August easterly

There was a strong southeast wind today which was unusual. I decided to do East Side as I knew this would be sheltered from the wind. It didn't pick up until mid-morning and there were a few Yellow Wagtails and a Tree Pipit going over first thing. With a 0915 four meter high tide I wasn't expecting too much as a four meter high tide rarely covers all the mud but with the surge it was okay and moved a lot of the harbour birds around. I bumped into Paul Bowley (the Pom King) and had 75 species in about 4 hours of over 5500 individuals HERE. The numbers were made up by a large gull feeding flock at Pagham Spit and also a significant increase in Dunlin and Ringed Plover numbers in the harbour with 274 and 200 respectively. The eclipse male Pintail was in the channel, as were 3 Spotted Redshanks, with 8 Greenshank around and most unsual was a juvenile Little Ringed Plover hiding amongst the Ringed Plovers (not an association on salt marsh I have seen before). There was also a couple of Snipe, 11 Knot and the first Marsh Harrier I've seen for many weeks. 

The Hunters found a couple of Little Stints at Norton so I drove over there after breakfast and located a juvenile. Unfortunately I still haven't caught up with the Osprey that keeps appearing in the harbour (the Hunters had it today too).

Now that Gareth James has merged all the Ebird hotspots into the 'Pagham Harbour RSPB Reserve and LNR- Pagham Harbour area' super hotspot, a nice Pagham Harbour 2026 Ebird annual report is emerging HERE. 171 species recorded this year by the community with some great patterns and trends appearing in the bar charts and even more interesting patterns by deep diving into the data. A few examples in the captions below. 

The moth trap was pretty quiet with highlights including 2 Blacknecks and a Garden Pebble. I've got a problem with the electics on my MV which I need to sort out so down to the twin actinic and lepiled now. On 533 moths for the year at the moment which is set to slow right down from here on. A final heatwave for the summer  would be good especially after a bit more rain. 

Holly's friend Christine stayed for a couple of days but is now back on the road (she is a campervan nomad).  

Juv Little Ringed Plover (left) in with the Ringed Plovers. The recent influx in Ringed Plovers is shown well HERE

Juvenile Little Stint (left) with Dunlin and Ringed Plover

The eclipse male Pintail with Great Crested Grebe and one of the head-started Curlews

Grey Plover and Knot- a recent influx in Grey Plover.  Autumn flucutations shown in this graph HERE. There were also a few noteable absentees today including Black-tailed and Bar-tailed Godwit and Avocet which all seem to have moved on. 

I estimated about 3000 mixed gulls out in the harbour mouth- it was too windy to go through them properly. After the breeding season was over Black-headed Gulls were around in relatively low numbers but today there was major influx HERE. Possibly continental birds moving in on the easterly? 

There were approx 400 Sand Martins, many sitting out on the islands in the harbour. Relatively very few Sand Martins come through the Peninsula in Spring but in autumn they are abundant. e.g. see this year's graphs HERE. 

Juvenile Whimbrel- after the adult movements in July and early August the waders are now dominated by juveniles, particularly in the Dunlin flock.  Whimbrel Spring passage is generally much more significant than the autumn passage, e.g see this years numbers HERE. 

Juvenile Turnstone. Turnstone trends in Pagham Harbour for this year HERE. 

The most interesting thing in the moth traps last night were these Night-flying Dung Beetles. Another new species for the garden. Now on over 400 pan-species HERE (not including leps, dragonflies, mammals and birds which are recorded seperately).