A Pyrausta A Day Keeps The Doctor Away

Five a day and it must be May. Okay, well technically that's not true, but be honest, what would you prefer, facts or rhymes? Surely you'd pick the rhyme.... every time. Alright, alright, I'll cut it out. Without a doubt.
 To those slightly keen with their micro moth latin, I'm sure by now that an inkling of the following (un-rhyming) content has began to form. Yes, it's moths. That time of year is here (well that was  unintentional) again. Oh and of course, I do still live in Britain, so there will naturally be some complaining about the weather.
 A few weeks ago Bob Eade kindly offered to show me around his patch in Seaford to see some of the fantastic and rather specialised lepidoptera species that occurred there. Up until this week, we could never find a good day to go, and I'm sure you can hazard a reasonable guess why - the weather, faithfully awkward as always. I mean come on, frost and snow in mid-April? Where was that in December? Oh and don't get me started on that wind...
 Last week however the climate appeared to have finally noticed the calendar, knocking the temperature up into the mid 20°C's. The wind didn't really relent, but hey, it actually felt like spring - maybe summer even. The point is, it didn't feel like my fingers were going to freeze off. A very promising start.
 Late Monday morning, after the now-to-be-expected train delays (I did however manage to see a Pyrausta aurata in my spare time), I met up with Bob and we headed off to his patch.
 Within just a few minutes of arriving we were greeted with good views of the scarce, delightful little Elachista subocella.

We continued on, seeing: Silver Y, Cinnabar, Burnet Compaion and Pyrausta despicata. A nice surprise was a Pyrausta nigrata, not a moth I'd expected to see.
 Pyrausta ostrinalis was one of the species we were hoping to see, and after about twenty or so minutes Bob found one. An extremely beautiful moth, but, you know the word mean? Well they were, for the most part, the definition of mean. Perhaps so far as invidious? They had the idea so  ever present in wildlife, that moving during the taking of an image is good. Like a sixth sense almost.
Ah well, it certainly made me much more appreciative when one landed and stayed for a while.

They really are superb!

There were plenty of good butterfly species around too, a few Grizzled and a dozen or so Dingy Skippers, as well as a couple of stunning Green Hairstreak.
The fifth species of Pyrausta turned up shortly after, an incredibly fresh - and as such stunning - purpuralis.

 One of the micro moths we saw was unfamiliar to the both of us. When I got home I tentatively ID'd it as Tinagma balteolella, a rare species, and after a couple of days, the county recorder kindly verified this. It was only the second site ever to have knowingly held the species in Sussex, and the first sighting of one in the county for 30 years!

A big thanks to Bob for showing me around, such an incredible array of great species and a superb day out.

May the 'fourth' be With You?

Today something happened.  Something I didn't know to be possible.  Something I thought only to be true in dreams, crazy dreams.  Seawatching... without a ridiculously early start.  Not even relatively early, I didn't leave until after midday.  I know this may be hard to believe, but I assure you it's true!
 After midday you see, was when the south-easterlies were supposed to kick in.  An supposedly that's what's needed for a good seawatch.
 I got to Splash Point for 13:00, and immediately had three Little Terns pointed out!  Of course, by Little Terns I do mean black blobs with pointy wings - it may be a different time of day but this is still seawatching after all. Still, things were looking promising, fingers were crossed for a good movement of Pomarine's!
 A handful of Sandwich Tern, a 1cy Med Gull and some Common Scoter soon followed, but no Poms, and things soon slowed down to barely a steady passage of birds past.  Hmm, surely when the wind really started so would the bird movement.  Logic right?  And so, the wind picked up, but the passage didn't.  After four hours all that was seen of note was a moderately close Arctic Skua, a couple of specks that were Bonxie's and a few Red-throated Diver. A Porpoise too, but I don't think that had anything to do with the wind movements...
 At 17:00 I had to call it and head home.  Where were the Poms? I don't know. Five passed Dungeness, but apparently avoided Splash.  So although it was enjoyable -especially not having to put on an alarm for 4:50am- it was a pretty quiet seawatch.  Today, the force was not with me.

Rich(ard's) Pickings

My, it's been a while since my last post! Have you missed me? No? Can't say I'm all that surprised...
Since my last post here in the blogger-sphere I can't say all that much had happened, well, despite a bucketload of dipping. And a big bucket at that.  You see, my annual late winter trip to Ireland wasn't quite the success I had hoped.  It resulted in the dipping of the following; Black Scoter, American Coot, Ring-necked Duck and Laughing Gull... Though some small consolation did come from a stunning drake American Wigeon.
 Yesterday morning I headed out for my first proper days birding since returning to England.  I met up with Liam Curson at Newhaven, before heading to the Ouse Estuary to look for the Richard's Pipit he had found a few days earlier.  After fifteen or so minutes scanning the grassy banks in the rain, we were heading to try a slightly different location when another birder found it up on a fencepost.  It gave great scope views here for a couple of minutes before dropping down into the grass. A great bird to start the day with!  We got some more views after it came down into the grass on a distant bank a little later on, and also had four Bearded Tits (Reedlings, whatever) in the reeds around it.

