The Phantom Branta

News broke late morning of a Red-breasted Goose from North Wall so Marc and I met up to track it down. Marc got to North Wall first and there was no sign. The bird was reported with 2 Pale-bellied Brents and 3000 Dark-bellied Brents but that was a bit odd as in recent days there has been a big clear out of Brents from the harbour. Maybe a new group had migrated in from further south? 

We then checked out the fields east of Marsh Farm where the geese had been getting this winter. There were 300 Brents in the fields but nothing with them. 80+ Cattle Egrets was some compensation. Our next place to check was the Rookery Lane fields but only 2 Brents there.  

Marc had to get back to work but I continued the search. As there has been some movement between the harbour and the Ham fields at Medmerry I drove over to check that area but again no Brents there.

The only other place on the Peninsula that concentrates Brents is West Wittering and East Head so I went over there and indeed there were 1500+ Brents in the West Wittering fields but nothing with them. It would have been odd if I found the North Wall birds there as we generally assume the Chichester Harbour and Pagham Harbour birds are from different populations. 

I had basically checked everywhere and couldn't even find the 3000 Brents! I spent the rest of the afternoon walking round East Head to see if the Snow Bunting was still there but alas I dipped that too but there was some compensation with my first Black-throated Diver for the year and a couple of Great Northern Divers off East Head. Checklist from today HERE. 

Marc got some more information from the Bird News Services and it turned out the record of the Red-breasted Goose had come from Bird Track by a birder nobody recognised the name of. After a bit more detective work by Andrew the best explanation is that someone had put historical data into Bird Track but forgot to change the date because there was actually a Red-breasted Goose off the North Wall with 2 Pale-bellied Brents and 300 Dark-bellied Brents on 27th February but not in 2026 but alas in 1986. 

So it appears I spent all day trying to track down a bird from 40 years ago. Got to be the deepest dip in birding history!

The Black-throated Diver puts me on 126 for the Peninsula year list. The first Wheatear appeared in the county today. 

The Brents at East Wittering (above and below)- despite the complete waste of time looking through them it was actually nice to have a good look at them as soon they will all be off to Russia

Cattle Egrets at Marsh Farm East fields- at least 80 birds

I checked out Snowhill Marsh while at East Head- the highlight was 31 Snipe feeding on the edges 

No Snow Bunting at East Head but singing and displaying Meadow Pipits and  Skylarks (above) and a couple of male Stonechats

A poor photo of one of the Great Northern Divers off East Head and a shockingly poor photo of the Black-throated (below). 

Harbour clear out

Had a quick look at Ferry and the harbour from the tramway this morning while I was procrastinating at work. The main observation was I only saw 10 Lapwing HERE (down from 4000-5000 just a couple of weeks ago). The clear out was confirmed by Les et al on East Side HERE who didn't see any Lapwings and reported that the Blackwits were down to 50 birds (1500 just a couple of weeks ago). 

I noticed on the vis-mig whatsapp that thermal imaging was revealing an exodus of birds over Surrey over the previous couple of nights (the birds were silent so not being picked up by noc-miggers). So clearly waterbirds that have been wintering on the coast are heading back in land or further afield to their breeding areas. This was a pattern I noticed when in Oxfordshire when the breeding waders (Lapwings, Redshanks, Oystercatchers and Curlews) would appear on breeding territory in late February e.g. See HERE. Presumably some of the waders there (presumably arriving now) have originated from areas like the Peninsula. 

There was also northward movements along the east coast of various species including Pink-footed Geese and Woodpigeons etc and the first Chaffinches were moving around Dungeness so clearly there is a general mass exodus occurring at the moment. Sand Martins are appear but scattered right across the country HERE. There's even been a recent Red-rumped Swallow in Ireland. 

Beside the negative sightings I also had the Green Sandpiper on Ferry and a Firecrest was singing in the discovery area (presumably a migrant). 7 Redwings were flying round the lane this morning too. 

