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Not much action from us over the bank holiday weekend, but we got the traditional passage of migrants through the field behind us, with Whinchat, many Spotted Flycatchers, a Pied Flycatcher (briefly) Whitethroats, Lesser Whitethroats, Willow Warblers, the occasional flyover Yellow Wagtail, as well as all three Hirundines, but strangely no Redstarts yet.  A Reed Warbler in the pond today was a pleasant surprise.

A bad shoulder limited my activity over last weekend, but we managed to get up to Cissbury and picked up not much, with the only notable on-foot birds outside my limited range.  A return to work on Monday changed everything with a Black Terns in Shoreham and a Wryneck at Cissbury while I was at work.  Grrrr!

Fortunately, the Wryneck was found again today and I was able to dash up after work.  The bird showed for about 10 s shortly after I arrived, but after that I just had glimpses of it: crazily elusive.  That 10 s were enough for a few pictures, though.

Whinchat

Common Darter enjoying the return of water to the pond

Spotted Flycatcher on the wires at the end of the garden

Dinner is served

A real bruiser of a Sparrowhawk

This young Great Spotted Woodpecker knows what to do with his nuts.

Lesser Whitethroat

Wryneck

Roe Deer

A midweek moth trap finally delivered a long overdue Jersey Tiger: it was beginning to feel like we were the only moth trappers in Sussex without having seen one.  Unfortunately, it was so worn it looked as though it had swum over from Jersey, but we’re not complaining.

The lure of Wood Sandpiper and Ruff at Pulborough Brooks wasn’t enough to make me drag myself over there.  Instead I had a walk on the downs in search of migrants, which have been coming through all week.  A couple of Redstarts were an addition to the on-foot list for the year and a Wheatear and Spotted Flycatchers were nice, but infrequent.  The bird I was really after was Pied Flycatcher, but there was nothing doing, until, when I was about as far from home as I could be, a friend put out news of one near home.  A dash back got me there in time to spend a nearly an hour with a showy bird.

Today Karen joined me on the downs, but it was quieter than yesterday, with just one Redstart and a Wheatear in amongst the Willow Warblers.  On the way back news came on about 9 Spoonbills flying past Widewater, on the coast.  Wrong place again!  We were in sight of the sea, three miles away, and Spoonbills are big and white, so we found a suitable vantage and stared at the sea.  Sure enough, after a minute or so 9 white dots appeared and moved along the coast, before moving a bit inland.  It’s not often I photograph birds at three miles distance.

Jersey Tiger

Silver-spotted Skipper

Wheatear

Don't worry, the Swallows will be gone soon, so I can't take many more pictures.

Spotted Flycatcher

Pied Flycatcher

Aperture: 7.1
Camera: Canon EOS R5
Iso: 500

9 Spoonbills fly over Splash Point

We’re having a long weekend in Yorkshire this weekend, and autumn migration is starting.

It’s a long time since I had two lifers in a day in the UK, even though there have been two chances (Caspian Tern but no Albatross last year, and Eleonora’s Falcon but no Sardinian Warbler early on this year), so the possibility of the Cape Gull on the way up north and the Red-tailed Shrike was too much to resist.  That hope died almost the moment we decided to come up north, when the Cape Gull went missing, but the Shrike, which was a world lifer and a smart bird, and so much more interesting than the gull, hung around and gave superb views yesterday afternoon.

After a night in a B&B where I think the name Galtry flagged up that they needed to serve huge quantities of food (good food at that) we went to Flamborough this morning and got a second lifer in two days: a long overdue Icterine Warbler, that never showed as close as the Shrike, but was very welcome.

Yellow Wagtail

Teaching the kid to fly

A beast of a Yellow-legged Gull

About the only view of a red tail

Red-tailed (or Turkestan) Shrike

Bempton Cliffs, Filey Brig and Scarborough Castle in the distance

An Iccy at last

What are you looking at

All plumages of Kittiwake are nice, but the juvenile plumage is my favourite

Autumn migration has started, with a large number of Willow Warblers (or Wibblers, after their song) on the Downs: an eleven mile walk around Cissbury Ring and the Monarch’s Way found about 70 of them, as well as a Whinchat and 9 Wheatears.  The mothing has been quiet, but we’ve had a few nice moths too.

