Non-stop Birding Review 2024- July to December

 Here's a photo summary of the second half of 2024 on this blog which documents day to day wildlife, nature and conservation news from our endeavours at Little Oak Group.  January to June photo highlights HERE

JULY

We spent most of the month on family holiday in Australia visiting Holly's aunt and cousins and exploring. Ebird trip report HERE. Got to be one of my favourite foreign trips and already planning on going back. A few highlights included the Black Cockatoos including Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo (above) and Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo (below) 

Galah- depsite being common, still stunning

Western Spinebill - one of the 17 or so endemic species in Western Australia 

Wedge-tailed Eagle

Another highlight was visiting Broome Bird Observatory, one of the best locations on the planet for waders. Despite being out of season there were still several thousand birds around. Spot the Asian Dowitcher (above) 

Absolutely loved the mammal watching in Australia. Short-beaked Echidna (above) and Quokka (below) 

Western Grey Kangaroos 

Top of the target list was Saltwater Crocodile

An added focus of Jacob's and mine trip north to Broome was finding the famous dinosaur footprints of the region 

Isaac had a good time too

AUGUST

This month we were back to Little Oak Lodge for the start of autumn migration. Having flocks of hirundines on our garden wires was magical

Local birding highlight was this cracking adult summer Semipalmated Sandpiper on the Ferry Pool found by the local vicar

Plenty of other local autumn migrants including a good showing of Spotted Flycatchers 

Garden mothing highlights included this Starry Pearl- not a bad one for the garden list! 

Other garden mothing highlights included Oak Eggars (above), Yellow-legged Clearwing (below) and Beautiful Marbled (below that) 

In Augsust we also published the latest Portuguese Rarities Report which includes all the latest Azores records 

SEPTEMBER

There was great local birding in September, the highlight was this cracking adult male Red-backed Shrike at Church Norton 

Osprey over the garden was nice 

Plenty of autumn waders in the harbour including Whimbrels (above)

White-tailed Eagle over Pagham Harbour was a September highlight 

Meanwhile in the garden moth trap there were plenty of new moths and highlights including Blair's Mocha (above) and Marbled Fern (below) 

A trip to Corvo in late September (the 20th aniversarry of Corvo birding) produced some nice highlights including Trindade Petrel (above), Red-eyed Vireo (below) and Semipalmated Sandpiper (below that- a nice juv to compare with the Pagham adult above) 

First-winter male Bay-breasted Warbler - another highlight of the trip 

OCTOBER

A trip to the Bulgaria project in mid-October was a time of year we hadn't visited before. Black Redstarts (above) were more or less everywhere

Firecrest at Cape Kaliakra (above) and Black Stork over Kamen Bryag (below) 

Grey-headed Woodpecker at Kamen Bryag was a new species for the  Ebird hotspot 

The main purpose of the visit was to carry on with creating the wildlife pond on the project plot. Need to return in Spring 2025 to finish this off. 

Meanwhile back at Little Oak Lodge we compelted the garden office and the garden shed. Garden birding highlights included a flock of 8 of so Hawfinches regularly flying over the garden.  

October garden moth trapping highlights included this Echium Slender (above), a 2nd for West Sussex and plenty of migrants and local specialiites including Flame Brocade and Radford's Flame Shoulder (below) 

NOVEMBER

The theme of November was the crytallising winter scenes with Brent Geese flocks and other waterbirds arriving locally and filling up the harbours 

There seemed to be plenty of Dartford Warblers (above) and Rock Pipits (below) around 

White-speck was the highlight of the garden mothing(above with a Large Wainscot) 

DECEMBER

The birding highlight of the month (so far) was this Black Brant, once again found by the local vicar (he is doing something right, I might need to start going to church if I want to find something good round here) 

Pretty-barred White- a first for West Sussex. Nice to find a mega moth (and also had a 2nd for the county in October and plenty of other rarities). The garden moth list ended on 410 with an additional 8 species of butterfly.  So a pretty good result on the moth front. The goal for 2025 is to actually find a decent local bird which so far I have skillfully managed to not achieve. 

The local population of Cattle Egrets appeared to disperse across the Peninsula with flocks visible from the main road feeding amongst the local livestock