The Isle of Wight and Dinosaurs

We spent the last four days on the Isle of Wight on the last of our family trips this summer holiday. It's not actually far from here- only 35 minutes to the ferry but the ferry takes about 90 minutes (with checking in time too). As the Isle of Wight is one of the top ten sites on the planet for dinosaur fossils, it became a mini-break of fossil hunting, dinosaur museums and dino-themed amusements for the kids. We inadvertently timed our visit with the arrival of ex-hurricane Erin which made camping a bit more exciting and sleeping quite challenging. 

We stayed at Grange Farm which is situated on the south west coast where the geology is comprised of the Wealden Formation which is famous for it's dinosaur fossils. In fact it was Grange Chine, our campsite, where the first Neovenator was discovered HERE.

We arrived on Sunday and after setting up camp we did a bit of exploring on the beach. On Monday we headed to Dinosaur Isle, a local council run museum which hosts the best fossil collection on the island. On Tuesday we spent the day at the Needles and in the evening we had a fossil walk with the local company Island Gems HERE. Today we spent the morning at the Whiteheart Animal Sanctuary, where circus tigers, lions and bears etc are re-homed and in the afternoon we visited Island Gems fossil shop at Godshill before getting the ferry back.

As dinosaurs stole the show, the birding took a back seat to their ancestors but I did pick up a couple of Ruff and a Green Sandpiper next to the museum and there was a bit of Yellow Wagtail and hirundine movement going on over the campsite.   

Looking forward to return to continue the search for our first dinosaur fossil find. There is a really good chance of finding a dinosaur bone fragment. 

Female and male juvenile Ruff- dino-descendents. These were feeding in the pool by the roadside next to Dinosaur Isle museum. 

Iguanadon footprint (natural cast) at Hanover Point

Despite a bit of seaching, we didn't find any dinosaur fossils but did find this prehistoric pine cone, a few molluscs and lots of fossil wood. After our recee this week will certainly return in the autumn/winter when there are more fossils to be found (due to less fossil hunters and more storms eroding the fossils out of the cliffs)

Dinosaur coast, looking east from Hanover Point with our guide, Tegan from Island Gems HERE

The famous Alum Bay sands (above) and the Needles (below). Fascinating geology on the Isle of Wight and a lot more going on than just the dinosaur fossils too with plenty of fossils from other lithologies and pre-historic periods. The website DinoWight was full of interesting information HERE

Jacob- happy dino-hunter. A bit closer to home than our last dinosaur expedition to Broome in Australia where Jacob also got to see a Brachiosaurus and a Megalasaurus footprint HERE. 

A few bits

Finally managed to get in a birding session yesterday evening, Ebird list HERE. Highlights included 3 Green Sandpiper on Mill Pond Marsh, Wheatear on Ferry and a few Yellow Wagtails over. It was pretty quiet. 

Summer holidays are a great time to spend  even more time with the kids and family but its a blinking nightmare for getting in birding time. Over the last week or so locally I've missed Spoonbills, Ruff, Redstart and Pied Fly which I need for the local year list. Kids are back to school in a couple of weeks so will get things back on track then. This weekend we've got another camping trip- this time to the Isle of Wight. 

The moth migration is keeping up despite the north-east winds- presumably everything in last few days has been a result of insects moving around after a initial arrival earlier. Overall on the moth front getting about 55-60 species a night of approx 150 individuals. 

24/08/25 Update: A few more migrant moths in the trap before we headed off to the Isle of Wight with the first Beet moths for the garden and also a nice Vestal and Delicate 

The 4th Striped Hawkmoth for the garden with a late Elephant Hawkmoth

Scarce Bordered Straw (left) and Bordered Straw (right)

Large Thorn- a couple of these yesterday

Beet moth

Vestal

Only one Sandwich Tern left at Church Norton now- summer is well and truely over

Whimbrel- only about four around in the harbour. There were very few migrants around yesterday overall presumably due to the clear nights and the north east wind, providing ideal migrating conditions and no need to stop

Works began on the Ferry Pool last week. Hopefully this will improve conditions, although it already seemed good to me. Seems a common thing in restoration to give a face lift to an already stunning bit of habitat but presumably that's something to do with something which involves money flows and loosely logical conflicting opinions which normally explains everything. 

