Selsey Bill, Black-throated Diver

After a week of cold easterlies, frosts and snow, today was brighter but still with a cold northwesterly. The highlight of a couple of hours at the daily seawatch was a Black-throated Diver and also a single Great Northern, 6 Red-throats, about 50 Kittiwakes (they've been moving across land this week, see here for a cracking group at Port Meadow, Oxon HERE) and Common Scoters, Red-breasted Mergansers and Razorbills. Ebird list HERE . More photos and other news from the Peninsula as usual on the local blog HERE

Black-throated Diver was a Peninsula/Sussex tick, now on 176 HERE. 

There is an incredible transformation of the weather predicted for tonight. We should be going from frost and freezing wind today to saharan sand in the morning and day time temperatures of 17 C by Sunday. It's nearly freezing (about 3 C) outside at the moment but I've put the moth trap on because around mid-night the warm air comes in (possibly with moth migrants at the leading edge) and by the morning it should be 10 C.  A lot of wind and rain comes in too so will be interesting what happens. 

Black-throated Diver (above and below).  A few diagnostic features include the evenly curved bill (lower mandible strongly curved in Red-throat), over 50 percent of the neck is dark (much less in Red-throat although juveniles have a diffuse wash) darker along the bottom edge , with a broadish flank line (diffuse and broken on Red-throat) and unmarked white auxillaries (marked with long streaks on Red-throat), the white flanks wrap further up the rump and the trailing legs are large and well protruding. NB. The flank stripe is a diagnostic feature for in-flight Pacific Diver which has a broad and even stripe. (HEB, Duivendijk 2024) 

Red-throated Diver for comparison showing the curved lower mandible, only half of neck is dark, there are streaks/marks on the auxillaries, the flank line looks solid and broad in this bird, actually more substantial than the Black-throat (generally more diffuse and broken, so usually the opposite), there is no wrap up of the white underparts towards the rump and the trailing legs appear a bit less substantial

Red-throated Diver (left) and Black-throated Diver (right), side by side comparison shots (above and below). In the pic below the slightly larger size and heavier structure of Black-throat is exaggerated by the photo effect. 

Great Northern Diver - even at this distance the overall jizz, bulk and long thick trailing legs of the bird suggests a Great Northern. Not sure what the gull is, in clear winter skies looking into the sun it wasn't easy viewing this morning.  

Little Oak Lodge in yesterday's wintery conditions 

Selsey Bill and East Side

The weather is deteriotating from tomorrow so I thought I'd make the most of the calm weather and did a good seven hours in the field today. I started off joining the daily Selsey Bill Seawatch HERE and then went over to East Side for the high tide HERE. 87 species across both sites (including Avocet and Shoveler on a drive by of Ferry) and nearly 7000 birds on East side marking a clear major influx recently of wintering birds. The Brents, waders and other waterbirds have seemingly been arriving at night as there have been no major movements off the coast with just numbers continung to swell in the harbour more or less day on day. 

Highlights today included 4 Velvet Scoter off the Bill (a patch tick so now on 175 HERE) , 7 Great Northern and 4 Red-throated Divers also there and on East Side highlights included 2 Spotted Redshank, 1 Greenshank, 1 Bearded Tit calling, 10 Rock Pipit, 1 Dartford Warbler, 1 Brambling, a late Barn Swallow and the main highlight was the sheer spectacle of the thousands of birds now gathering in the harbour.

Three different Rock Pipits today showing how variable they were. The top two with prominent superciliums are presumably littoralis- although if I remember right  the current thinking is that all UK wintering Rock Pipits (outside their breeding areas) are littoralis (from Northern Europe) which would make sense.  

As good as the views get at the Bill- Velvet Scoters

Last time I was at Pagham a week or so ago there were only about 500 Brents around and today there must have been at least 2000 (above and photos below). Epic scenes. 

