A few year ticks

Monday is all day in the field day. The high pressure conditions persist with a north easterly cool wind strengthening through the day.  I started off at the Bill HERE with the gang which was pretty good with highlights including the local year's first Hobby in-off, two Swifts (year tick). a Black-throated and four Great Northern Divers, 8 Whimbrel, 2 Barwit,  4 Grey Plover, 1 Dunlin, 19 Little Terns and 18 Common Terns on the move. There was also a Yellow Wagtail over and a Yellowhammer again by the Bill House.

It was then onto the Ferry area HERE where highlights included 10 Whimbrel in the harbour, Spotted Redshank and Greenshank together in Ferry Channel, 4 Red Kite circling high together south of Ferry, another Swift over and a clear increase in Reed Warbler numbers with at least 7 singing birds. There was also a couple of Lesser Whitethroats singing.

I then met Holly and Isaac for Lunch and then it was off to East Head HERE where highlights included a single Brent Goose in Snowhill Marsh, 15 Whimbrel and 1 Barwit on East Head high tide roost area, Common Snipe and Greenshank on Snowhill Marsh, two Wheatears, a couple of Willow Warblers and another Lesser Whitethroat. 

Final stop of the day was to Church Norton HERE where there was a cracking Nightingale singing away along the path from the car park. There were also 6 Whimbrel out in the harbour, 5 Common Terns, a surprising group of 12 Common Gulls (haven't seen many in a while) and a couple of Willow Warblers and a Goldcrest singing. 

The Hobby, Swifts and Nightingale were lcoal year ticks. Now on 158 for the year. 

Whimbrels (above) and 2 Whimbrel, 1 Barwit and 4 Grey Plover (below) on the move past the Bill. Things are slowly picking up on the wader migration with numbers of Whimbrels also building in the estuaries. 

Gannets

Yellowhammer on the Bill House. Not a common bird at the Bill but we had one a week or so ago so maybe hanging around

Male Wheatear at East Head

Female Whitethroat at Church Norton- plenty of singing males around but the first female I've seen 

Sandwich Terns at Norton. I only logged six or so from the Bill this morning so seems like most have migrated in already. 

Two minutes of Common Nightingale singing at Church Norton giving a nice repertoire including long intro notes, long machine gun rattles, loud 'tueets' and croaking amongst the splendid melodic phrases. Also Goldfinch, Chiffchaff, Black-headed Gull, Blackbird, Wren, Blackcap, Mediterranean Gull and Rook providing the backing singers to this lovely Spring chorus. 

Church Day

The local vicar is a Selsey Birder and we kept meaning to start the kids back at Children's Church so we got our acts together today and took them to St. Peter's in Selsey. I attended the Eucharist while waiting for them and Andy the Vicar Birder (and finder of the Nighthawk!) delivered a really nice service- first time I've been to church in years. 

After church we got a picnic from East Wittering and went to East Head for a picnic and walk. The walk was interupted by a few decent birds including 16 Whimbrel, 5 Golden Plovers, 3 Wheatear and a Yellow Wagtail over. Full list HERE.

So clearly a few bits still on the move and elsewhere on the Peninsula today the Woodchat was still present and joined by a Whinchat and there was also a Cuckoo, Black Redstart and the first Swift around. Meanwhile over at Portland today was one of the biggest arrivals of the Spring HERE. 

The temperatures dropped last night in the clear conditions with a northerly airflow but there was still a few moth migrants. 

Golden Plovers (above) in various stages of summer plumage and Grey Plover (below) that hasn't even bothered moulting a single feather yet. Most of the Grey Plovers in the harbour are still in 'winter' plumage so presumably has a different moult strategy to Golden Plovers. 

Whimbrels. Good numbers seem to build up at East Head in Spring. 

Male Wheatear- two males and a female today

Small Mottled Willows- three in one trap is probably a record if I remember right. The mild evenings this week have produced quite a bit of moth migration (and bird migration) across the country with a pretty good influx of Small Mottled Willows. 

Least Black Arches - NFY now on 58 for the year

Common Quaker- they will be over soon so thought I would honour this species with a blog pic before I see them again next spring- often the very first sign of spring so always welcome to see again. Also on the church theme today the Common Quaker was named after the relegious group The Quakers for reasons I can't recall now but something to do with the colour of the moth and the garments the Quakers wore.  

Woodchat Shrike and Hoopoe!

The writing was on the wall with the news of two Black-winged Stilts at Pulborough early morning so I went over to check Ferry and the Tramway for any overshoots. 74 species in about 2 hours HERE did not include any overshoots with highlights including 5 Wheatears, 1 Common Sandpiper and 3 LRP on Ferry and plenty of warblers including Willow Warblers and Lesser Whitethroat. There was also a singing Corn Bunting in the Long Pool field which is an unusual record for there. 

