Pagham Snow Bunting

 

Whilst not a common bird Snow Buntings usually turn up somewhere local on the Sussex coast every year. If I am lucky it is within walking distance of home with Goring beach being a regular location. This year, with November drawing to a close and no local sightings, I had to travel down to Pagham Harbour for my year tick.

Snow Bunting

The Snow Bunting had been in the area for nearly two weeks and had been reported regularly so finding it should not have been so difficult. However, the bird is well camouflaged and can be difficult to locate when on its usual foraging area on the pebbles along the tide line. With most birds you would expect to flush them if you walk too close but with the Snow Bunting you usually have to be close enough to tread on it before it will move.

Snow Bunting

I searched the tideline along the spit a couple of times but could not locate it, so thinking it may have relocated to a different area over high tide, I decided to come back later. Fortunately on the way back to the car I met up with "Pagham Birder" who seemed mystified by my inability to find the Snow Bunting. We returned to the harbour wall where he quickly located it in its usual spot. 

My thanks to Trevor for the help but it's always a bit easier when you know where the usual spot is!

Snow Bunting

After a vey quiet autumn it was great to see the harbour starting to fill up with birds. Duck numbers where building nicely, with Brent Geese starting to arrive and flocks of waders circling around the harbour.

Particularly impressive where some large flocks of Knot roosting out on the shingle bars and harbour islands.

Knot

They were even more impressive in flight but it is always difficult to capture the scale and effect of the swirling flock in a still picture.

Knot

There were plenty of Stonechats along the spit but it was sad to see that the little lagoon had been eliminated by tidal movements and that the trees and bushes used for nesting by the linnet flock were now underwater.

Stonechat

There were Mergansers and a Slavonian Grebe in the harbour but having left the scope in the car I did not get to see them. 

Also interesting was a Sandwich Tern fishing in the harbour. It was probably a lot easier than attempting to find food on the rough sea beyond the spit. Its attempts proved successful and the shot below shows it flying off with a rather large fish.

Sandwich Tern

To finish, two of pictures of a Black-necked Grebe resident  for a short period  at the beginning of October on the lake at Brooklands Park. It is good to see that recent improvements there are turning it into a more promising area for nature.

Lets hope the Grebe is a sign of better things to come.

Autumn Moths

 

The garden mothing season is coming to an end. I have tried putting the trap out through the winter but I see very few moths and nothing of real interest. I also now have to contend with the thought of wasting all that electricity to power the trap for a potential zero return.

My total for the year to date is 297 species with around 215 of those being caught in the garden. Not bad given my urban location although I do benefit from being on the south coast and thus the chance of the occasional migrant species. 

Looking back , the year could have delivered a better total but with a cold spring I was off to a poor start and later in the year I didn't get the trap out as often as I would have liked.

Even so, the last two or three months have still proved to be interesting with a few new species for the garden list amongst the usual autumn regulars.

Bordered Straw - Heliothis peltigera 

European Corn Borer - Ostrinia nubilalis

Scarce Bordered Straw - Helicoverpa armigera

These first three are possible immigrant species although they may now be able to establish temporary colonies along the south coast.

Four-spotted Footman - Lithosia quadra

The Footman was caught in a spiders web. I rescued it but it didn't last very long. I'm never sure if I should intervene or just let nature take its course. Spiders have to live as well but not when a new garden tick is a stake.

Fern Smut - Psychoides filicivora

Little Ermel - Swammerdamia pyrella

Toadflax Pug - Eupithecia linariata

Plus two new species trapped whilst spending a night up in Suffolk.

Hedge Rustic - Tholera cespitis

Centre-barred Sallow - Atethmia centrago

Numbers wise, there were still some good mothing nights but each year this autumn period seems to be dominated by four species, Rush Veneers, Heart and Dart, Light Brown Apple Moths, and the various Yellow Underwings. Most are in poor condition and emptying the trap in the morning can be a real disappointment.

Perhaps the only good news is that the number of Box Tree moths has fallen drastically this year, although this is probably because their food plant has all but disappeared in the area.

Some of the more interesting moths in the garden trap are shown below

Clancy’s Rustic - Caradrina kadenii

Common Marbled Carpet - Chloroclysta truncata

Flounced Rustic - Luperina testacea

Garden Tiger - Arctia caja

Green Carpet - Colostygia pectinataria

Peach Blossom - Thyatira batis

Pebble Hook-tip - Drepana falcataria

Plumed Fan-foot - Pechipogo plumigeralis

Red-green Carpet - Chloroclysta siterata

Satin Wave - Idaea subsericeata

and a Carnation Tortrix from Pagham Harbour.

Carnation Tortrix - Cacoecimorpha pronubana

One final moth, found waiting for me by the front door when we came home yesterday afternoon, a Vapourer. Most years I see plenty of them flying around the garden during the day. This year just one in early July and this one mid November.

Vapourer - Orgyia antiqua