Wiilllssonnnn!!!!!

 

Sussex records of Wilson's Phalarope from Birds of Sussex(Paul James).

1971: An adult female at Arlington Reservoir on 25 September, at the Cuckmere Haven oxbows on 26-27 September and then on the long pool' near the northwest corner of Pagham Harbour from 28 September to 6 October Birds 65: plates 50b, 78a and 78b) when it was mindlessly shot.

1978: An adult along the eastern side of Pagham Harbour on 21 October 1979: An adult at Sidlesham Ferry on 26-27 August.

1984: An adult female at Ternery Pool, Rye Harbour on 30 June and 1st July
An adult at Sidlesham Ferry on 12 October.

1985: A first-winter at Ternery Pool, Rye Harbour on 9 October

1987: A juvenile moulting into first-winter plumage at Sidlesham Ferry from 18-
26 September (Brit. Birds 81: plate 19).

1991: An adult male at Sidlesham Ferry on 3 June

The presence of a Wilson's Phalarope in Hampshire got me reminiscing  about previous encounters with this species; an unrecorded but probably single figure count in Canada, 250+ in Texas and five in the UK - or was it four?? My own notes from the past are pretty 'thin' at best and it took some input from JAN via SDOS to track down the last bird above (my fifth). This was seen after a day's outing to Hanningfield Reservoir for a Bridled Tern which, needless to say, had departed. I'm  guessing a stop at a roadside phone box and a call to Birdline SE prompted the return to Sidlesham. Until now I didn't realise this was a one-day wonder. Sadly, last month's Pennington bird would have been the first since the Cley bird seven years ago and a Hampshire tick but the drive and particularly the walk from the car park was beyond me.

It also prompted thoughts about birds names with the BLM/BAME/George Floyd effect providing further ammunition in the US for removal of honorifics. I'm  not sure if they (the AOS/ABA)  intend to rename all birds named after 'colonial' explorers and naturalists or to only focus on those with some history of involvement with the confederacy, slavery, oppression of Native Americans or if every 'baby' is going to be thrown out with 'the bath water'. Personally, I've  always found it fascinating to find out who these people were and read about it in various books by Richard and Barbara Mearns (Biographies for Birdwatchers being the first), Bo Beolens (Eponym Dictionary of Birds), Stephen Moss (Mrs Moreau's Warbler) etc. Much is now available  via Wikipedia allowing for erroneous info.

But back to Alexander Wilson who went from a weaver and part time poet in Scotland (- how much money was there in poetry 200 years ago??-)  to The Father of American Ornithology encouraged  by another naturalist William Bartram (who had Bartram's Sandpiper named after him  - many years ago being renamed to the less-than-accurate Upland Sandpiper, the 100 or so that I've  seen being on land barely above sea-level and the first of which was on a freeway divider  strip outside Houston!! No mountains there). So, if the Americans have there way what will happen to AW's phalarope, storm-petrel, plover, snipe and warbler?? 

So far the first casualty is McCown  (rightly or wrongly and no political slant here from me) whose longspur seems to have been renamed Thick-billed. Will West and East Palaearctic honorifics also be subject to scrutiny? Will we lose Pallas, Bewick, Radde, Baer, Przevalski and so on or will their human rights credentials prove to have been 'on point' by 21st century  standards??

Pendulines at Titchfield

 

Yesterday, five Penduline Tits were found at Titchfield from Spurgin Hide, so with a ticket already booked for today I popped over, had a coffee and found that they'd  been seen briefly by an early visitor. Managed to  hobble as far as Darters Dip where Ian C told me they'd  not been refound in wet and windy conditions and that the hide was full with DC's bird group and Mark plus Dad so, after checking with MF that they'd not popped out, I gave up. This recently cut patch in front of the hide(above) was full of Teal and at least ten Snipe but sadly no Jacks. Hopefully the tits will  hang around as they did between December 2015 and March 2016 when I saw them on six dates.

Half-term WWT

Nicely organised visit to WWT, first since August, with socially distanced indoor eating as shown above. (Note the wacky new cardboard coffee cups being very efficient at keeping things hot for ages). Being half term it was fully booked so not too quiet and the usual strimming drowned out pretty much everything - new notices around the site enquire as to whether you can hear 'such and such calling' - needless to say, no!!

A Cattle Egret was hunkered down, multiple Kingfishers heard and these two Med Gulls above were part of six or more in all three age classes but none ringed. The usual four raptor species were present but Peregrine and Marsh Harrier were both absent.

Water Rail, multiple Cetti's and Chiffchaffs were heard only. 

Nice chat with a lady and grandson from Guildford.

There is a very fine line between Hobby and mental illness!!

Plagiarised/borrowed  this quotation from the American author and columnist Dave Barry. Somehow this popped up twice in recent weeks via different aspects of social  media. I suspect  he may not comprehend the use of capital aitch!!

Whilst visiting TH with M for morning coffee the WhatsApp notification for this bird sounded. Luckily, bins in car, day ticket available and M happy to snooze in car by the West entrance while I hobbled down to  the hide. Curiously the local 'togs feigned ignorance of this bird but visitors pointed it out immediately - I didn't  have time to faff about. The bird had in fact earlier been right in front of the hide giving frame filling photos but apparently everyone had been told to suppress the bird by a volunteer and no more WhatsApp messages appeared neither did it ever appear on Goingbirding!! How bizarre. Wonder what else gets suppressed.(Photo courtesy of AR)

A few days later, whilst  enjoying this....

