Boring weekend

The high pressure broke down this weekend giving way to an Atlantic airflow drawing up mild air from the south east. Despite the seemingly favourable conditions there hasn't been much in the way of vis-mig or moth migration. 

As usual due to weekend family commitments I've been mainly confined to the garden and lane. A couple of mornings of garden birding produced just a handful of Meadow Pipits and Swallows going over with highlights including 2 Firecrest, 6 Chiffchaff and 3 Blackcap yesterday and 3 Pintail going over this morning. 39 species on Saturday morning HERE.

A family picnic to West Wittering today meant I got a chance to have a quick look at Snowhill HERE the highlight being a Hobby, a Curlew Sandpiper and an increase in Golden Plover. 

There have only been 19 species of moth over the two days combined with Blair's Mocha, Four-spotted Footman, Dock Streak and a late Yellow-tail being the meagre highlights. 

Elsewhere on the Peninsula there also hasn' t been much to sing and dance about HERE with just a few Wheatears and a few more Stonechats on Saturday and a Little Stint and Woodlark today. 

I find autumn quiet spells the most boring and frustrating episodes in the birding cycle as expectations and resulting dissappointments are high. There is some mixed weather in the forecast so hopefully things get kick started again soon. 

The quiet weekend did give me a chance to catch up with a few things including sorting out the latest batch of moths for Mike and updating the last batch of identifications. Highlights from the dissection results in June and July included Acrocercops brongniardrella, Burdock Straw, Aethes rubigana, Striped Sorrel moth, Aroga velocella, a nice selection of Coleophora including coracipennella, alcyonipennella, peribenanderi, albicosata, salicorniae and saxicolella, confirmation on a run of Rosy Straws, Cochylis roseana, Cydia nigricana, Bedellia somnulentella and Aproaerema anthyllidella and larseniella. 

The latest batch going in are from late July to August which was a busy period of moth migration and dispersal so fingers crossed some interesting results in there. 

Sandwich Tern at East Head

Blair's Mocha- one of these at my previous haunts would have made it a great weekend. Shifting baselines work both ways, a weekend of garden Firecrests, Curlew Sandpiper and some good migrant moth species would have been a great weekend back in London and Oxfordshire! Nice to be on the right side of a shifting baseline for a change, even if it is a relative perspective one.