Rainy days and 1000 species in the garden

It has continued to be cold with a northerly airflow over the last couple of days and today it was wet too. Definitely the kind of conditions to be getting office and lab work done. That said there have been a couple of surprise Subalpine Warblers on the south coast in the cold conditions which just proves that the time of year trumps the weather for those who persevere. 

However I did not persevere and retreated inside to get on top of various things including getting the 20 year Corvo review to final draft stage, uploading the moth dissection data, refurbished the Paludarium and was in London yesterday doing quotes and getting paperwork done today too.

The biggest news was from the dissection results from Mike Bailey with a Goosefoot Groundling, Scrobipalpa atriplicella, only the 9th record for Sussex and a few I had missed/misdientified including Crocidosema plebjana, Elachaista albifrontella, Bryotropha affinis and Wormwood Pug. The other dissections were confirmations of my in field identifications. Now on 124 for the year. 

We have some lovely guests staying with us the moment, a naturalist family who are making the most of their stay despite the bad weather. We went on a bug hunting walk down the lane the last couple of nights and found a Slow Worm yesterday- the first for the lane/garden. Now on 219 for the pan-species garden list HERE which is everything not a bird or moth or butterfly (which are recorded seperately). With the 644 moths, 19 butterflies, 116 birds and the mammals we are on exactly 1000 species for the garden! 

The only noteworthy bird sighting was about 50 Swift flying around Chichester Gravel Pits this evening. The other guys have had some bits and bobs including a few migrants in-off this morning. Also sounds like Manx Shearwaters are being displaced into the Solent. 

The cold condiitons continue for the forseable so I probably won't get out in the field until Friday and use this time to get up to date with the project work. 

Goosefoot Groundling (above) and its twigs and berries (below). The 9th record for Sussex HERE

Slow Worm

The Paludarium refurbishment before (above looking like a right mess), during (middle) and after (below)

Good as new! Not as impressive as we've had it the past HERE when we had a mini-zoo of 100 different species of animal. Nowadays the mini-zoo is smaller but the airbnb guests children (and our boys) love the mini-zoo so really need to be building back after we had to decommission a lot during the move here. More rain day work in the future. 

Lesser Striped Swallow at Al-Abraq, Kuwait, May 2025 published

Our discovery of the Western Palearctic's first Lesser Striped Swallow has now been published in the latest issue of Dutch Birding and can be read and downloaded on Research Gate HERE. 

All publications related to this blog/Little Oak Group HERE.

DUTCH BIRDING

Blinking cold

The temperature got down to 4 C last night and today was clear with a chilly north west wind. On Monday I usually dedicate to a full day in the field but I decided to just do the morning (considering the non-conducive weather conditions). I started off at Ferry and then went over to East Side, checklist HERE, the highlight being a nice arrival/ accumulation of summer plumaged waders. In total I made it 401 individual waders of 16 species including an influx of Ringed Plover (83), Grey Plover (63), Dunlin (104) and Sanderling (13) which have all arrived in the last day or two. There was also Avocet (26), Oystercatcher (20), Little Ringed Plover (1), Whimbrel (12), Curlew (4), Bar-tailed Godwit (22), Black-tailed Godwit (31), Common Sandpiper (1), Redshank (3), Greenshank (1), Turnstone (5) and Knot (12). 

It's a good time of year now for something rare to get in amongst the waders. The turnover of birds in the harbour at the moment is pretty fast with small waders now dominating after the harbour being full of Whimbrels last week and Barwits before that. What with all the terns in the harbour again this year (the colony is thriving), it's surely got to be just a matter of time before something interesting gets in all this lot. Will keep looking! 

There was absolutely nothing moving off the Bill this morning according to the other guys so presumably the influx of waders in the harbour are staging birds. 

Unsurpisingly the moth trap was crap but perhaps a bit surprisngly was about 10 Treble Lines (the only species that seems to have been able to cope with the conditons)

Ringed Plovers, Dunlins and Sanderling (above and below). The Ringed Plovers are presumably tundrae and the Dunlin schinzii , West African wintering birds now passing through the UK to high latitude breeding areas

Grey Plover, Knot and Bar-tailed Godwit

Bar-tailed Godwits (above) and Ebird data from Pagham Harbour for 2026 showing the small wintering population, a small early spring passage (presumably birds wintering in UK/Europe)  and then a large arrival of Spring birds (arriving from West Africa). In the winter Barwits prefer Chichester Harbour but seemingly prefer Pagham on Spring migration. 

Wintery feel

There was a cold strong northeast wind blowing today making it feel quite uncomfortable. There was an intersting Roseate Tern last night at Church Norton so I had an unsuccessful look for it this morning and again this evening and also checked out Ferry and some of the harbour. Ebird list HERE with highlights including 2 Greenshank back in the Ferry Channel, Shovelers back on the Pool, a few of the usual waders in the harbour inlcuding Barwits, Whimbrel, 10 Knot some in summer plumage and about 120 Dunlin flying around the harbour entrance in the evening. 