 Walking from here to Tide Mills produced a frankly ridiculous number of Snipe, probably somewhere around sixty. Oh and brief flight views of a jack Snipe as well!
 Tide Mills was pretty quiet, none of the hoped for Wheatears, but a Firecrest was a nice surprise.
 It was then on to Cuckmere, where Liam quickly found an adult Yellow-legged Gull.  A Scandi Rock Pipit, Yellowhammer and Pintail were a couple of other good birds as we headed down the river to look for the Great-grey Shrike which's been in the area for a while. And although it was still in the area having been seen earlier, we couldn't locate it.
 A possible Iberian Chiffchaff had been reported just a hundred or so metres away, so we headed up to see what was going on.  There were a few others there who'd had the bird earlier, and had taken some recordings of its song.  We then got to hear it in person as it appeared in a tree and begun singing.  How does one describe this bird? Hmm, I think weird is the best word. Yes, the bird was weird - No offence.  Most of the time it gave a song, slightly reminiscent of a Coal Tit with some little warbles, but yet it also did the standard 'Chiff-chaff', and seemingly the 'wheet' contact call of a Common Chiffchaff.  An aberrant Colybita is the current theory, and I would agree, though I'd be a long, long way out of my depth making an opinion on it.
An interesting end to a superb days birding, with a total seen and heard list of seventy species!

And it Continues...

 The appearance of a Marsh Warbler just a short train ride away at Seaford Head was much too tempting to resist.  A nice close by rarity and the possibility to end my slump?  Of course I went.  It was perhaps too spontaneous a trip though.  Within forty minutes of hearing about it I was on my way.  Not the wisest of ideas as I then realised it hadn't been seen for a few hours.  Ah well you never know, it may pop up again.  Apparently not.  And despite the best efforts of several people, it remained unseen and unheard.  I gave it an hour or two before conceding  that yet again I had succeeded in dipping.  Of course, it was relocated in the evening, much later than I was there though.
 Oh well, at least I managed to life-tick a Green Hairstreak Butterfly.  A rather tatty individual, not the usual stunning green, but still a fantastic looking butterfly to see, it even posed for a couple of quick shots.  
My 500mm is in repairs at the moment, so maybe in a couple of weeks it'll be back to birds....

'Sea' What You Get

What, seawatching again?  Ah, yes I know - more tales of distant birds...
 Monday morning was productive but also rather quiet.  A steady passage would be a good way to put it. Several Arctic Skuas, one or two Bonxies, a few Red-throated Divers and a dozen or so Whimbrel.
 Well, there was also a bit of a Splash Point rarity too.  At about 7:50 (how had I already been here over an hour?) a female duck flew by at pretty close range.  I managed to get it just as it was heading away.  It was slightly confusing at first, but another seconds view, this time with its head in, and...  Mandarin?  Not really the kind of bird you'd expect on a seawatch! A lifer, and if that wasn't enough, it was quite possibly the first record of one past here.
 Things went quiet after that, but then picked up again when Black Tern was called.  For me, they were little more than two small darting black dots on the horizon.  Even with those kind of views they were great to see, another lifer and another fantastic bird.  How could you not love seawatching?

Bright Starts

I tried my hand at another spot of 'Seawatching' down at Splash Point on Monday, I won't bore you with details of the early start (again), but.. it certainly was that - early.
 The weather was fantastic, and visibility couldn't have been better.  So I'm not too sure why, but it was again relatively quiet.  That's not to say it wasn't enjoyable.  There were several Red-throated Divers going by, and considerably closer this time.  A few Sandwich Tern and about a dozen Common Scoter.  By 8am there was nothing passing on the sea, but we went to Seaford Head to have a look for migrants... it turned out pretty good.  Brief views of a singing Whitehroat, multiple numbers of Swallows overhead, Chiffchaffs, and three stunning male Wheatears was a nice start... but it got better. Two cracking male Redstarts! Such colourful birds. I was pointed in the direction of one, and after locating this incredible little bird I found another.  They didn't show fantastically, but what stunners!
 A decent start to the migrating season I would say.

Oh and there was even a Spoonbill.....