The moth trap was more lively last night with 20 indiviudal moths including Depressaria daucella, Agonopterix hericliana and alstromeriana, Dotted Border, Early moth, Small and Common Quakers, Hebrew Character and 2 gorgeous Oak Beautys. 

Firecrest- not that many around this winter and seemingly not wintered in our garden as I haven't seen or heard one for many weeks 

Green Sandpiper 

Oak Beautys- stunning

A Wonderful Fool's Spring Day

The weather was lovely today, even more so as the last couple of months have been non-stop grey and rain. The wind was a light southerly and temperatures were around 15 C and it was sunny all day. 

I was at the Bill at dawn in order to make the most of the day. There was a bit on the move HERE with highlights including a nice first-winter Little Gull, a flock of 15 Shoveler moving east, 6 Red-throated Divers , 5 Great Northern Diver, Kittiwake, a few Common Scoters and a few Brents. Also Black-headed Gulls were on the move with 88 moving east with a few Med Gulls- there was a similar but larger movement off Dungeness today amongst a good days general passage HERE. 

I had to get back to the Lodge for 9am for a planned work day in the garden with Matt and Holly. We did a bit of a Spring clear out with a visit to the recycling centre and drew up the Spring garden plan. Was keeping my eyes out while working- highlight was a Red Kite. This morning while doing the moths I had Coot and Moorhen calling and last night a Wigeon flew over calling. Checklist from the garden today HERE.

After Matt left I went over to Church Norton to make the most of the fine weather. Highlight was catching up with the Spoonbill (albiet distant views as it flew towards Chichester cathedral) which was found earlier in the day and there were a few Siskins in the Severals alders and a nice Greenshank in the harbour.  About 20 Cattle Egrets were also gathering in the trees at Owl Copse. Checklist HERE. 

Red Kite and Spoonbill were local year ticks so now on 125 for the year (the community total is 147- another record for the Peninsula). 

Despite the amazing weather the moth trap was quiet (too clear and humid) but there were a few day flying insects including Bumblebees and a Peacock butterfly.

Glad to make the most of the glimpse of Spring as soon the rain is starting again and no doubt we still have a bit of winter sting to endure yet before Spring proper. 

Greenshank

Adult Red Kite over the garden

Siskin

Adult Med nearly in summer plumage- more birds were calling today too

Shovelers on the move- the first migrating ducks I've seen this Spring

Black-headed and Med Gulls on the move 

Neat Cosmet, Mompha divisella. I caught this dusking yesterday evening. A site first if confirmed by gen dent. I had a candidate last year HERE but didn't retain it so hopefully will get a confirmation this time. Only one previous confirmed Sussex record according to the Sussex Moth Group website. 

Dingy Flat-body, Depressaria daucella- nearly double figures yesterday evening 

Another first for I-Naturalist from West Papua

Appears there hasn't been a lot of moth trapping in the Arfaks, West Papua by I-Naturalist users with news today from Shelley B and Rob de Vos from the Papua Insects Foundation HERE that we had our 7th first for I-Nat on our 2022 Wise Birding trip. Previous updates on this HERE and the latest addition is Sinapex nigrilineata  HERE and HERE. It's an endemic species confined to the Arfaks HERE. It's also possible we had a completely undescribed species HERE. Considering there are nearly 300 million records of 555,000 species on I-Nat adding a few new species to the database is pretty nice although admittedly I just did the donkey work of collecting the specimens and the id is being done by the PIF. 

All our West Papua Observations HERE and the research grades ones HERE. As this is supposed to be a birding blog here's all our bird records too HERE (as usual click all details in the report to see the photos). 

There's still another 300 photo specimens to go through!, so more likely we've added a few more species too and there's always the possibility that we caught something really exciting. Will see. 

Moth trapping in West Papua 

Spring Shoots

Back in the field today. Started off at the Bill where we (The Hunters, Ian, Andrew, two Pauls and I) witnessed a nice little trickle of Spring migration. The first day of any movements for me but Brents have been trickling east for the last couple of days. Highlights included 1-2 Fulmars (my 500th bird of the year), a cracking male Eider, I had 19 Brents moving east, an Avocet went west, 3 Curlews went past, a Great Northern Diver was on the sea, five Red-throated Divers went west, 6 Skylarks came in-off and there was a Meadow Pipit in the sea cabbage. My sightings HERE and full log HERE. 