Most of the day was spent doing family stuff including Church and then a visit to Rigeway's Exoctics for the Paludarium reburshiment. 

I almost didn't bother putting the moth trap out last night but I guess the time of year trumps the weather as it was quite lively with 37 species with Pine Hawkmoth, Pearly Underwing, Common Wainscot and Peach Blossom being new for years and a Two-spotted Dwarf, Elachista biatomella candidate which I think will be a lifer.  On the migrant front there was the Pearly Underwing, quite a few Turnips, Rush Veneer, Silver-Y in the lure, 2 Diamond-backs and Angle Shades. Yesterday Jacob and I had a Green Longhorn, Adela reaumeralla on our small willow in the front garden another garden tick. The garden list is now on 642 and year list 122. 

Greenshank in Ferry Channel with the Blackwits

Sandwich Terns at Church Norton. Gail, the RSPB ranger and her team are doing a breeding count this coming week on the islands so will be interesting to see how many pairs of Meds, Black-heads and Sandwich Terns out there. I guestimated (total numbers) 200 Sandwich Terns, 150 Meds and 250 Black-headed Gulls so will see how far off I am.

Pine Hawkmoth- stunner

The Two-spotted Dwarf candidate

Pearly Underwing

There were a couple of these dark Turnips with the usual paler ones. I wasn't sure if the one below with some white on the thorax might be a dark Pearly Underwing but I put it down as another Turnip

I put this down as a female Muslin moth. I get loads of males but not sure if I've been passing these off as White Ermines in the past?

This is the end?

There was a northeast wind this morning and migration at the Bill was reduced to a trickle HERE although a couple of Arctic Skuas and a few migrating Kittiwakes were nice to see. The forecast is for a northerly and northwesterly airflow to dominate over the next week with rain and some stormy conditions so it does indeed appear that the main Spring passage has come to an end. 

A clear sign that migration was slowing was how much sea watch conversations turned to politics. Even within our small birding group, opinions varied widely, reflecting a divided country. Gains in this week's local elections by the Greens and Reform mirror the wider rise of populism, driven largely by inequality and growing marginalisation. Populism feels less like a solution than a symptom of a system approaching major change, potentially involving AI-enhanced democratic models.

At the same time, markets are behaving erratically: AI speculation is inflating asset values while bonds, commodities, conflict and inflation are sending mixed signals. The Portland birding blog was talking about ecological breakdown yesterday being responsible for low migrants numbers year on year-another indicator signalling an alarm.  It feels like instability is building ahead of deeper economic and political reform. 

The key challenge now is anticipating what that reform might look like and preparing for its effects. I had to agree with Justin that growth that just leads to more house building and nature destruction must come to end, Ian maintains that we have to have growth of some kind, Sam told everyone to shut up and Andrew oftens asks what other system is there other than unsustainable growth?  Who knows?  A post-GDP system could include biodiversity and carbon metrics alongside economic measures, with AI helping set sustainable targets and incentives. That may create opportunities in areas like land and nature conservation, while also making personal resilience and self-sufficiency increasingly important as inequality grows. It does indeed appear we are heading towads some kind of tech-feudalism, although IMO a cure to affluenza/mass consumerism and a return to nature/ the wild is a good thing. 

Traditional party politics appears increasingly largely reactive. Major societal shifts — the internet, big data, AI, natural capital markets and cryptocurrency — were driven by technology, not governments struggling to keep pace. Democratic influence is increasingly moving into digital systems and networks rather than political parties alone, and future decision-making may evolve in that direction too. For now, party politics remains the dominant system, though one that feels increasingly strained and possibly just like Spring migration is also near the end?

Btw this post was also written/edited by AI.  

Eight Little Egrets on Ferry this morning was an increase but Shelducks have decreased to only 7 birds and today was the first day of no Shoveler. A Common Sandpiper was still present, also the LRP , 60 odd Blackwits and a further increase to about 30 Avocet. See below for Ebird graph of Avocets in the harbour this year showing the wintering population departing and then increasing numbers as summering birds arrive in recent days- unfortunately the zero data points are when I was away as not enough people use a single hotspot and instead Pagham Harbour Ebird has lots of hotspots that disperses data which makes it easier for traditional report writing but basically an entire report could be written automatically if a single Ebird spot is used. These birding computer systems have still got some way to go before they combine the important detail captured in traditional bird reports/ BTO surveys etc with the new technology but many in the new generation of birders don't even know what a bird report is and only know social media and apps so it's all heading in the way of automation. For the full '2026 Pagham Harbour live bird report' see HERE and HERE - could be so much better if everyone uploaded data and photos on one hotspot .  