Good Night

We are in the midst of another moth migration wave (it really has been an exceptional year) and last night was pretty fantastic with the first Golden Twin-spot for the garden and the second Ni-moth with supporting cast including Old World Webworm, 2 Dewick's Plusia, 2 Scarce Bordered Straws, Silver-Y, Southern Bell, Four-spotted Footman, 5 Rush Veneer, 6 Rusty-dot, 3 Portland Ribbon Wave, Diamond-back and Saltmarsh Knothorn. 

As usual all UK moth migration news, discussions and predictions on the excellent Migrant Lepidoptera Facebook Group HERE. Always indebted to this group for tip offs and encouragement to target effort on specific nights. 

Golden Twin-spot

Ni-moth

Silver-Y

Dewick's Plusia

and one of several Burnished Brass to add to the Plusia collection

Old World Webworm

Saltmarsh Knot-horn

Obsidentify says this is Scarce Oak Knot-horn, A.tumidana rather than A.repandana but I can't see the raised scales but presumably they could be worn. Will see what the CMR team say. 210825 update- the man from Del Monte says yes

Really cool to get these two together

Latest Dissection Results

Mike Bailey and Derek Lee have very kindly completed all the dissections from Little Oak Lodge for June and July. The results are very interesting with a few new species including the Nationally Scarce B, Dichrorampha flavidorsana aka Orange-spot Tansy moth, Aethes cnicana aka Thistle Straw, Coleophora mayrella, Chequered Pine Knot-horn, Dioryctria sylvestrella, Meadow White-barred, Aproaerema larseniella, Saltern Lance, Bactra robustana, Oak Case Bearer, Coleophora lutipennella, Common Ridge-back, Epermenia chaerophyllella, Burdock Seedhead moth, Metzneria lappella, Coleophora follicularis, Parornix anglicella, Agonopterix propinquella, Coleophora alcyonipennella and Coleophora deauratella. 

Now on 617 for the garden and 529 for the year. In the 7-8 years at the Old Vicarage I got up to 622 moth species so to get 617 here in just over a single year is pretty good comparitively. 

Thistle Straw at Little Oak Lodge by Mike Bailey

Angie's 50th

A wonderful weekend in the Malverns for my sister Angie's 50th birthday. Lovely to see all the family together for a weekend of live music, food and drink, yoga, pilates, sun-set walks and I also took the moth trap. 

I was even forced on stage to resurrect Thee Bryans -our family/freinds/community band that has been hibernating for a few years! I did a few bits I could remember including some of Daddy Long Legs (below). 

Great times! 

Our immediate clan

Two clans on both sides of Angie's family 

Peter Alfrey/Thee Bryans · DADDY LONG LEGS

Moth Mig and the first Antigastra catalaunalis

The heatwave continues and the moth migration is picking up. In the trap this morning was my first Toadflax Pearl, Antigastra catalaunalis, 2 Vestal, 2 Scarce-bordered Straw, 2 Small Mottled Willow, 2 Saltmarsh Knot-horn, 4 Rusty-dots, 5 Rush Veneer, 2 Comfrey Ermel, 5 Portland Ribbon Wave, 2 Turnip and about 10 White-points. Dispersives included 3 Rosy Knot-horns, a single Silky Wainscot, 9 Jersey Tigers and also had the first Flounced Rustic for the year. Now on 518 for the year and 610 for the garden. 

While doing the moths I had a Tree Pipit and 3 Mistle Thrush go over. 

We are away again from today for a few days, this time for my sister's 50th birthday. Will actually be nice to be able to properly catch up round here before the main autumn birding season starts. 

Toadflax Pearl aka Spanish Dot- a lifer. About the 15th record for Sussex.