I then decided to go home to get on with family weekend stuff and within minutes news broke of a Woodchat Shrike at Pagham Rife found by Jim Weston. I headed over there and was soon enjoying cracking views of a fine male Woodchat Shrike with Marc, Andrew, Bart, Adam and Courtney. There was also Little Ringed Plover and Wheatear in the the same field. 

Before I met up with Holly and the kids at Runcton Cafe I had a quick look at Pagham Spit for any more Wheatears- no more Wheatears but 7 Little Terns fying around and 6 Whimbrel out in the harbour. 

Later in the day Ian called to ask if I wanted to join him in going back to see the Woodchat (he hadn't seen it yet as he had been at football) so we walked from Halseys across the fields to Pagham Rife. The Woodchat was still there now with 3 Little Ringed Plovers and a Wheatear. On the way back we tracked via Owl Point Field where a male Whinchat and 5 Wheatears had been found early on in the day. That was now 11 Wheatears I had seen today and there were a further 5 at the Windmill, 7 at Medmerry and 4 at the Bill seen by others so at least 29 on the Peninsula today (there were 100 at Portland, 20 at Beddington yesterday and good numbers in Oxon too- a good Spring for them). What with the 3 Little Rings at Ferry and Pagham Rife that was 6 today with another from Medmerry, also a good spring count. All the news from today HERE. 

As Ian and I were walking past Halseys, a Hoopoe started calling. Immediately I said to Ian is that your phone ring tone? It's a Hoopoe. He said no it wasn't and the bird carried on calling again. We went round the back of the wood to see if any other birders had been playing the call but there was nobody there so we put the news out. We both had to get home but looked for it for about 20 minutes and then Andrew and Bart arrived so we left them in the area so hopefully its pinned down. My Hoopoe jink has finally lifted although I still haven't seen one, so not fully lifted yet. 

Woodchat and Hoopoe are both Peninsula lifers for me and the Whinchat also a Peninsula year tick. Now on 210 for my Peninsula list and 154 for the year list. An excellent day! It was a light NW wind today and I wasn't expecting much in the 'worst wind' but it was very light, almost calm and a high pressure which must have facilitated the overshooting birds. Still very much a surprise and proves you don't need a tail wind for birds to overshoot- they will even overshoot in a light headwind as proven today.  

Presumed adult male (?) Woodchat Shrike (above) The first on the Peninsula since 2007. The ageing and sexing of Woodchats is problematic with all birds undergoing a near complete winter moult. Overall males have a darker red-brown crown and upper mantle, jet black feather tracts and less white around the eye than a female. On this bird there is quite a bit of white around the eye and the feather tracts have a bit of brown tinge on the remiges but look more jet black on the mantle so it's not straight forward. The bird wasn't singing and males often sing on passage. However overall the deep red crown colouration and the presence of jet black feather tracts suggests a male but this appears less obvious in some recent better pics HERE so for me the jury is still out. Various texts say sexing is sometimes only possible when male and females are together and some lone birds are very difficult to sex.  In terms of age as all birds have an extensive to complete winter moult it is the presence of a moult contrast that can age birds (so the brown tinge in the remiges doesn't imply an age related feature)  and there doesn't seem to be any contrast so suggests an adult bird. Finally there are three races of Woodchats, nominate senator in Europe to Turkey, badius in the Balearics and niloticus in the Middle East. Badius lack the white primary patch and niloticus has a yet black mask, a very extensive white primary patch and pale at the bases of the rectrices. Neither of these suite of features are present on this bird and it appears a typical senator. * 200426 update - word back from shrike expert Tim Worfolk agrees this is a male with the black on forehead and solid black ear coverts strongly indicative of male. 

Male Wheatear- a nice fall of these today 

Whimbrel- a small arrival in the harbour today with 2 in the Ferry Channel and 6 out in the harbour 

Singing Corn Bunting at Long Pool field 

Dunlins in summer plumage at Pagham Spit 

The moth trap was also lively last night with highlight this Puss Moth (above) and Mullein (below). Also NFYs included Iron and Pebble Prominet, Ruby Tiger, Sharp-angled Peacock and Dark Spectacle. Now on 57 for the year. 

*Sources: Handbook of Western Palearctic Birds, ID Handbook of European Birds and Collins Guide 

Migrant Uptick

There was a little bit of moth migration last night and also a few bird migrants around the garden this morning HERE. After getting a bit of work done (it was supposed to be a work day) I had a quick look round Ferry, Long Pool and the Tramway and indeed there were a few migrants around there too HERE.

Highlights included a nice flock of mixed hirundines at the back of Ferry, 3 Whimbrel in Ferry Channel, seemingly more waders in the harbour and back at the garden there was Sand Martin, House Martin and Barn Swallow and Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Whitethroat. Also 4 Golden Plover flew over- the first I’ve seen in a while locally. 