After coffee with Paul and Liz at Costa I met Andrew at the Ferry Pool (8 Lesser Black-backs were the highlights) and then I headed over to East Side and did the walk from White's Creek to Pagham Spit and back. 73 species of approx 6000 birds (half of what I had a few weeks ago) with highlights including a Ruff, 2 Spotted Redshanks, 1 Greenshank, a clear increase in Pintail to approx 200 birds and a Stonechat. Still about 1000 Blackwits and 450 Golden Plovers but seemingly a decrease in Lapwing and Brent Goose numbers which accounted for most of the reduction in individual birds. Checklist HERE. 

If I'm not mistaken I'm now on 123 for the Peninsula year and 125 for the county HERE and with the Eider and Fulmar  I'm on 501 for the world year. 

I've had the moth trap out on a couple of recent mild evenings (back up to about 9 C at the moment at night) and had some early spring moths including Dotted Border, Common and Small Quaker, Angle Shades, Grey Shoulder Knot and Hebrew Character. 

I'm declaring today as my personal first day of Spring 2026 what with the visible migration today, the uptick in spring moths and also plenty of early flowering plants now out locally. 

We've got some mild southerlies predicted for the next couple of days which could be interesting. The first Sand Martins were in the country yesterday.

Fulmar

Ruff, Teal, Spotted Red and Redshank (right to left)

Brents on the move- it has begun.

Avocet on the move

An increase in Pintail including a couple of these deeply stained or pigment saturated birds (below) which could indicate some kind of origin associated with an environment that caused that. I haven't seen any others this winter looking like that so they are presumably new from elsewhere or else it's related to plumage transformation in situ?

Knot-nice to see one close

Stonechat- I haven't seen Stonechat on my rounds on this part of the harbour for several weeks so it's possible this is some kind of migrant

Common Quakers

Angle Shades 

Hebrew Character 

Ghana Revision and a bonus lifer

Everyone in the family is down with a winter cold today so I took the opportunity to work through photos from Ghana to revise some birds and eventually upload all my photos to Ebird. Amongst the photos I found an excellent lifer- Yellow-casqued Hornbill which had got lost as Jaffa and I saw them at Kakum on an extra day before a tour started so they didn't appear in the trip report so the species didn't make it on my lists and hence got lost in time. 

Also found some nice pics that I haven't published on the blog before . Here's a few pics from the archive and will post a link when I've uploaded all my old photos onto my Ghana Ebird HERE.

Also added some more herps to the Ghana I-Nat project HERE. 

Yellow-casqued Hornbill (male above, female below). 

Black Dwarf Hornbill

African Pied Hornbill

Female African Piculet

Honey Buzzard

African Pygmy Kingfisher 

Long-tailed Glossy Starling 

Black Bee-eater 

Egyptian Plovers

Spotted Night Adder 

African Saw-scaled Viper 

Week round-up

Surprisingly there were a couple of wildlife highlights during the half term week in the matrix with the kids (a week of Retail parks, petting zoo, soft play, adventure golf, Harvesters, McDonalds, Waterparks and other hellscapes which the kids love). A day at Cotswold wildlife park was the highlight . I had an Otter from the car while in the drive-through for Starbucks in Thame and while driving through the Cotswolds on the way to the waterpark a Merlin flew over the car. The Merlin puts me on 499 for the world year list. 

Also a few other highlights from the records validation front. We now have several 'firsts for I-Naturalist' from our 2022 West Papua trip thanks to Shelley B, the project admin who is working through the identifications (and telling me off frequently for my sloppy data dumping strategy). The records are:

 https://uk.inaturalist.org/observations/137116830 

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/135870584

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/135752605

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/137120542

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/338404208

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/338400524 (the first male for I-Nat)

It's also possible we've got an undescribed species: HERE

In my defence simultaeneously I have been working through all my old Ghana records and cleaning up and actually learning the identifications- during the travel times and early mornings before the kids activities. After a clean up on my old Ghana records my Ghana bird life list is now 470 and got a few more identifications and corrections on the leps  HERE. Been doing a lot of revising too ready for our trip next month.