Vestal

Scarce Bordered Straw 

The week back home

Finally catching up after being away. The last week has been pretty busy, more so as it's school holidays. After getting back home last Wednesday, it was back to work in London on Thursday and then back to London again on Friday to meet up with Lee and Rachel to visit the Dinosaur exhibition at the Lightroom in King's Cross. A walk along the canal and past London Wildlife Trust's Camley Street Natural Park was pleasant. 

My sister Chrissy was staying in the caravan last week and then Roger came down for the weekend before guests this week. Roger jammed into a bit of passerine migrant activity with 3 Spotted Flycatcher at Northcommon Farm, a nice fall of Willow Warblers and Wheatears and we also had Spotted Flycatcher, Tree Pipit, Willow Warblers and Reed Warbler in the Lane. Whitethroats are more or less everywhere at the moment. Had a few Whimbrel going over the garden on the weekend too. Ebird lists from the garden HERE and from Pagham Harbour HERE. Spot Fly and Tree Pipit were Peninsula year ticks- now on 173 for the year. 

The moth trap was really quiet despite the current heat wave until a couple of days ago when the migrant activity picked up culminating in the garden's first Ni-moth this morning. Also Rush Veneers, Rusty-dots and Small Mottled Willow.   Now on 610 for the garden and 518 for the year so smashing the targets. It's the first time I've had a garden that I've done over 500 in a year. 

Spotted Flycatcher in the Lane

Wheatears (above and below) at Church Norton

Whimbrel over the garden

Ni-moth - top of the wish list. Despite having the lure out, the actinic and the MV- I found it outside the traps on an old egg tray that Isaac had thrown down the back of the shed. Cheers Isaac! A UK tick. About 40 previous records in Sussex.  

Little Slender, Calybites phasianipennella- a lifer I think

Saltmarsh Knothorn

It's scrumping month! 

France 2025, Days Seven to Nine, The Journey Home

We decided to stretch out the journey back home so after checking out of Le Moulin de Pensol we headed to an AirBnB at Lemere near Chinnon for the night and visited the wonderful Chateau du Rivau. The next morning we spent the day around Chinon and the Fortress and then headed further north for a night at an eco-farm called L'arche de ma nature.

Sadly it was then time to make our way back over the Channel via a quick stop at a patissierre in Rennes and then back to Ouisterham-Caen for the ferry to Portsmouth. There was a bit of interesting marine life on the way back. 

An excellent little trip and nice test run for some longer adventures out of Portsmouth (our new escape portal) planned for next year (hoping to drive to Corsica for the WP bird ticks I need there) 

Mediterranean (Balearic) Shearwater. Had a couple of these. Also one distant large shearwater sp. Also had a couple of Black Terns and a few Common Terns, Fulmars and Gannets. 

Storm Petrel sp. Had these two petrels on the sea presumably European Storm Petrels.

Common Dolphin (above and below). Had a couple of pods of these. Also had Harbour Porpoise.

Something big and fishy- presumably a Blue-fin Tuna. 

Great Darts (above and below). Had these at the eco-farm and also had an Orange Underwing sp hawking by day in the garden. Also a few other bits in the Lepiled. 

The new mini Lepiled- the new addition to the moth trapping kit. The whole thing packs down into a small bag but the best feature is that the specialised LED lights (design to emit frequencies that maximise insect attraction) are powered from a standard power bank. Having such a light weight and relatively powerful bit of kit certainly opens up opportunities for more comfortable moth trapping travel and access to remote areas. As we took the campervan to France on this occasion I also took the 125W MV Robinsons to compare the performance which still out performed the lepiled but the lepiled was not bad. 

Chateau du Rivau

Chinnon Fortress (above and below). There was a large Cattle Egret roost in the trees along the river and Kingfishers were darting around. Had Hoopoe, Zitting Cisticola and Black Redstart nearby too. Lots of Cattle Egrets and a few Great Egrets were along the road on the journey too. 

The nab with Selsey Bill in the background- interesting to get a different perspective from all the hours seawatching from the Bill 

Back at Portsmouth