) and the Needles (below). Fascinating geology on the Isle of Wight and a lot more going on than just the dinosaur fossils too with plenty of fossils from other lithologies and pre-historic periods. The website DinoWight was full of interesting information HERE

Jacob- happy dino-hunter. A bit closer to home than our last dinosaur expedition to Broome in Australia where Jacob also got to see a Brachiosaurus and a Megalasaurus footprint HERE. 

A few bits

Finally managed to get in a birding session yesterday evening, Ebird list HERE. Highlights included 3 Green Sandpiper on Mill Pond Marsh, Wheatear on Ferry and a few Yellow Wagtails over. It was pretty quiet. 

Summer holidays are a great time to spend  even more time with the kids and family but its a blinking nightmare for getting in birding time. Over the last week or so locally I've missed Spoonbills, Ruff, Redstart and Pied Fly which I need for the local year list. Kids are back to school in a couple of weeks so will get things back on track then. This weekend we've got another camping trip- this time to the Isle of Wight. 

The moth migration is keeping up despite the north-east winds- presumably everything in last few days has been a result of insects moving around after a initial arrival earlier. Overall on the moth front getting about 55-60 species a night of approx 150 individuals. 

24/08/25 Update: A few more migrant moths in the trap before we headed off to the Isle of Wight with the first Beet moths for the garden and also a nice Vestal and Delicate 

The 4th Striped Hawkmoth for the garden with a late Elephant Hawkmoth

Scarce Bordered Straw (left) and Bordered Straw (right)

Large Thorn- a couple of these yesterday

Beet moth

Vestal

Only one Sandwich Tern left at Church Norton now- summer is well and truely over

Whimbrel- only about four around in the harbour. There were very few migrants around yesterday overall presumably due to the clear nights and the north east wind, providing ideal migrating conditions and no need to stop

Works began on the Ferry Pool last week. Hopefully this will improve conditions, although it already seemed good to me. Seems a common thing in restoration to give a face lift to an already stunning bit of habitat but presumably that's something to do with something which involves money flows and loosely logical conflicting opinions which normally explains everything. 

Good Night

We are in the midst of another moth migration wave (it really has been an exceptional year) and last night was pretty fantastic with the first Golden Twin-spot for the garden and the second Ni-moth with supporting cast including Old World Webworm, 2 Dewick's Plusia, 2 Scarce Bordered Straws, Silver-Y, Southern Bell, Four-spotted Footman, 5 Rush Veneer, 6 Rusty-dot, 3 Portland Ribbon Wave, Diamond-back and Saltmarsh Knothorn. 

As usual all UK moth migration news, discussions and predictions on the excellent Migrant Lepidoptera Facebook Group HERE. Always indebted to this group for tip offs and encouragement to target effort on specific nights. 

Golden Twin-spot

Ni-moth

Silver-Y

Dewick's Plusia

and one of several Burnished Brass to add to the Plusia collection

Old World Webworm

Saltmarsh Knot-horn

Obsidentify says this is Scarce Oak Knot-horn, A.tumidana rather than A.repandana but I can't see the raised scales but presumably they could be worn. Will see what the CMR team say. 210825 update- the man from Del Monte says yes

Really cool to get these two together

Latest Dissection Results

Mike Bailey and Derek Lee have very kindly completed all the dissections from Little Oak Lodge for June and July. The results are very interesting with a few new species including the Nationally Scarce B, Dichrorampha flavidorsana aka Orange-spot Tansy moth, Aethes cnicana aka Thistle Straw, Coleophora mayrella, Chequered Pine Knot-horn, Dioryctria sylvestrella, Meadow White-barred, Aproaerema larseniella, Saltern Lance, Bactra robustana, Oak Case Bearer, Coleophora lutipennella, Common Ridge-back, Epermenia chaerophyllella, Burdock Seedhead moth, Metzneria lappella, Coleophora follicularis, Parornix anglicella, Agonopterix propinquella, Coleophora alcyonipennella and Coleophora deauratella. 

Now on 617 for the garden and 529 for the year. In the 7-8 years at the Old Vicarage I got up to 622 moth species so to get 617 here in just over a single year is pretty good comparitively. 

Thistle Straw at Little Oak Lodge by Mike Bailey

Angie's 50th

A wonderful weekend in the Malverns for my sister Angie's 50th birthday. Lovely to see all the family together for a weekend of live music, food and drink, yoga, pilates, sun-set walks and I also took the moth trap. 

I was even forced on stage to resurrect Thee Bryans -our family/freinds/community band that has been hibernating for a few years! I did a few bits I could remember including some of Daddy Long Legs (below). 

Great times! 

Our immediate clan

Two clans on both sides of Angie's family 

Peter Alfrey/Thee Bryans · DADDY LONG LEGS