Author: galtrym

A walk up poppy-clad Steep Down with my brother and sister in law yesterday was hot and starred a post-breeding flock of ~50 Corn Buntings.  At home we’ve had Whinchats, Wheatears, a Spotted Flycatcher and a Garden Warbler, but that’s just a fraction of the number of birds up on the Downs as the moment.

Today I had a day off, spent twitching Long-tailed Blues in Brighton (the one at Steep Down was hiding yesterday) and then hiding from the heat.  A Brown Hairstreak at the Blue site was a welcome bonus.

Poppies

A long-tailed Blue (actually with tails)

A very brief view of one open

They bombed about crazily, only occasionally resting

A good day with my brother and sister in law, starting with at least a couple handsome Lesser Whitethroats as well as a larger number of Common Whitethroats at home.  At the Sea Lane café in Goring we had a nice surprise in the form of a Great White Egret.  Later on we had a walk up Cissbury Ring where we had a bucket load of migrants: at least 6 Spotted Flycatchers on the ring, a brief view of a Redstart, a fly-over Yellow Wagtail announced itself, but didn’t show, but a Wheatear was more cooperative.  A Whinchat at the top of a tall tree was slightly unexpected, but best of all was a long-awaited Pied Flycatcher, which I’ve been looking for for the last couple of weeks.

Whinchat

Pied Flycatcher

Spotted Flycatcher

Not a smoking bush, but a swarm of flying ants

Wheatear

On Saturday we decided to see what the strong winds were blowing up the channel.  After more than two hours, the answer was clear: nothing.  Our full list was 1 Gannet, 1 Cormorant, 2 Turnstones and a small handful of Herring Gulls.  With the wind dropped a bit today, we went to Pagham to see if we could catch up with the elusive Squacco Heron.  It wasn’t very elusive today, thankfully, staying put for more than four hours in plain sight (at least it was still in exactly the same place when we came back).  It caught a couple of fish while we were watching and had a brief flight, until it decided it was too windy and came back.  A couple of Cattle Egrets added to the Mediterranean feel.

It’s just caught lunch

Walking into better view, in preparation for a take off

Off it goes

Gotcha!

Afternoon tea

Cattle Egret

Greenshank

A rather quiet and lazy week, spent suffering with sinusitis, left me up to doing little walking or birding over the weekend, which was dominated by visits by family and also friends from Spain (Pablo is very interested in moths, so we were kept busy).  The moth trap revealed another welcome immigrant in the shape of a Gypsy moth, another first for the house, and a few welcome firsts for the year.

Gypsy Moth

Buff Ermine: a common moth, but seldom so extravagantly marked

Pebble Hook-tip

Garden Tiger

Common Wave

I’ve been feeling a bit ropy this weekend, so the prospect of a quick return to Pulborough to add the Wood Sandpiper to the on-foot list didn’t appeal.  Instead we had a rather shorter and slower 15 mile walk up to Cissbury and Chanctonbury rings.  Butterflies abounded on a sunny, but breezy day – very different to the flooded north.

Instead of one bird, I added three butterflies to the on-foot list: Chalkhill Blue, Silver-spotted Skipper and Essex Skipper, which was a nice surprise (I know they’re up there, but I thought separating one from Small Skipper would be beyond me).

Common Blue

Stonechat

Chalkhill Blue, male

Six-spotted Burnet

Chalkhil Blue, female

Silver-spotted Skipper, refusing to cooperate

Essex Skipper, easily separated from Silver-spotted, as it hides its backside behind grass instead of its head.

We haven’t seen a Hare for a few weeks, so this was a nice surprise.

My spur of the moment decision to walk to Pulborough on Sunday was looking a bit poor when after an hour scouring the brooks on my own, with rubbish lightweight optics, I had got none of my target species.  (Good job I said I had wanted a good walk.)  The prospect of a 13 mile walk back empty-handed wasn’t too appealing and I was on the point of ringing Karen up to beg a lift, when the Great White Egret I had hoped for flew across and vanished.  A dash down to another viewpoint to find it was unsuccessful for the Egret, but yielded a female Marsh Harrier and then the Green Sandpipers that had been scandalously missing earlier.  No lift back for me!

Three more species, added to a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull on Friday afternoon takes my on foot list to 162 for the year, or is it 163?  The White Stork that we saw from home last week would be an exciting addition, if it weren’t for the “re”-introduction that is happening 10 miles north of us.

After missing a singing Quail a couple of weeks ago (I arrived about half an hour after it had shut up for the night), it was great to get a call from Nick on Friday telling me he had found another.  After a 40 minute dash to Steep Down I could just hear a distant bird delivering its “wet my lips” call, barely audible over my gasps for breath.  Bird 158 on the on-foot list for the year.  Following the sound at a more leisurely pace I did get to within a few feet of it next to a footpath, but in the dense vegetation it was never going to be seen.

Yesterday we had a walk to the Dover.  The birds were largely absent, but the main target was butterflies.  We had 20 species in the day, including two species of Fritillaries and our first White Admirals of the year.

Karen goes for camouflage in the poppy field. (The Quail is in the green field behind.)

Grumpy!

Junior has a rest between flying lessons.

Dark Green Fritillary

Ringlet

Silver-washed Fritillary

White Admiral

She likes walking through corn fields and would make a hopeless prime minister…

The warm weather this week has been good for moth variety, including a few of our favourites, as well as a new moth for the house list: Obscure Wainscot.

Buff Tip

Yellow Shell

Obscure Wainscot, a new moth for home

Eyed Hawmoth

Not rare, but this Nutmeg shows its camouflage.

It’s been a good week for lepidoptera at home, with a fly-by Marbled White adding itself to the house list and two new moths, at opposite ends of the spectacular scale.  The first, a Small Dotted Buff, isn’t going to win any beauty contests, but the Scarlet Tiger is the moth of the year.  There was a good supporting cast, including 11 Hawkmoths last night (and five species for the week).

A couple of walks on the downs had loads of butterflies, with Painted Ladies in abundance, a few Ringlets and a Dark Green Fritillary.  It took us ages to find Little Owl this year, but now I know I regularly walk past a nest site, I see one most weeks.  On Friday one finally posed for the camera (its mate was less cooperative).

A day Barn Owl ringing produced a mix bag of full and empty boxes, but there were enough chicks for me to ring my first.

Phoenix

Small Dotted Buff

Corn Bunting

Little Owl

Marbled White

My first ring. This chick was very small.

An older chick

Karen gets a turn

Barrie gets the details from mum’s ring

A herd of elephants: five Elephant and four Small Elephant Hawkmoths

Privet Hawkmoth

Poplar Hawkmoth

Scarlet Tiger

We took a step into the unknown yesterday evening, helping a bird ringer check some Barn Owl boxes.  It was in at the deep end straight away: I was sent up the ladder, extracted two chicks, and then Karen got to put a ring on one of them.  The next box was empty and the last had a Stock Dove in.

No doubt there will be more pictures as we do a bit more, but thanks to Nick and Claire Oliver for taking these.

The perfect cure for fear of heights: you’re so terrified of damaging the blighter or getting skewered by her that you forget you’re teetering around on the top of a ladder.

A picture of concentration

Taking a chick out of a bag