Twists and terns

I took Jacob to Children's Church this morning with my Dad. Because my Dad is down for the weekend I didn't check out Ferry this morning. At around lunchtime news broke of a Temminck's Stint on Ferry found by a visiting birder - blinking typical, one of the few days I haven't checked there in the last three weeks. However luckily the bird was still there and I bumped into Ian while twitching it. Andrew remarked later that he was even more miffed as not only had he checked the Ferry every single day but several times a day. Standard visitng birding antics :-) As Garry used to call them - poachers :-)  

While we were watching the Temminck's there was a report of a Roseate Tern at Church Norton. There have been some strange goings on with Roseates recently with an atypical bird last weekend and then yesterday a report of one turned into a rather unsual dark billed Common Tern (maybe something on the longipennis cline?) found by Andy the Vicar. 

Ian and I decided to go and check out the latest report. The bird was last seen on the metal work and quite quickly Ian picked it out complete with a light pink flush visible at certain angles. I wanted to get a diagnostic flight shot and when it flew up Ian and I tried to track the bird. On looking at the photo it had a Common Tern underwing. Had we seen the dark billed Common Tern from the day before? Ian put out the news and then redacted the news. Then Marc, Bart, Andrew and Andy the Vicar (who I had last seen blessing the flock at Church) arrived. We relocated the candidate and everyone agreed it looked like a Roseate. Then it flew up and this time we got the diagnostic underwing pattern. We decided we had photographed the wrong tern before. Then Marc exclaimed that the bird had just flown up and started chasing another tern. We followed both the birds now chasing eachother in display like flight and indeed as they landed it was confirmed that they were two Roseate Terns! Then things got even more wierd when one of them sat next to yesterday’s dark-billed Common Tern which is presumably the bird that Ian and I had falsely tracked. 

So alls well that ends well and after several days of controversial Roseate Tern sightings there was now a displaying pair! In a further twist, literally as I am writing this, news has just come in that there are 3 Roseate Terns?! 

There was also Common Sand, Greenshank, 2 LRP, 82 Blackwits (a further increase) and 34 Avocet on Ferry and 3 Whimbrel at Norton. 

The moth trap was more lively last night with 7 NFYs. Thank goodness the northerly airflow has shifted to a southwesterly with improving temperatures ahead (but quite a bit of wind and rain in the forecast too).

Temminck's Stint (above and below)

Roseate Tern showing the diagnostic underwing pattern of black confined to the tip and a lack of dark border on the trailing edge of the underwing hand

Two Roseate Terns (bird on far left and bird second to far right) 

Roseate Tern (on right) with the dark-billed Common Tern (maybe something along the longipennis cline?)   

Dewick's Plusia to the Ni-lure. NFY.

Portland Ribbon Wave. Another NFY.

Rosy Wave- always nice to see. NFY

Hook-streaked grass-veneer Crambus lathoniellus. Another NFY. Also had Cypress Carpet, Vetch Sober and Buff Ermine as NFYs. Now on 131 for the year.  The Roseate and Temminck's puts me on 174 birds for the year- very unusual for birds to be ahead of moths by mid-May. 

Cream-spot Tiger

It's finally looking a bit more summer like in the garden with our butterfly beds flowering now

Jacob and I did a bit more bug hunting this afternoon, checking the survey mats in the wild ditch (above). Latest pan-species observations HERE

Spot Fly

I checked out Ferry, Long Pool and the Tramway this morning before weekend proceedings started (my Dad's down this weekend). Checklist HERE. Highlight was a Spotted Flycatcher adjacent to Long Pool and, a further increase in Avocet numbers and a family of Great Crested Grebes. Also after failing to find any yesterday there was a small group of Knot in the centre of the harbour too. There were a few Swifts around which seem to have arrived locally recently with small groups over the harbour yesterday and the garden too. Also seemed to be more Reed Warblers on Long Pool so maybe new arrivals. A Hobby has been around our garden and estate for the last few days . 

I had the moth trap on last night and my lack of expectation was confirmed with nothing new or particualrly interesting. 

The milder air moves in tomorrow and the night temperatures are picking up so hopefully some more action soon. 

Spot Fly puts me on 172 locally for the year. The year ticks are slowing down now, my last one was the Red-crested Pochards nearly two weeks ago. 

Spotted Flycatcher. There was another one at Church Norton found by the Vicar Andy and yesterday there was an arrival of 20 at Portland (amongst other migrants) so the migration taps have been turned on again after the last ten days or so of cold winds and blocking conditions. The waders in the harbour seemed to have been able to keep pushing north this week - I guess where they are heading is more challenging than this. 

Great Crested Grebes with young 

Arctic waders

I ventured out today in the continuing north west wind and cool condiitons with little expectation. I had a quick look at Snowhill this morning where once again there was very little, just 7 Avocet and a female Wheatear of note.

It was then over to East Side where I bumped into Andrew and we watched a nice second calender year Little Gull together. There were very few waders in the harbour so I went off to the spit to look for birds roosting there at high tide. Checklist HERE. There were 144 Ringed Plover, 197 Dunlin, 1 Turnstone and 2 Sanderling in the roost which marks another significant increase in the Arctic waders in the harbour.  

Other than that there were no Barwits or Knots, very few Whimbrel and Grey Plover and nothing much else apart from the tern colony. 

There was ice on the car on Tuesday morning with the temperature going down to 4 C at night so the moth trapping has been uneventful. Milder air resumes next week so hopefully things pick up on various fronts. We are off to Bulgaria next weekend so one way or another things are going to get a bit more interesting.

2nd calender year Little Gull. I've seen plenty of Little Gulls locally but this is the first one actually at Pagham Harbour - now on 189 for the reserve. 

Dunlin and Ringed Plovers with presumed 'Tundra' Ringed Plovers (above) on their way to the Arctic and 'Taiga' Ringed Plover (below) nesting on the spit 

Sandwich and Common Tern 

Little Terns- lots of activity round the islands now where hopefully they will start nesting

Turnstone- really impressive bird in summer plumage 

2026 Ebird Data for Ringed Plover at Pagham Harbour showing the winter population leaving and then the second population in the Spring appearing in recent days. The zero data points unfortunately refer to no counts on those weeks and not zero birds. Was thinking of setting up a Pagham Harbour ebird account to transfer other observers data into a single hotspot to get some nice definition to the Ebird data. 

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?