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.