Male Stonechat 

Dartford Warbler- as is customary it was loosely associating with three Stonechats in the gorse by Pagham Lagoon 

Don't always get a photo op of a Cetti's

Red-throated Diver in the harbour mouth 

Dunlin, Knot and Grey Plover at the Spit- must have been nearly 2000 birds here. I could only see 2 Barwits across the whole harbour

Mystery of the day was this hybrid duck in with the Wigeon. The American wigeon looking head seems stuck on to a mystery body and bill. Not sure what combination can throw up this? Gadwall x Wigeon maybe or an American Wigeon hybrid? Maybe a hybrid with White-cheeked Pintail ? Maybe something from Arundel?  Thanks Andrew and Ed for suggestions . 

Little Oak Lodge Weekend

As usual it's been a weekend of family trips (Reindeers and Pet Shops this time) and hanging around the house and the garden. The garden vis mig is now a few drips but there has been a bit of interest with waders presumably moving between Chichester and Pagham Harbour with over 450 Golden Plover and 150 Lapwing going over today. The highlight of the morning garden watches was a Coal Tit this morning putting the garden bird list on 95. 43 species in or from the garden yesterday HERE.

Despite it getting down to about 5 C at night, it was quite cloudy so I put the moth traps on and made sure I put the actinic on as that light spectrum can be better for moths in the winter. Sure enough the actinic out performed the MV and I actually had a couple of first for the gardens despite my low expectations.

Golden Plovers (above) and Lapwings (below) going over the garden. The garden clearly seems like a flight line between the harbours as I've had a nice little selection of waders and ducks going over now.

Italian Bark Moth, Metalampra italica- a very unseasonal new for garden. 

I'm going for Blastobasis vittata- if correct will be a NFG and a lifer I think. 181124 update- confirmed at correct (Thanks Derek). Garden moth list now on 406. No migrants on Saturday morning but this morning there were several Rusty-dots , an Angle Shades, Diamond-backed and a Pale Mottled Willow. 

December moth- only the third one so far this winter. Also had Mottled Umber this weekend. 

Coal Tit calling - best call is at approx 10 seconds. Sounds like a Ring-necked Parakeet at the end but I didn't notice it at the time (I'm programmed to ignore them since living in London). Could be something from Kyle's aviary though. I saw a parakeet flying over the garden a couple of weeks ago but couldn't confirm it as Ring-necked and not an escape so will keep my eyes open as there has been one around the Peninsula. 

With winter approaching there will be more time to work on our mini-zoo and the pets and animals that live with us at Little Oak Lodge. In our old house we had 100 species in our mini-zoo and mini-farm  HERE but during the move we had to scale down (as we had to rent somewhere for six months too) so we rehoused and gave a lot away. Today we visited Ridgeway Exoctics in Lee-on-the-Solent which seem to be best exotic animal retailer in the area. Just window shopping today but we did get a few more plants to fill out the gaps in the female Panther Chameleon terrarium (above). Looking forward to getting more animals over this winter. Would be great to get captive bred animals which are of conservation concern to do our bit for protecting species. 

Selsey Bill Sess

As we head into the second half of November and the wintering birds are piling in locally it seems to make sense to continue the switch from an autumn birding strategy to a winter one so today I went looking for divers and grebes and joined Andrew and Co on the daily Selsey Bill Sea Watch. Ebird list HERE. Highlights included 4 Great Northern Diver, 1 Red-throated Diver, 4 Kittiwakes, 4 Sandwich Tern a good passage of Razorbill/Auks, Shags and a few Common Scoters, Brents and Mergansers. Great Northern Diver was a West Sussex tick putting me on 174 . HERE

There's a couple of Slav Grebes off Church Norton and a Long-tailed Duck there too today and in the week there were Eiders and Velvet Scoters off the Bill so a few other interesting species about that will be nice to connect with. 

It's been too cold at night for the moth trap recently with nothing new for year this week on the few nights I put the light on. The highlight of the week in the garden was a female Goosander flying over Kyle's aviary on Wednesday and also a Lapwing going over the same day. The Tawny Owls are very vocal at the moment and on Tuesday morning I saw one along the lane on the way to London at 5am. 

Red-throated Diver

Great Northern Diver

Shags

Red-breasted Merganser

Winter Groundling (above) and another presumed South American Tomato Moth Tuta absoluta (below). Micros continue to be a theme of the very small moth catches recently. In the abscence of other interest I got driven deeper into the Gelechids rabbit hole this week and did some reading up. At some point I might need to get myself a microscope or a better macro camera. 

