Wednesday catch up with Pete

Still desperately dry and little to see other than a distant Green Sandpiper and a Peregrine sat on the ground from the 'Nettleys bend' viewpoint. A Wood Sandpiper eluded us.

Obviously loads of Clouded Yellows still present.

At Hails View very peaceful (and no people) but enlivened by one of the adult eagles flying over and into Rook Wood, followed by a splendid Hobby hawking up and down.

The ivy at the courtyard entrance had lots of Eristalis hoverflies and Ivy Bees but no Hornets.

Nice to catch up with Sally and Miles and some nice visitors.

No photos.

Thursday and Friday Shrike

Went to collect car from dealership and decided to try to see the Red-backed Shrike at Farlington prior to weekly shop.

Bought a take-away coffee from the very twee Piaggio Ape in the car park. The smallest mobile coffee shop I've ever seen!!

Plenty of people at the shrike which had tucked itself away but it eventually came out and showed well. My first in the UK since the Hayling Oysterbed bird back in 2015.

With only Swaro 12x50s and overcast sky it was tough to pick through the waders. The high tide combined with much lower lake levels than last Saturday meant there were considerably more birds including Grey Plovers and Knot.

An Osprey was perched on North Binness and was seen hovering much nearer the east shore but still very distant.

A nice Wheatear was best-of-the-rest.

Friday out to SC for coffee with the usual audible only birds, Marsh Tit being the best. Still ten or more Hummingbird Hawkmoths.

Back to Farlington for much better views of the shrike with the Balance scope.

Osprey on the same tree as yesterday and still a couple of Curlew Sandpipers amongst the waders which also included a surprise Golden Plover plus much better views of a good number of Knot in better light than yesterday.

And, of course, still lots of Clouded Yellows.

I think the shrike was a site tick the first here since the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler seven years ago.

Following photo courtesy/copyright photographer (Andy?)

Farlington

 A walk with PR's RSPB group didnt quite work out because I arrived early and wanted to get round before lunch. Met up but the size of the group (25 ish) was always going to be too slow so I headed off.

A number of Greenshanks were calling out in the harbour with lots of godwits and Redshanks. It didn't take too long to find two Little Stints, six or more Curlew Sandpipers, twenty or so eclipse plumage Pintails and a few Snipe.

A Kingfisher zipped past.

On the dry northern shore of the lake were plenty of Yellow and Pied Wagtails and the fenceline held three Whinchats and a Wheatear.

Seven Harbour Seals were hauled out in the usual part of the harbour.

The only raptors were three Kestrels and a Sparrowhawk.

Sadly, no Osprey, no Marsh Harrier and not even a Buzzard today!

Around the marsh plenty of noisy but mostly hidden Yellow Wagtails, another Wheatear and a single Common Whitethroat.

The east seawall had lots of Common Blues, more than I've seen this year, and, over the whole walk, many Clouded Yellows (25-30 and probably more). Single Small Copper, a few whites and a couple of Small Heath were the only other butterflies.

Common Darter and a few Migrant Hawkers.

Back at the lake gave better scope  views of one of the Little Stints.

A colour flagged Curlew (Yellow 5E over red left tibia and blue right tibia, BTO metal right leg) is proving hard to pin down in CR birding.

PS A group of Grey Plovers, about seventy strong, appeared out of nowhere and landed out towards the Kendall quay, some still strongly coloured.

Zilch

A week with no birding saw just a few more Hummingbird  Hawkmoths; one at SC in the small buddleia outside the cafe, one in another small buddleia along Lynton Grove and a third doing a brief flypast at the pond.

 No photos, no birds.

Wed/Thu

A brief visit to Cumberland House for the last moth morning of the season. Caught up with Kieran and Christine (who kindly offered me a tea/coffee), the two other guys - sorry forgot their names - and Hannah. A pretty thin catch with everything potted incredibly fast and just Bordered Straw (below) of interest; a species I've never caught. Bycatch of Red-legged Shieldbugs, Acorn Weevils and Harlequin Ladybirds.

Off with KM to Sustainability for lunch and a brief walk with possibly just a single Hummingbird Hawkmoth, a Painted Lady and a few Red Admirals.

Later, a Sparrowhawk was circling over the dental surgery as I arrived. 

Thursday,  after a coffee at SHP, just a couple of Clouded Yellows, Holly Blues a single Small Heath and some noisy young Buzzards.

The conservation path/s now have loose roaming cattle and hence cowpats everywhere. So, with no suitable footwear, I gave up that walk!

Will be interesting to hear Michael's walk-and-talk on Wednesday afternoon.

The barely transparent 'grey' childproof pots are rubbish for photography but I might consider some of the very small insect tubes they used for the weevils and micros etc.

