Pagham Harbour- Black Brant

Kojak came over today for an attempt at a big day on the Selsey Peninsula. 82 species was a pretty poor result for a big day becuase we kept getting distracted by quality while trying to pursue quantity. 

We started the day off at the Bill joining Andrew, Ian and Co on the daily seawatch. Following Storm Darragh on the weekend, the aftermath movements this morning were pretty good with over 50 Red-throated Divers mainly moving west, a couple of Black-throated Diver, 5 Velvet Scoter, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 2 Kittiwake, 60 Common Scoter and over 60 Gannet. We also had a small auk which was either a Puffin or Little Auk (white throat so presumably a Little Auk especially considering there were hundreds moving down the east coast today)  but it went down on the sea and we lost it which was frustrating. Ebird list HERE

We then checked out Ferry where the only Shovelers, Avocets and Greylag Goose of the day were logged HERE.

After a quick look at Mill Lane ponds and marsh we headed over to Medmerry. The highlights there were Yellowhammer, Dartford Warbler and 3 Egyptian Goose. There were also at least 1500 Brent Geese which were getting on the reservoir.  While there news broke of a Black Brant found by Andy the Vicar at Church Norton. 

We then met Holly for lunch at Billy's on the Beach (Fish pie was good but the BBC film crew were a bit annoying telling us to be quiet while they filmed a documentary while I was trying to whin about our low number big day attempt) and then went to Marsh Farm to get Cattle Egret for the day and then onto Church Norton where we found the Black Brant and also had two Pale-bellied Brents in about 3000 Brent Goose. 

After a quick check of the harbour we went to the Severals to watch the Marsh Harrier roost with four birds coming in at dusk. 

An excellent little winter day's birding.   

Adult Black Brant (above and below) 

Adult Black Brant (above) - the extensive neck markings almost join at the back when viewed from behind 

Pale-bellied Brent Goose (above) 

Brents over Medmerry- we saw over 4500 Brents today on the Peninsula- impressive! There were Brents at Farmoor Res in Oxfordshire today implying that these north east winds were pushing more birds south which seems to fit in with the apparant influx here and the new Black Brant and Pale-bellieds. 

Cattle Egret at Marsh Farm 

Red-throated Diver was the Diver of the day with over 50 on the move including several small flocks 

Long-tailed Duck leading two Velvet Scoters 

A 4th-calender Gannet doing a Booby impression 

iGoTerra Update

I've had a bit of time recently to do some list updating mainly adding my lifers from Australia this year. My world bird list is now on 3339 (about 150 lifers this year), my moth and butterfly list is 1451 (mainly by adding some historical records from Brazil), my mammal list is 272 and herp list is 119. My all taxa list is now 5249. iGoTerra profile HERE.

Only 4 WP ticks this year so now on 728 and false WP is 946. 

Something I need to add is some herps from Australia (not many as it was winter) which was a bit of unfinished work that I meant to post about before so I'll add the pics and identifications in this post. 

My main listing target is to slowly get to 5000 World birds and 800 Western Palearctic birds (and pick up as many other target taxa in the process).   

Bobtail

Estaurine Crocodile 

Green Turtle 

Maybe a young King's Skink 

Maybe Horner's Dragon- Broome 

King's Skink, Rottness Island 

Presumably Asian House Gecko, Broome 

Green Tree Frog, Broome 

Pagham Harbour

As it's Monday, my only freeish day,  I did a local birding session starting off at the Bill and then to Church Norton. It was pretty quiet at the Bill but there was plenty of interest at Church Norton with 64 species there of nearly 9000 individuals in about three hours. Ebird list HERE. Highlights included the Pale-bellied Brent Goose that has been around a while, 1 Whimbrel, 2 Greenshank, 3 Sandwich Tern, a Merlin (with prey being chased by a Kestrel) and 2 Firecrest.

I had the moth traps on again last night hoping for some more migrants. No more megas unfortunately by I did have a White-speck, only the second record here. Other migrants included 4 Rusty-dot Pearl and a Large Yellow Underwing. 

 

Adult Pale-bellied Brent Goose 

Juvenile Brents- no white at all in the neck yet and really fresh white edges to the upperparts 

Brents 

Quite a contrasting Brent (middle bird) 

Brents in flight 

Pale-bellied Brent (far right) again

Dunlins and Knot (above) 

Chiffchaff - three or four around Church Norton 

White-speck

Dark Triangle Button, Acleris laterana - not a migrant but another first for the garden, now on 409 (since June). 

Pretty White-barred - A first for West Sussex

There's been a stream of unseasonal warm air this weekend and over the last couple of days African migrant moths have been arriving mainly in the south west of the UK. The main species has been Levant Blacknecks which have been turning up in what sounds like unprecedented numbers. There have also been a few Striped Hawkmoths and Pretty White-barreds. As usual all the latest news on the Migrant Lepidoptera facebook page HERE. 