Grey Plovers, Barwit , Knots and Dunlins over the harbour

Small Mottled Willow- had two of these (NFYs) and other migrants included Dark Sword Grass and Angle Shades  

Brindled Beauty was a NFY

Seraphim (another NFY). Also had Brimstone, Muslin moth, Flame Shoulder as NFYs so now on 50 species for the year.  The garden all time list is 632 moth species and an additional 19 butterflies. So far I've added 3 new species this year but hopefully as summer approaches that will start climbing quickly.  

Coastal Buff, Agonopterix yeatina

Dark Sword Grass

A Slow Day

The predicted southeast winds failed to materialise and prevailing conditions indeed prevailed with a southwest wind and frontal conditions that had moved through by the afternoon. I had planned to go birding today so stuck to the plan and checked out Ferry, Long Pool and the Tramway HERE. Not much different to previous days with highlights including the summer plumage Spotted Redshank, 2 Little Ringed Plover, plenty of singing warblers including Willow Warbler and a showy Water Rail. Shoveler numbers are down further as were Blackwit numbers. 

I then went back to the lodge and did some paperwork and work in the garden before a visit to Church Norton to time with the high tide and a chance to pick up the terns. The plan worked out with Little Tern and Common Tern sat out on the mud amongst the 250+ Sandwich Tern HERE. There was also a Whimbrel, couple of Willow Warblers singing and a male Wheatear on the spit. The terns put me on 151 for the local year list. 

The night temperatures were mild so I put the trap out and had a couple of migrants. Again all pretty slow going. 

On another slow moving front, also been keeping an eye out for any new pan-species ticks for the garden and recently added Great Silver Water Beetle (moth trap by-catch) and a couple of spiders including Common Sheetweb Spider and Common Stretch Spider. Now on 191 species HERE. 

A good way to get some sense of speed when things are going slow is to flit around the front lines of lots of different slow moving fronts. That's basically what I did today to get some sense of being productive. The weather forecast isn't great for birding either although there were some north easterlies on the horizon which can be good for sea watching this time of year.  

Little, Common and Sandwich Terns 

Spotted Redshank and Redshank on Ferry 

Sedge Warbler 

Silver-Y. The first for the year. Also Angle Shades and a presumed Tuta absoluta (retained for dissection). Also had the first Cinnabar for the year. Only on 41 species this year so far. 

The front garden ditch is coming on nicely with some lush vegetation creating some nice insect habitat

The fruit hedges we planted last year are coming along nicely 

On the food growing front we've got Spinach, carrots and Rhurbarb ready for harvesting at the moment and got Tomatoes, Peppers and Sweetcorn in the green house to go out later and potatoes are in already. Meanwhile the perennial fruits- berries and strawberries survived the winter well and seem well established. The garlic (above) also got through the winter well. Still need to replace the birds after the fox attacks. 

We've been putting our nettles to use. An attempt at creating a plant food (above) that I saw on the internet and good old nettle soup (below). After 18 months I've also started using the compost that we started when we first got here- its not quite ready but good enough to go. 

Summer visitor build up

Kids were back to school today so it was back to Mondays in the field. I started off at the Bill which was very quiet HERE. The highlight was four House Martins coming in (maybe local birds). 

I then did Ferry and the Tramway area HERE with highlights including Lesser Whitethroat, 3 Willow Warblers and Whitethroats building up with 9 singing males and also 10 Blackcaps and 9 Chiffchaffs. There was also Whimbrel , 2 Little Rings on Ferry and also 37 Blackwits and 7 Avocets there. 

Next it was over to Medmerry HERE where there was a similar theme of a nice build up of summer visitors with 2 Common Sandpipers, 2 Sedge and 1 Reed Warbler, 3 Chiffs, 3 Blackcaps, 17 Whitethroats, 3 Barn Swallow and a Wheatear. There was also 3 singing male Dartford Warblers and a singing male Stonechat. 

After lunch I went over to Church Norton to try and get the Little and Common Terns that are around but the tide was out and the birds were out of view. Highlight was a couple of Whimbrel HERE. There was also an Osprey over the harbour today which headed north after catching a mid-migration meal. 

House Martin, Lesser Whitethroat, Dartford Warbler and Common Sandpiper were Peninsula year ticks so now on 149 and the Lesser White and Dartford were also world year ticks- now on 827. 

2nd year Marsh Harrier (above with Blackwits) and below over Ferry

Avocet and Little Ring on Ferry

Common Sandpiper at Medmerry

Whimbrel at Church Norton

Whitethroat 

Stonechat (above) and Dartford Warbler (below) at Medmerry . With both species singing there was a real Heathland like feel there today