Special moth trap session

Chinese Character 1 (Colic glaucata)

Pebble Hooktip 2 (Drepana falcataria

Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing 8 (Noctua janthe/janthina)

Snout 1 (Hypena probiscidalis)

European Corn Borer 1 (Ostrinia nubialis)

Gold Triangle 2 (Hypsopygia costalis)

Rush Veneer 12 (Nomophila noctuella)

Straw Dot 1 (Rivula sericealis)

Rusty Dot Pearl 4 (Udea ferrugalis)

Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing 1 (Noctua fimbriata)

Brimstone 1 (Opisthograptis luteolata)

Celypha lacunana 1 (Celypha lacunana)

Willow Beauty 2 (Peribatodes rhomboidaria)

Light Brown Apple Moth 2 Epiphyas postvittana)

Pebble Prominent 1 (Notodonta zizac)

Pale Prominent 1 (Pterostoma palpina)

Lime-speck Pug 1 (Eupithecia centaureata)

Poplar Hawkmoth 1 (Laothoe populi)

Square-spot Rustic 3 (Xestia xanthographa)

September Thorn 1 (Ennomos erosaria)

Dusky Thorn 1 (Ennomos fuscantaria)

Canary-shouldered Thorn 1 (Ennomos alniaria)

Centre-barred Sallow 1 (Atethmia centrago)

Bright-line Brown-eye 3 (Laconobia oleracea)

Nutmeg 1 (Anarta trufolii)

Common Wainscot 2 (Mythimna pallens)

Maiden's Blush 3 (Cyclophora punctaria)

Cloaked Minor 1 (Mesoligia furuncula

Six-striped Rustic 2 (Xestia sexstrigata)

White Point 1 (Mythimna albipuncta)

Angle Shades 1 (Phlogophora meticulosa)

Beet Armyworm 2 (Spodoptera exigua)

Pale Mottled Willow 3 (Caradrina clavipalpis)

Lesser Yellow Underwing 1 (Noctua comes)

Riband Wave 1 (Idea aversata)

Sharp-angled Peacock 3 (Macaria alternata)

L-album Wainscot 3 (Mythimna l-album)

Box-tree Moth 1 (Cydalima perspectalis)

Uncertain/Rustic etc 1 (Hoplodrina spp)

Heart and Dart 1 (Agrotis exclamationis)

Common White Wave 1 (Cabera pusaria)

Common Wave 1 (Cabera exanthemata)

Setaceous Hebrew Character 1 (Xestia c-nigrum)

Single-dotted Wave 1 (Idea dimidiata)

Southern Wainscot 1 (Mythimna straminea)

Common Daisy Moth 1 (Dicrorampha acuminatana)

Common Grass-moth 1 (Agriphila tristella)

Chevron Grass-moth 2 (Agriphila geniculea)

Common Masoner 1 (Blastobasis adjustella)

Spindle Knot-horn 1 (Nephopterix angustella)

Large Fruit-tree Tortrix 6 (Archips podana)

Black-fronted Straw 1 (Cochylis atricapitana)

Brassy Y 1 (Argyresthia goedartella)

Common Plume 1 (Emmelina monodactyla)

House Moss-moth 1 (Bryotropha domestica)

(Above Snout, Southern Oak Bush-cricket, Pebble Hook-tip, Six-stripe Rustic)

The above from a special moth trap run for me by Ed Sunday night into Monday morning. We went through the trap together until a lack of volunteers for hide-opening duties left me on my own for the second half. A fair few moths on surrounding buildings.

No birding of note other than single Spotted Redshank.

New car started to splutter a bit so back to Richmond!! And off home to collect 'old faithful' thanks to KM.

And now for something completely different. It's.....

 ....ringing at Titchfield. The first time I've been around ringers, mist nets and birds since the very early eighties!

A very early start today, leaving home by 05:20 and arriving at TH by 05:45. Foolishly, I parked on Cliff Road not realising that the sailing club's carpark is free until 10:00am!!

Eight or nine of us were greeted by Barry before the walk down to the ringing site where Duncan, Lucy, Simon and Trevor were arriving with bags of birds (literally).

Over nearly three hours 135+ birds were processed with over forty being Gr'oppers! More of the latter than I've ever seen either in this country or abroad. It wasn't a species that I remember catching very often in the FRG days (1969 to 1981) and the last there was a bird in the hand of one of Duncan's C Ringers or Trainees in the point field in April 2011.

Unsurprisingly Reed and Sedge Warblers made up the bulk of the other birds with a few Willow Warblers, Cetti's Warblers, Whitethroats and Blackcaps, four Blue Tits and a lone Garden Warbler.

Over the session singles of Glossy Ibis, Spoonbill, Cattle Egret, Red Kite  and Kingfisher flew past.

Later, after coffee in Harbourside, a quick look at the South Scrape added three Snipe, three Common Sandpipers, a second Spoonbill and lots of Common Terns. A handful of Sandwich Terns were calling noisily offshore.

The above helped to ease the pain of missing yesterday's Red-necked Phalarope on the pond; the nearest this urban site has ever had to a 'mega'! I presume it arrived overnight, was seen by one observer late morning, and departed very soon after. Birdguides had it absent when looked for mid-afternoon.