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

Weekend Round-up

A westerly airflow resumed on Friday which has slowed things down a bit locally which was fortunate as the Easter holidays were still playing out so not much time to get out. My Dad visited at the end of the week so we had a day at Arundel HERE where the birding highlight was a singing Nightingale along the Mill Stream boundary and good numbers of Sand Martins and some nice Mandarins on the river. 

We also had a couple of trips to the beach at West Wittering- nothing much to report there apart from about 100 Sanderlings still around.

On Friday morning Isaac woke me up at 4am and I had a lot of work to catch up with so I decided to make a start and when I went out to the garden office to sort out the animals a Cetti's Warbler was singing from the lane- only the second time I've had them in the garden. It was doing a sub-song and considering it was completely dark at first I thought it might be a Nightingale but Cetti's is still good for the garden. 

A couple of birding sessions in the garden recently HERE and HERE has produced between 34-37 species of 124- 141 indiviudals with highlights including a pair of Peregrine low over the garden,  the six Shelducks still hanging around the fields, Med Gulls regularly going over calling, a Willow Warbler singing, a couple of Chiffchaffs, Blackcap, a Barn Swallow, singing Skylark and the Cetti's Warbler. .  

The moth trap has been pretty quiet as night temperatures have dropped again and despite several efforts during a small period of moth migration (mainly out further west) the only sniff of a migrant has been a single Angle Shades. 

On the Peninusla Cuckoo has arrived, the Vicar had a Great Egret, Little Rings are hanging around the Ferry (although the field is drying out fast), the first Whimbrels and a Little Tern are in the harbour, a Bonxie is hanging around the Bill and a few Common Scoters and other bits are trickling past the Bill.

So pretty slow, looks like warmer air is back on Tuesday and Wednesday so fingers crossed. 

Sand Martin

Mandarin

Whitethroat- all the ones I've seen so far have not being doing the full song 

Moorhen- I started seeing the first Mallard and Moorhen chicks last week

A couple of free flying Cackling Geese (Ridgeways's) were out with the Greylags and Canadas on the Mill Stream Fields at Arundel 

Warblers pour in

The wind remains from the east but it was much lighter with day temperatures yesterday (8th April) reaching about 18 C by the afternoon. As it seemed like good arrival conditions I got up early before easter family stuff and walked from Halseys to Pagham Spit and then back through Honer fields. 81 species of just over 1000 individuals HERE, There had indeed been a large arrival of migrants with a male Wheatear, 10 Sedge Warbler, 4 Reed Warblers, 3 Whitethroats, 2 Willow Warblers, 21 Chiffchaffs, 2 Barn Swallow and a few Mipits going over. The Spotted Redshank was also still in White's creek (presumably a different bird to the Ferry Channel bird). Elsewhere on the Peninsula other birders recorded Little Terns, Lesser Whitethroat, House and Sand Martins, more Wheatears and a Barnacle Goose flew east with a few Brents HERE. 

The tern and gull colony at Norton was busy with over 100 Sandwich Terns and Black-headed and Med Gulls. Little and Cattle Egrets and Grey Herons were on nests in the Owl Copse colony.

Waterbirds in the harbour had more less emptied out since my last visit HERE wuth harbour populations roughly down by half from 2000 to 1000 birds over the last couple of weeks (down from 13,000 at peak winter counts). I only had 4 Wigeon, 15 Teal and no Pintails. Brent Geese were down to 2 birds. Shoveler numbers were also down to about 15 birds (mainly on Ferry). Shelduck numbers are holding up (there were even six birds in the field opposite our house). Wader numbers were right down to 80 Dunlin, 10 Knot, 30 Grey Plover and a single Lapwing. 3 Barwits included a nice summer plumage male. I'm capturing my personal data on the Pagham Harbour RSPB and LNR- Pagham Harbour area Ebird hotspot (the more people that use a single hotspot the better the overall big picture for the harbour) with the bar charts for this year capturing some of the major trends HERE.

The species diversity is maintained at around 80 species with the arrival of the summer migrants. My personal local year list now on 145. 

The night temperatures held up to around 10 C so I put the moth trap out with the best night this year for diversity with 17 species of about 40 individuals. Also the first migrants of the year- a couple of Rusty-dots. The moth year list is now on 37 species. 

Male Wheatear- quite a peachy uniform wash to the underparts so possibly a Greenland/Northern bird

The last Brents in the harbour 

Tawny Pinion -Seems like a finally got these two right with the dark thorax of Tawny (above) seperating it from Pale (below), approved by the CMR. 