Found this Hedgehog in the garden when I got up this morning. After showing it to the boys we let it go back in the garden where it scurried off. 

East Head and Snowhill Creek Recee

After yesterday's family walk I decided to go back to East Head today to have a proper look round. 59 species of about 3500 individuals in 3.5 hours  Ebird list HERE, highlights included a Dartford Warbler in the sand dunes, a Firecrest in the lane behind Snowhill Creek, a handful of Chiffs and Goldcrests, some great views of Brents, plenty of wintering waterbirds and a Sandwich Tern off shore. 

Surprisingly the moth trap was busy with migrants this morning (after my seasonal affective disorder post yesterday) but it was mainly Rusty-dot Pearls with a record 36 in and around the trap. There was also a single Gem, Delicate and Radford's Flame Shoulder, a few Diamond-backs plus a little selection of mystery micros. 

Dartford Warbler

Brents (above and below)

The only Med Gull this morning but it was a photogenic one

Rusty-dot Pearl- the garden record breaker today

I've gone for Dark Chestnut on this- if confirmed will be a NFG.  Update- nope according to CMR it's just one of those dark shiny Chestnuts- although I thought the squared off wing tip with an S shaped outer forewing was a good feature (which I think I can see here)- don't really know how to seperate these two species. Also this morning on the non-migrant front were Feathered Thorns, Beaded Chestnuts, Green Brindled Crescent, Common Marbled Carpet, Red-green Carpet and Cypress Carpet. 

Plenty of November moth agg this morning including this really nice patterned one- every single one of this agg is unique 

The closest I could get to this is a very unseasonal Calybites phasianipennella ? 131124 update- yes confirmed (thanks Derek).

Gelechia sp? 131124 update- this is a good candidate for Tuta absoluta but would probably need dissection to confirm (thanks Stephen) 

I've gone for Blastobasis rebelli on this one. 131124 update - yes confirmed (thanks Derek). 

Another gelechia sp? Interestingly I also stringed a micro yesterday HERE. Fascinating that these tiny moths can still survive in these increasingly challenging conditions- down to 5 C tonight.  131124 update- unfortunately this one can't be identified (thanks Stephen)

Autumn Closing

Regionally there are still a few scarce migrants turning up on the bird and moth front but round here this weekend it has very much felt like the autumn days of autumn with hardly any vis-mig in the mornings (in contrast to Portland where there is still significant vis mig), very little in the moth trap (contrary to the south west where they seem to be benefiting from off shore saharan winds) and other rather wintery scenes.

A Brambling yesterday and 2 Yellowhammers and a Siskin this morning were the highlights of a couple of sessions vis-migging in the garden but vis-mig numbers were very low with numbers being made up a bit by a few flocks of Starlings moving west. There were a couple of Goldcrests and a Chiffchaff in the garden bushes and the Firecrest was still around yesterday. 

We did a family walk round East Head, Chichester Harbour today. There were large numbers of waterbirds in the harbour including about 3000 Brents but I couldn't do any proper birding as family walking but had a little selection of birds including a male Common Scoter flying close by, a couple of Greenshank and about 300 Golden Plover. Ebird list HERE .

There's still a few Rusty-dot Pearls in the moth trap indicating a bit of possible insect migration and also a Clancy's Rustic this morning but there were only about 8 species of 15 individuals this morning. 

Overall a very quiet weekend. Conscious of the fact that autumn will be completely over soon I'm planning on putting in a good field session tomorrow as one last shot in the game. Might actually go back to East Head and a have a proper look as it was extremely birdy there. 

Brents and Little Egrets at East Head

Golden Plovers and mixed waterbirds at East Head

Presumably a Winter Groundling. 11/11/24 update- nope, definitely not a scrobipalpa and possibly a blastobasis (Thanks Stephen Palmer). Some more details: From this side on view, the wings look quite tightly rounded (they are held in a more flattened posture in Scrobipalpa) and the head and thorax had a bit of a hump-backed look if that makes sense - quite rounded. This area is a bit straighter in this genus. From what I could make of the palps, these looked a little short and not quite curved enough for Gelechiidae - on your moth they appear to termiante in a straightish thirdsegment rather than curving a bit more over the head. The dark patch looked a bit too far forward for costella. Blastobasis vittata might be a possibility as I believe it is quite variable, but that is a bit of a guess. 