 

Avocets in Pagham Harbour 2026 (zero points are unrecorded weeks)

Kittiwakes moving past the Bill- a species that heralds the end of Spring. 

There has been something slivering in our wild ditch so Jacob and I put down some reptile survey matts this morning to try and find out what it is. Also had Hobby over the garden today and Cuckoo singing. Also still Blackcap, Whitethroat and Chiffchaff singing. 

Even the moth trap was pretty dull last night with no NFYs and I can't imagine much happening in the predicted northerly airflow. It has been a good Spring for migrant Small Mottled Willows (above) with another last night with a Rusty-dot and a few Turnips being the only migrant interest. I do think the next week is going to be a struggle to get through! A good time to catch up with project work. 

A late wave

It was a southeast wind with frontal conditions and some rain this morning and looked perfect for migration at the Bill. My list HERE with highlights including a passage of Arctic and Common Terns, a few Kittiwakes moving, a light and dark phase Arctic Skua and a few Sanderlings and Common Scoters moving. A Shoveler was a late migrant. Full log from the full team HERE- they also had Great White Egret, Little Gulls and few more waders and terns.

News started coming in of a regional small influx of Temminck's Stints so I then went off to check Ferry but only a Common Sandpiper there with an influx of Avocet to 24 birds now. Seemed like Blackwits have settled at around 60 now. No sign of the Wood Sand or the Greenshanks this morning.

After getting some work done I then did Snowhill Marsh again hoping for Temminck's but again it was shockingly quiet but there were 3 Avocets (no sign of any recently), a couple of Barwits, the only Lapwing on the Peninsula! and the 2 retired Brents HERE.

It was cool again last night for the moth trap but a Cocksfoot Moth (in the Ni-lure) was a new for garden (now on 640) and NFYs were Large Yellow Underwing, Blood Vein and Mottled Rustic, now on 116 for the year. Migrants (and possible migrants) included 3 Silver-Y, 1 Rush Veneer, 1 White Point, 2 Turnips and 1 Setaceous Hebrew Character.

Arctic and Common Terns (above and below). I made it 35 Arctics and 56 Common Terns today but the official log had 80 Common, 38 Arctics and 24 'Commics'. 

Dark phase Arctic Skua

Common Scoters moving still 

Avocet at Snowhill

Cocksfoot Moth

Spring's Tail

May 7th is 'Pom Day' round here, although according to some local birders that now has a historical/ traditional context with Pom migration peaking in late April in more recent times. There was a southeast wind in the forecast so there was a good crowd at the Bill this morning but it was very slow HERE with highlights being a few Kittiwakes, a few Whimbrels and Barwits still moving through, a few Scoters and a Willow Warbler singing in the gardens. An Arctic Skua was seen by the others so at least there was some skua action. 

It was polling day today so Isaac's nursery was cancalled so I decided to take him with me to check out Snowhill Marsh. The plan was to drop the latest potted moths to Mike for dissections but in the time Isaac was in the van and I opened the gates, Isaac had got into the moth pots opened half of them up, scattered them in the footwell and eaten two of them. I did my best to put the right moths into the right pots with the right labels and managed to get most of them to Mike.

Snowhill was very quiet with just a few Whimbrel (but the tide was low) and the two retired Brent Geese. 

After lunch with Holly and Isaac at Potters and a visit to the Selsey Lifeboat I did East side where the highlights was a surprising large gathering of Whimbrel, I counted/estimated 105. I was surprised as I assumed that peak Whimbrel passage had already past with very few now moving offshore but I had 50 at East Head at high tide on Sunday and now there were over 100 at high tide at Pagham too. Listen to the recordings below to a group of nearly 40 calling as they headed off east. There were very few other waders though with only 3 Barwits, 13 Grey Plover and 7 Dunlin. Also had 3 Red Kites circling with 14 Common Buzzard.  Full list HERE combined with an early visit to the Ferry Pool where the Wood Sandpiper is still present with 2 LRP, 1 Common Sand, 2 Greenshank in the Ferry Channel and a further increase to 63 Black-tailed Godwits.

So apart from Whimbrel that seem to be having a second wave everything else seems to be winding down in the tail end of the main Spring migrations. 

It was pretty cool last night so not too much in the moth trap but Dog's Tooth, Lychnis and Common Swift were NFYs so now on 112 for the year. 

Whimbrels still going strong (above and below). Check out the recordings below of the racket these were making. 

A few of the late shift Whimbrels and Barwits moving off the Bill

First-summer Kittiwake. Andrews says that Kittiwakes appearing is a sign of the end of Spring

Wood Sandpiper- still hanging around

Lychnis- NFY

Dog's Tooth- NFY

Whimbrels whimbrelling this evening