Also finished reading the species accounts of the Birds of Sussex finally- quite a hefty tome to be reading in the car. Also been closing the gap between my I-GoTerra and Ebird life lists, now on 3557 for Ebird HERE. 

Basically very much looking forward to getting back in the field. Not much chance today as Holly's 40th birthday. 

Sad news this week is that the fox got our ducks and geese while away. So gutted about that. Will need to work on a more secure setting before we get some more. 

Achrosis pulchricolor- a first for I-Nat HERE. It's actually a common species HERE but clearly not for I-Nat users. 

Prepping

THEE BRYANS

Helm Talks - energy climate infrastructure & more · 2030

I'm a fan of Dieter Helm (Net Zero and Natural Capital pioneer) and as usual while travelling to London was listening to his podcast this morning. Interesting to hear some of his predictions for the next four or five years on the podcast '2030' (embedded above) which include amongst other things like China taking Taiwan,  the potential over-hyping of AI, the Net Zero and 2030 projects failing etc, also his predictions include a high risk of the next huge financial correction before 2030 and the necessity for a new pathway following the crash. 

Bubble territory is the term I keep reading in the financial media. I know nobody knows, Helm also agrees he is not certain, but the thing about our unsustainable system is that it literally cannot be sustained and it's just a question of the nature of the time line of how that collapse and rebuild occurs. 

Personally I'm with Helm on this (or rather I trust his expert opinion)- I'll be very surprised if we are not extremely close to the bubble bursting (within a five year time frame). There are a lot of indicators suggesting iminent (in deeper time terms) collapse including blow-off top financial markets, extreme volatility in commodities, escalating global conflict, what Mark Carney described recently at Davos as the emergence of  a 'post rule based world order', the consolidation of fortress superpowers like China, Russia and the USA,  Clown/apocolyptic leaders (Trump etc), unprecedented corruption scandals (Epstein, Mandleson etc), widening inequality, huge debt to GDP ratios and escalating ecological and climate chaos. 

Anyway  better to listen to Dieter Helm rather than my penny's worth. For those who don't know Helm, he is Professor of Economic Policy at Oxford, author of the book Net Zero and former chair of the Natural Capital Committee advising the UK government (and was the next door neighbour of our friend Barry when we were in Oxfordshire). Dieter Helm website HERE. 

What that post-collapse new system might look like is something we've been experimenting with at Little Oak Group for years, a parallel structure which tests out some post-GDP paradigm models. I studied this stuff 30 years ago at University and only now is it becoming more and more relevant. Our main experiment has been with a triple bottom line enterprise model that measures growth and value in Social, Ecological and Economic metrics. The idea is to position ourselves to ride any waves that may or may not come our way (I know very well we are just as likely to get swept away by the tsunami as anyone else)  following the consequences of unsustainability. Thee Bryans is our campaigning  arm of what we do so considering we seem to be moving increasingly into Bubble terriority we've been spending more time in recent weeks updating the website and material etc. More to come on this. New website pic above and old track below.  

Peter Alfrey/Thee Bryans · The Bubble Will Burst Sample

Weekend and Ebird Updates

MY EBIRD

It's that time of year before Spring starts- time to clean up data and systems.  Thanks to the help of Dave and Sue while in Thailand and more so to Jaffa for more detailed instructions I managed to move my world list from IGoTerra to Ebird. Still missing a few but I'll pick away at finding the discrepancy between my IGoTerra list of 3571 and my Ebird list of 3545- not bad a difference considering the scale of the operation! 

Roger popped down this weekend but what with Valentine's Day rituals and awful weather today, didn't get out birding at all this weekend. Worst still it's half term this week and the whole week is full up of work, family visits, zoo visits, birthdays (Holly's 40th) and waterparks. At least it will be fun albiet rather unproductive.  