So thanks to Steve Nash's predictions from Migrant Lepidoptera Facebook group I've had the trap out for the last couple of nights. On Friday night I had a Turnip and a couple of Rusty-dot Pearls but was quite frankly really quite disappointed that just a mile or so away Derek in Bracklesham had a substantial haul of migrants including a Levant Blackneck. What a difference obviously a mile or so inland makes. 

So I tried again last night. It seems here that I seem to do better a day or two after a migrant arrival on the coast- presumably they deck there in any habitat and then move inland looking for better habitat or simply moving north still.  

By the time I had done all the egg boxes across two traps (the MV and the Actinic) all I had was 2 Rusty-dots and a couple of local moths. I was actually completely miffed, if I basically live on the coast (a peninsula no further than a mile of two from the actual coast and just a few tens of meters from a coastal estuary) and there were no migrants during a major migrant arrival (a mile away) than this site was clearly a bit duff and my gamble on moving here was dubious. Just as I was about to luzz the moth trap through the garden office window (lol) I spotted something small on the side of the MV with a flash of white. I caught it but it then escaped but I've got a system where I open the trap inside the garden office and I have the terrarium UV light on so if anything escapes they fly over there and sit on the glass so I can catch them again- luckily that worked out as it was a stunning little Pretty White-barred, aka African Sober, Aproarema polychromella.

Accoridng to the CMR Colin Pratt this is a first for West Sussex, so basically I've hit the Jackpot. The last time I thought I had a first for West Sussex, Derek from Bracklesham informed me that he had beat me to it so I'm still waiting to hear from Derek whether or not this time its going to stick. Will see. 021224 Update- yes it's a sticker, there are no other records for West Sussex. That's now my second county mega moth here following the Echium Slender in the autumn.  

Pretty White-barred- what a little stunner!

East winds off North Africa and a southerly airflow all the way up to the UK. Apparantely classic moth migrant conditions and this time of year there is a good chance of some real megas. A great bit of forecasting by Steve Nash who wrote the following on 29th November: The current Saharan dust forecast shows the dust in the band of rain that is currently moving NE over Western Britain and SE Ireland - behind it, the mild North African airstream. The winds should fall lighter and turn to a SSW direction during the evening. The mild air will reach most of Britain and Ireland by the morning, although it will remain fairly cool over Eastern England. Some of the species that could occur in these types of conditions: Aproaerema polychromella (Pretty White-barred), Ancylosis convexella - 1 UK record, Ancylodes pallens (Desert Knot-horn) - 1 UK record, Cornifrons ulceratalis (Desert Pearl) - 19 UK records, Spoladea recurvalis (Banded Sable), Spalding's Dart (Agrotis herzogi) - 2 UK records, Agrotis spinifera - Not recorded, Agrotis subspinifera - Not recorded, Striped Hawk-moth (Hyles livornica), Cosmopolitan (L. loreyi), Levant Blackneck (Tathorhynchus exsiccata), Small Mottled Willow (Spodoptera exigia), Bordered Straw (Heliothis armigera), Ni Moth (Trichoplusia ni) The mild conditions should last until Sunday evening/night, before much colder air arrives from the north west. Good luck!

Beddington Farmlands Update

For a full update on what's happening at Beddington Farmlands see report by Dave Burton from Inside Croydon HERE.

If you want the brief version it's basically nothing is happening apart from the usual powerless council having rings run round them by vulture capitalists. A masterclass from the corpocracy on how to breach planning and environmental law and commit ecocide and drive inequality with impunity. It really is an inspiration for all other companies out there especially now that environmental regulation is being increased and companies will be forced to do some more loop hole jumping. Valencia and Viridor and KKR & Co Inc before them have demonstrated perfectly how to circumnavigate any environmental or ecological regulations and continue committing ecocide and social decline with the full cooperation of the national conservation-NGO, Environmental Consultancy and environmental government communities. 

If you ever needed proof and a defining case study that nature and the majority of humanity is being systematically destroyed by all players in the system including the nature conservation/environmental cohorts then look no further. The Battle for Beddington Farmlands, a story of the world in microcosm, of how corporations, the government, the non-governmental sector and the public all conspire agaisnt nature. It tells the story of the state of the entire planet, a story with quite a concerning plot,  for much of nature and humanity, we are all on the brink of extinction.       

Little Oak Lodge- 150 trees planted

In our drive to plant and own 3200 trees (800 tonnes of carbon per family member to offset a lifetime's carbon footprint) we planted a hedgerow of Wild Cherry, Wild Pear and Buckthorn yesterday at Little Oak Lodge. It was only 150 tree whips (which need to survive for 100 years!)  but this adds to the several hundred more mature trees we have on our Bulgaria site (which we will need to expand). Also we have a large margin of error as not only are we reducing our carbon use (to try and get below 10 tonne each a year which is the UK average) but also we are not carbon accounting for the soils and other plant life etc so 3200 trees on wilding land will hopefully be way beyond out family footprint so hopefullly we will be firmly nature positive. Not sure any of this is an exact science but broadly along the right lines. 