This Bank Vole has taken up residence in the garden

Garden Tiger

Oak Eggar

Comma

Dark Arches

Wheatear

Willow Warbler

Hummingbird Hawk Moth

Being close to the sea, we were rather cooler than the record-breaking temperatures in the week, but it has still been pretty hot.  The best moths have been either side of the hot days, with a plethora of new species for the garden, 5 in a fortnight, including some fairly scarce migrants.

Butterflies have also been plentiful, but the birds remain pretty quiet: that should change over the next few weeks.

Small Phoenix

Stonechat

Brussels Lace

Brown Argus

Ruddy Darter

Hare

Reed Warbler

Black-tailed Skimmer

Wasp Spider

Peach Blossom

Splendid Brocade

Chalkhill Blue

Dark Green Fritillary

… and the birding is rubbish.  Still, there’s lots of butterflies, and the mothing is slowly picking up.

A walk up the down yesterday found Dark-green and Silver-washed Fritillaries in Sompting, Hummingbird Hawkmoths and a good supporting cast of other insects.  Later we went to Knepp to find the Large Tortoiseshell that has taken up residence.  It didn’t look promising, but after a while it was found drinking sap from an oak tree: rare, but not much to look at with a dull underside in the dark.  Fortunately after about 20 minutes it flew out and sat in the sun at eye level close by.

An Emperor laying on Sompting Brooks

Broad-bodied Chaser

Eyed Hawkmoth

Family photo: Eyed, Privet, Elephant and Small Elephant Hawkmoths

Green Woodpecker

Essex Skipper, I think

Swallow

Painted Lady

Six-spot Burnet

Dark Green Fritillary

Large Tortoiseshell

Large Tortoiseshell

Black-tailed Skimmer (immature male)

Purple Hairstreak

Purple Emperor

Last night we went off looking for Nightjars.  Unfortunately the males on our favoured common have stopped displaying around us and have moved to more inaccessible locations, making it unrewarding, until a female came and sat in front of us for a minute in reasonable light (reasonable for observation that is).  The picture is bad, but remarkable that there’s a picture at all, at 2149.

A trip to the New Forest today was disappointing: only a brief view of a Goshawk and very few other raptors , and little else enlivened an otherwise pleasant walk.

A Swallow on the down behind us

Skylark. It's rude to sing with your mouth full.

Female Nightjar

It'll take your arm off - the Sundew is a carnivorous plant.

Silver-studded Blue

We had two more visits to  Bempton while we were in Yorkshire, but both times the Albatross decided to hide from us, leaving me nothing to do but take pictures of Auks.  Well, someone had to do it…

Yet another Puffin

An angry Kittiwake

Hello Kitty

Guillemot

Homemaking

Razorbill on final approach

Some Sand Eels were hurt in the making of this picture.

Two contrasting challenges over the last two days: yesterday photographing fast-moving, unpredictable, Sand Martins in good light, and today woodland birds in appalling overcast light in the Dales.

The Sand Martins proved two things: 1) take several hundred photos and you’ll get something decent by accident, 2) they’re easier to take when perched.

The woodland birds were tough, but the camera produced some decent high ISO shots, that aren’t too bad after a bit of tweaking.  The highlight was finding a Wood Warbler.  They’re getting so scarce in Yorkshire that I’d given up on seeing one, so having an hour being trilled at by one was a real treat.

Sand Martin

A female Pied Flycatcher in the gloom

Strid Woods, is there anywhere better in spring?

Dipper

A male Pied Flycatcher

A Wood Warbler sings his heart out

Lapwing

We’re up in Yorkshire for the jubilee holiday, and no visit to Yorkshire is complete without at least one visit to Bempton, particularly when there’s an Albatross.

Unfortunately, Albert didn’t cooperate very much, with only a brief show of circling more distantly than last year, before flying out and settling on the sea at a distance.  However, there was lots of opportunities to practice birds in flight…

In Sompting, the Little Owl was grumpy to be photographed.

Kittiwake

Razorbill

A Puffin brings breakfast

Gannet

Jackdaw

Fulmar

Finally, Albert puts in an appearance.

This Skylark was too lazy to fly while singing.