Apart from a few Chestnuts and Depressaria daucellas the constant rain and rather cold evenings have been pretty unproductive for moths on several nights I tried. However Friday night was a bit better with 2 Early moths, Hebrew Character, Acleris sp, Depressaria daucella and Chestnut. 

So basically it's all been desk top this weekend. I've also been picking away at the next couple of papers for Dutch Birding- one on the Paddyfield Pipit we found in Oman and a Corvo 20 year reveiw paper. 

Here's a link to my Ebird world list HERE. It will be easier to keep track (as Ebird live updates from the field) on my life goal to get to 5000 world species eventually. However world listing is not the main focus but more so on our exploration projects and trying to discover interesting and rare records. One of the most exciting excercises was uploading all my Ghana data to get my Ghana bird  list HERE which is 458 which is the highest number from any one country for me. Hope to add more to that next month. Also meanwhile the I-Naturalist validation has been coming along with around 200 butterflies and moth species identified for Ghana HERE (some stunning species in there!) and slowly getting some ids on the West Papua leps HERE. I know from Sue that we've already had a few firsts for I-Nat from West Papua which is pretty impressive considering the scale of that database now. 

Now I'm all up to date with the Ghana records we (Kev, me, Robert and Isaac) can hit the ground running on next month's visit and live update/populate Ebird and I-Nat which will be a useful way of referencing identifications and setting targets. The general objective is eventually to get more skilled and focused in our exploration to find some good records. In terms of our other projects (in Bulgaria, Azores and UK) the scale of biodiversity out there is off the scale so a much more difficult mission.  

I-Naturalist Updates

Western Fantasia, Ankasa, Ghana

I'm pretty excited about returning to Ghana next month to continue our 'tropics project'. One thing or another (mainly our Isaac and plague) has meant the last time we were out there was in 2019. However since then I-naturalist has developed further so I've uploaded all our moths and butterfly photo specimens from trips in 2013, 2017, 2018 and 2019 and started a Ghana folder HERE which we will use to populate further next month. Just hope that internet connections in Ghana have improved since then too. Originally the plan for Ghana was to do something similar to the Bulgaria project i.e. purchase a wildlife plot and improve the habitat and use it as a base for recording and exploring but the logistics in West Africa proved to be exceptionally challenging. So this time the objective is not so far reaching but instead to explore for some more difficult bird species in Ankasa and Mole National Parks and getting the moth traps out into habitat and recording the butterflies too. 

Sue and I also discovered this weekend that we can't share the same records on I-Nat so I uploaded all my photo specimens from our 2022 West Papua trip HERE which was fortuitous as I had an extra 100 potential species or so in my folders.

As I've just uploaded the photo specimens it will take quite a long time for the records to be verified to research grade.  

I found this in the 2013 Ghana folder. If the I-nat AI is not mistaken it's a Tunbridge Wells Gem. I've been looking out for these when I get Golden Twinspots. Didn't know I'd seen one before. 

East Side Corn Buntings

I continued exploring the parts of the Peninsula that I haven't reached yet. Today I did Pagham rife and walked back round to North Wall. HERE . Highlights were 5 Corn Bunting in the direlect fields by the Pagham road with 35 Yellowhammers and the 3 White-fronts where around the fields and 2 Spotted Redshanks were in White's Creek. 

Corn Buntings are generally strictly confined to the Ham area near Medmerry on the west side of the Peninsula and Andrew informs me that this is the first time in years they've been seen on the East side. 

Corn Bunting 

Spotted Redshank

White-fronts and Canadas

Interestingly there were Gadwalls on Shovelers in the Honer Fields which is unusual - maybe birds from the Ferrry area but also maybe migrants? 

There has certainly been a big increase in Common Gulls numbers (and Meds) recently with about 200 today on my travels . Maybe these birds have been pushed off flooded fields from elsewhere or could possibly be migrants moving?