A Robin flew into the conservatory while we working and we had Reed Bunting, Firecrest and 2 Egyptian Geese go over too while in the garden. 

There have been a few rare moth migrants blown in with Storm Bert incuding a Levant Blackneck in Dorset (found by Joe). So I've been persisting with the moth trap but no such luck here. However there were a few moths yesterday night with 2 Rusty-dots,  Angle Shades, 2 December moth, November moth, Feathered Thorn and 2 Yellow-lined Quaker. The weather is set to improve this weekend for insect migrants so will keep at it despite it being winter!   

Hedgerow planting. Still want to add another 5-6 specimen trees across the garden and plant up borders and beds with plants for pollinators and also grow some wildflower margins

First-winter Robin - aged by moult contrast in greater coverts which have rusty colour hooks to the inner greater coverts 

Storm Bert, Day Three

The wind eased off a bit today and by mid-morning the sun was out and Bert was fading away. Not a bad morning seawatch with highlights including an incredible 22 Great Northern Divers (presumably re-orienting with a flock of 6 and birds flying overhead high too) , a Long-tailed Duck and 2 Velvet Scoter. Ebird list HERE. 

After the two and half hour seawatch I did a bit of post-storm exploring (looking for moribund birds) so walked along the seafront past Hillfield Car Park to coastguards and then back the other way to East Beach and checked the freshwater pond there too. Nothing extra but did find a feeding area for gulls at Coastguards and next time there's a storm will keep an eye on that area. 

Interestingly when the sun came out I had 2-3 Painted Ladies flying around and a dragonfly went darting past too- presumably migrants pushed in on Bert's warm airflow. For fear of the moth trap blowing away I didn't put it out the last two nights but I put it on for two hours this morning before it got light and had a Diamond-back and a December moth. Will try tonight as there could well be some migrant moths blown in. 

Great Northern Divers on the move- 22 was an all time record count for Selsey Bill 

Long-tailed Duck - another patch tick, now on 177 HERE. Seems to have a white crown and extensive black patch on the lower breast/upper belly suggesting a male bird although no sign of the tail and also maybe the face should be darker on a male (see postscript below) ? . Slightly better views of LTD from earlier this year HERE and a range of plumage shots HERE

Velvet Scoters 

I wish I checked this area out over the last couple of days because this is where all the gulls were being pushed. Only a Med Gull today and this presumed juvenile/first-winter Northern Herring Gull (below)

Postscript: On the matter of sexing Long-tailed Ducks in flight here's a few selected images from a trip to Estonia earlier this year:

A pair of Long-tailed Ducks (above) with an obvious and stunning adult male so presumably both adults. The long tail on the male is obvious and would be at distance too. The white scapulars cojoined with the white rump/uppertail coverts is very distinctive too and are also obvious in what appears to be a first-winter male and female (below) . 

Female-type birds  (above and below) showing some of the variation in head and breast patterns. 

Storm Bert Day Two

Quite dissappointing today. Despite there being Cory's Shearwater and Leach's reported in the Solent and multiple Sabine's Gull in East Sussex and Kent, if anything there were less seabirds off Selsey this morning than yesterday. A Little Gull was the highlight here but I missed that but was still nice to see the Kittiwakes on the move (about 90 again in about two and half hours). Ebird list from this morning HERE.

Kittiwakes on the move 

First-winter Kittiwake (above and below, same bird). Amazing how the vivid dark markings on the upperwing is completely invisible on most of the underwing except for the other primary and the outer primary tips) and the alula? 

Quite a few smart Red-breasted Mergansers going through today 

Great Northern Diver battling into the wind

A few close Gannets going by

Also had this rather striking first-winter white-headed gull (above and below).  The contrasting white head and neck shall suggests a Yellow-legged/Caspian Gull and the pale upperparts with what appears to be pencil streaking is more consistent with a Caspian Gull. There are plain grey mantle features which appear light grey. With any mantle feathers in a Yellow-legged gull I would either expect pale edged with large dark centred or anchor shaped markings or plain darker blue-grey feathers.  The upperwing is very dark and appears mainly juvenile with some moulted inner coverts but the overall lack of chequered appearance of the coverts also fits Caspian more. The tail doesn't seem to taper towards the tip (also pro-Caspian) and the underwing on the image below looks whitish (another pro-Caspian feature). However there is dark mask around the eye and some light head streaking and the head and bill are quite compact (which could be consistent with a female bird anyway). For me the dark markings in the head and the structure indicates a mix of features but lots of pro-Caspian features but a not a pure bird and therefore presumably an intergrade.