... this happened.

So disappointed not to see Kirk, Spock, Bones and an unnamed blonde in a short red skirt materialise!!

This marks the 20,000th piece of jigsaw since lockdown - I think we'll have a rest now.

TH visit and other QECP BSM and coffee

 

Common Snipe from Titchfield handheld phone-scoped. This flushed out of grass and decided to land as close to the hide as possible. Otherwise little else.

At QECP three Spotted Flycatchers were briefly showing at the South end of the slope.

Butterfly numbers are now much reduced with non-whites represented by this Small Copper (above) and two each of Common Blue and Small Heath, all very fresh. For the first time this autumn Migrant Hawkers outnumbered Common Darters by about ten to one although none of the former were perched up for a photo. The small patches of 'still white' Angelica attracted a few insects including Cheilosia spp and Chrysogaster solstitialis hovers,  this Tenthredo spp  (suggested as possible schaefferi via FB), a few Ectemnius wasps and this Tachinid fly possibly Epicampocera spp.

QECP & WWT

Tuesday

Coffee, breakfast muffin and a short hobble around the bottom path at the park was quiet but this female Helophilus trivitattus popped out but was a little  'too far in' for a close-up and soon after this male H. pendulus was close by. A couple of invisible Siskin went over and at least one Spotted Flycatcher  was calling from well up into the biggest trees.

Thursday

After yesterday's visit called off due to weather, today saw very nice weather for a trip to Arundel which, unsurprisingly, was rammed with people. The reserve was also full of families . Nice to catch up with Richard but birdlife was quiet with just various heard Kingfishers, multiple Buzzards (some obviously whining  youngsters), single Sparrowhawk and Common Sandpiper. House and Sand Martin's were overhead.

Patches of Fleabane and Water Mint etc were attractive to a few insects:-

Nowickia ferox 

Tachina fera 

Nomada spp

Volucella inanis and zonaria

Helophilus pendulus and trivitattus

Eristalis pertinax and tenax

Other  small unidentified hovers

Odonata were represented by:-

Brown  Hawker

Migrant Hawker

Southern Hawker

Black-tailed Skimmer 

Common Darter

Ruddy Darter

Blue-tailed Damselfly and

Small Red-eyed Damselfly

A post-pasty sojourn on a shaded bench with a juvenile Canada Goose cropping the grass between my feet saw two calling and overflying Ravens; later one returned and soared  effortlessly for ages quietly croaking away to itself and seeming to enjoy the freedom of just cruising around, getting higher and higher until it disappeared into the blue. 

Sunday

Just a brief coffee visit with crowds of runners, cyclists and dog-walkers - Buzzard over the park, Red Kite over the road and a Grey Wagtail in the carpark; a Spotted Flycatcher was again calling from the same spot as Tuesday.

Four horsemen...

(Chalkhill Blue, Comma, Dolichovespula media, Nowickia ferox, Athalia spp, Harebell all from QECP and Cormorant, Little Egret, Volucella inanis, Leptura quadrifasciata, Volucella zonaria, Common Terns, Redshanks and a Common Sandpiper from TH).

The four horsemen of the 'wildlife apocalypse', Covid19, arthritis, August and heat have all combined over the last couple of weeks  to make it pretty joyless being out.

Locally, bird life has been very thin with just a one observer, one day Citrine Wagtail as a stand out. A prebooked TH outing (masks in hides now) was pleasantly quiet peoplewise and produced decent views of the female Marsh Harrier and two Kingfishers, both firsts since before the start of lockdown, plus the autumn's first Yellow Wagtail and a nice roadside Water Rail; three more of the latter were heard. At least two juvenile Sparrowhawks were calling continuously from the usual clump and this year's Kestrels were hunting together over the meadow. One or two Silver-washed Fritiliaries washed up and down the boardwalk on a couple of dates.

Many 'mothers' have attracted  loads of Jersey Tigers whilst trapping which ought to prompt me to put mine out tonight whilst this hot, dry weather lasts; sadly all my garden moths info for the last three years held in spreadsheets was lost due to a factory reset on a tablet - I'd  foolishly forgotten that I'd  never backed up to an external device. Doh!!

Thankfully last night's decision to hold off on the moth trap was a good call as it rained hard at least twice during the night.

Another pre-booked visit to TH on Thursday was quiet with just a single  Wheatear in the meadow, the first this year. MF's earlier  Black Tern and Whinchat had both gone into hiding. Various heard onlys included Green Sandpiper, Water Rail, Cetti's Warbler, Bearded Tit and the juvenile Sparrowhawks.  The juvenile 'European' Blackwit was present along with a couple of Common Sandpipers and a Dunlin and the single Great Crested Grebe chick was still bring fed by parents. Volucella zonaria was on Water Mint and a Helophilus  trivittatus was also seen, but little else.

A non birding outing today saw a flyover Grey Wagtail in town and a Red Kite out towards the windmill.