White-speck- new for Little Oak Lodge

The back drop to this week has been Trump elected in the US and the sinking in of a new Labour administration in the UK too, both developments which confirm that we did the right thing by moving here to try and detach as much as possible from wider society to become largely immune to these chaotic and potentially dangerous shifts in 'society'. The US moves towards hyper-capitalism with a streak of nationalism (tarriffs) while the UK moves towards a bigger state and more borrowing- both scenarios likely to lead to more inflation and sticky high interest rates for the majority of people- so basically worse off in the most fundamental way (money in your pocket). General Americans may have managed to make it harder for people who they've never met , have never bothered them personally and only heard about on social media from immigrating to america, having abortions and changing their gender but they've had to become poorer for it. That's the objective of polarisation and populism I guess.   

From what I could see there were no big wins for nature and while green transition regulation may increase in the smaller UK economy (there's already a new net zero body according to Dieter Helm), in the US mega economy massive de-regulation and tax cuts are proposed. 

I can't see anything else apart from the fundamental trend unabated in late stage 'Capitalism or what ever this System is' which is a transfer of wealth into fewer hands, lowering of general living standards, citizen disempowerement through polarisation and a relentless onslaught on nature and a rise of CO2 in the atmosphere. The chanages in adminstration, from left to right on one side of the Atlantic and right to left on the other side,  more or less represent the hyneas giving the vultures a turn at the carcass with both administrations producing economies with higher inflation and higher interest rates to continue the trickle up of wealth into fewer and fewer hands, while extinctions escalate, nature declines and the climate turns to chaos. 

Over throwing these archaic economic systems with AI multi-index global systems is the only hope for people and planet from what I can see complete with carbon, biodiversity and social credit scoring systems embedded into monetary systems which incentivise re-generation and the redistribution of wealth. The battle is on for who controls those AI systems , how the algoirtms are programmed and whether any emerging AGI will have the 'intellect' to model the human condition and attempt to reprogramme it in order to short circuit our early pioneering condition (growth) and switch it to sustainable condition (maturity).   

Anyway, before any new fundamental system can emerge at scale more global citizens need to lose total faith in the current political system, stop voting, start jeopardising and start switching. The plan here is to undergo that switch by establishing as much self reliance and self sufficiency as possible and wire it all into emerging global big data systems and AIs, set up carbon and biodiveristy accounts and invest in regeneration and sustainability- seemingly very long term investments if the apparant faith in Trump or any political solution seems greater than ever at the moment.  Evolution in many ways can only progress through the predator-prey relationship so in the human jungle global predators will continue to increase in power feeding on and domestication of (detachment from nature) of the working and middle classes until the environment changes (of asteroid impact scale) which is unable to sustain that.  

So with that in mind, work round here this week has included new apple tree planting, continuing work on the perimter fruit hedges, with the help of Kyle and Matt we've got Holly's caravan into position for her ecohippy-chic upcycle for additional accommadation (and doubling up as an escape pod), I've lost about 3% on the bonds I invested in thinking that people wouldn't vote for more inflation and higher rates (silly boy!), Isaac is destroying all the food that we've planted in the raised beds and the moth trapping and natural capital data base building has resulted in trapping a White-speck- a new for the garden. The Firecrest is still around but vis-mig has dropped right off. 

Also this week, bumped into Arjun at Little Woodcote and jammed into a Black Redstart that he had just found. Nick and Ian appeared soon after so a small and brief Beddington reunion . 

White-speck (aka American Wainscot) with a rather small Large Wainscot (which I confused for a Cosmopolitan at first)

White-speck- 402 species now recorded here (since June) 

White-point- not seen one in weeks so nice to get as a comparison with White-speck

At the moment Holly's project looks like the Irish travellers have descended on Little Oak Lodge- apparantely this is going to look the nuts. Holly's page HERE.