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It’s always a bit quiet bird-wise in June and July, but this weekend has seen a return to birding, with a Red-backed Shrike, handily placed for our lunch appointment and today a walk around Pagham Harbour.  In truth, this was more walk than birding, but we did get a nice red Curlew Sandpiper  and a few other waders.  They were too far away for decent pictures, though.  On the home front, the moth numbers are rising.

Swallow Prominent

Peach Blossom

Ethmia quadrillella, a rarity in Sussex

Directions to the Shrike: turn rght at the Dragonfly sculpture

Red-backed Shrike

A blast from the past

This handsome chap will turn into a grey Sycamore moth

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwit, still in summer plumage

Spotted Redshank

Our garden is home to a few species of Bush-cricket and over the last week we have added another in the form of Roesel’s Bush-cricket, which has taken to climbing on our doors and windows.

Also at home, the latest moth trap yielded an Oak Nycteoline, not the first we have had, but the first that has hung around long enough to be photographed.  Meanwhile on the Downs the Dark-green Fritilaries are out.

Roesel’s Bush-cricket

Roesel’s Bush-cricket

Oak Nycteoline

Dark-green Fritillary

Dark-green Fritillary

The heatwave continues and it’s quiet on the birding front, but the mothing is beginning to pick up a bit and the butterflies are more plentiful.  Attached are a few moths of recent traps, including a Bordered Sallow, a new moth for us, and a Silver-washed Fritillary from today’s walk.

Lime Hawkmoth

Small Elephant Hawkmoth

A herd of Elephants

Bordered Sallow

Large Emerald

Pebble Hooktip

Lesser-spotted Pinion

Silver-washed Fritillary

It was a glorious day yesterday, so a brisk 10 mile walk over the down from home and up to Cissbury Ring was just the thing.  It wasn’t a spectacular haul of wildlife, with 10 species of butterfly, a few dragonflies and damsels and a few birds, but Corn Buntings were plentiful and that’s a treat these days.

Corn Bunting

Six-spot Burnet on a Pyramidal Orchid

Marble White

A Tree Pipit on Cissbury Ring

Another Corn Bunting just after a bath

Karen brought a treat home from work today: a male Stag Beetle she had found.  It’s been a few years since we have had one at home, so it was great to see this magnificent beast again.

No, the cavalry aren’t coming, just a compilation of a week which saw a couple of evening trips out and more butterflies than birds.

Tuesday evening saw us charging across Sussex when an Elegant Tern at Church Norton was reidentified as an American Royal Tern.  On Wednesday we went out to Iping Common in search of Nightjars.  The longest day is the best time for good views of them, and the amphitheatre created by a coppice gave us fantastic views of at least three males and a female displaying just over our heads (the photos were still terrible, though).  On the way up we had quite a few roosting Silver-studded Blues.

Today we had a morning return to Iping, with a variety of dragonflies and damselflies and loads more Silver-studded Blues in better light, and then on to Knepp, where we had a bit more royalty with a few Purple Emperors (imperiously refusing to be purple) and some Purple Hairstreaks.

A Royal Tern in the high security prison on Tern Island

A roosting Silver-studded Blue

Broad-bodied Chaser

Four-spotted Chaser

Silver-studded Blue

Silver-studded Blue

Beautiful Demoiselle

A Purple Hairstreak keeps its wings firmly shut

This Hairstreak allows a glimpse of purple

Purple Emperor

Meanwhile at home, someone’s hungry

A trip to Ditchling Common today, not to see the London to Brighton Cycle Ride, but to see some Black Hairstreaks that have recently been found there. They were probably introduced to the site, but that was fifty years ago.

Black Hairstreak

Black Hairstreak

Black Hairstreak

Scorpion Fly

(We could hear the cycle ride: there must be a limit to the number of times in a day one person can say “well done everybody” to the participants, but it is in the thousands.)

A trip to Martin Down in Hampshire brought us a new butterfly, Marsh Fritillary, and a host of other butterflies and moths, as well as five species of orchid.

Skylarks were constantly singing

Marsh Fritillary

Small Blues, making smaller blues.

Adonis Blues were all over the place

Bee Orchid

Burnt-tip Orchid

Bird’s Nest Orchid

After a truly dreadful May in the moth trap, June started with a trap full of moths, including three Hawkmoth species.

Large Elephant Hawkmoth

Small Elephant Hawkmoth

Privet Hawkmoth

Light Brocade

Figure of 80

Middle-barred Minor

Buff Tip

Netted Pug

A visit to some friends yesterday turned out in unexpected fashion.  Despite being about 72 miles upriver from the Humber Estuary, there has been a Common Seal there for the last few weeks and it has featured on news reports across the world.  The afternoon was spent watching the sea life rescue services attempt to catch it and return it to the sea.  There is, or at least was, a lot of fish in this bit of river, so the seal was having none of it and remains at large.

This Swallow has a bit of growing to do before it’s as smart as its parents.

Banded Demoiselle

Common Seal, a long way from home.

Everyone’s out to get me.