Pale Pinion

Nut-tree Tussock

Lunar Marbled Brown 

Pale Prominent

Powdered Quaker

Chocolate-tip 

Back to Patch

There was quite an arrival of migrants on the Peninsula yesterday HERE in a southeast wind but it was Jacob's 9th Birthday so I had to wait until this morning to get out into the field. There wasn't too much in the way of migration while I was away so seems like this is about the fourth main migration wave this Spring. 

The winds were more easterly today but it was still pretty good with one of the best seawatches from Selsey Bill this Spring HERE with highlights including Arctic Skuas, Garganeys, a large movement of Sandwich Terns, Common Scoters moving and the beginning of the Whimbrel and Barwit passage. A couple of Wheatears were also on the beach and a few Swallows, Sand Martins, Linnets and Mipits were moving north.  My Ebird list from today HERE. 

At about 930 I did the usual Costa coffee stop before heading to Ferry and I did the Ferry area including Long Pool and Mill Lane and back to the Visitor's area. 64 species HERE with highlights including my first Sedge Warbler of the year on the Long Pool, a couple of Blackcaps, about 15 Chiffchaffs, a few Swallows moving north and the Spotted Redshank in the Ferry Channel- now in full summer plumage.

Arctic Skua, Garganey, Whimbrel and Sedge Warbler were Peninsula year ticks, now on 142 HERE. The Arctic Skua and Sedge Warbler were also World year ticks (now on 822) . 

Good to be back and looking forward to the next two or three weeks of peak migration. Basically will be waiting for the Palearctic migrants to catch up with us that we saw a few days ago in Ghana.

Male Northern Wheatear

Common Scoter and Garganeys (two birds second and third from last)

My first Skuas this year- dark phase Arctics 

The beginning of the Whimbrel and Barwit passage 

Sandwich Terns- the official log recorded nearly 300 birds 

Spotted Redshank 

Ghana Moths

The moth trapping was a bit of a dream come true with finally managing to get a decent moth trap up in the Ghanaian forests thanks to the new Lepilid that was purchased last year. 

We managed to trap most nights apart from a couple of nights when staying at urban hotels. 

432 records in total of 191 provisionally identified species HERE.

Surprisingly, according to ChatGPT there are only 850 or so moth species recorded for Ghana. Ghana I-Nat moth project records 798 species HERE. The I-Nat project also has me as having recorded the most species in Ghana which is frankly ridiculous as I've only been doing it a week. 

In comparison to the butterflies which are well studied in West Africa, Ghana has over 950 species recorded which implies the moth fauna of Ghana is under-recorded.  There are about 3500-4000 butterfly species in Africa so about a quarter have been recorded in Ghana.

Considering there are probably between 17-18000 moth species in Africa and 7000 have been recorded in South Africa alone, it implies that Ghana's moths are very unrecorded (only about 5% of the African total have been recorded in Ghana).  ChatGPT also states that in the wider Afrotropical region there could be tens of thousands of moth species which are still undiscovered and undescribed.   

Basically it all sounds like a very exciting area to be focused on with a real possibility of finding something exciting. It will certainly be a big task to learn the moths of Ghana but have to start somewhere so here's a few pics from this trip with some provisional identifications and will update this as I go along. 

ANKASA

The stunning Eudaemonia argus

Imbrasia sp 

Nephele aequivalens

Comma Nephele. I-Nat AI consistently identifying these as Comma Nephele but the 'comma' seems more of a dot so maybe something like Funebris. 

Polyptychus carteri

Common Striped Hawkmoth

Large Striped Hawkmoth 

Something along these lines HERE or genus Adrougeriana HERE

Gorua partita

Balacra sp. The most commonly recorded Balacra for Ghana I-Nat is flavimacula but doesn't look right for that HERE

Staphmapoda sp

Epilacydes scita

Purple-edged Pearl

Mazuca haemagrapha . If correct id a seldom recorded moth HERE

I-Nat as gone for Cats-Eye Emperor HERE but possibly Nadaurelia petiveri HERE

Mullberry Hawkmoth 

Alpenus maculosa

Eublemma rivula- nice to get another 'Marbled sp'

Fulvous Hawkmoth 

The most commonly recorded one of these apparant bug mimics in Ghana is Parasa euchlora HERE although there are similar species including Latoia sp possibly viridimixta

Whitebanded Nephele

Balacra sp 

Aetholix sp

Ocinara albicollis

KAKUM

Epilacydes scita

Could be Afrowatsonius marginalis HERE

Handmaiden moth sp 

Caphys biliniata

MOLE 

Not a moth but the stunning Cream-bordered Charaxes

Nephele sp. 

Twoband Ozarba

The familiar Scarce Bordered Straw

Crimson speckled or something along those lines with three species in the region of this genus, HERE

Sundowner Moth 

Oriental banner 

Mediterranean Brocade