My son enjoyed the Ugly Bug Ball at Pulborough RSPB at the weekend and there were a few distractions for daddy too:

Ringlet:

Common Blue:

Green-veined White:

Agrimony:

Small Skipper:

Also had a Silver Washed Fritillary, Purple Hairstreak and a Brown Hairstreak that day, mostly showing on the path to Jupp's view.

White's Creek, Pagham North Walls is a Mullet dining room!

Here are some Thick Lipped Grey Mullet feeding away on various detritus, their favourite diet:

http://youtu.be/QLQ114KxyOg

And a still:

And so a few butterfly pictures from the farm and beyond:


Clouded Yellow:

Common Blue & Clouded Yellow:

Meadow Brown:

Peacocks on Hemp Agrimony:

Small Tortoiseshell:

Speckled Wood on Hemlock Water Dropwort:

A couple of trundles around Medmerry from Easton Lane to the Avocet pools over the last day; someone need to come up with names for the pools to make pinpointing the sightings easier, but here we go anyway.

By the entrance gate were twenty or so juvenile Pied Wagtails, one taking a liking to the van:

Mediterranean Gulls with Black Headed Gulls from Easton viewpoint:

A fine Yellow-Legged Gull on the saltmarsh:

On the Avocet Pools were a Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plovers, Ringed Plovers and of course Avocets with chicks. At the first sluice pool was a Common Sandpiper, first I've seen here. The Black Winged Stilts were still viewable from the beach as were a few Golden Plover.

Carlton Marshes was a surprise to me. I was actually following up a report of Rose Coloured Starling and found it was seen on the entrance road to the reserve. An excellent place, no Starling for me, but so many Reed Warblers and Sedge Warblers! A smattering of Cetti's Warblers, Snipe (and not Wood Sandpiper as someone next to me Id'ed them...) and seven Garganey:

Garganey:

Birding in Suffolk & Norfolk was a good experience as it's always great to check out new places-even if you don't find much there's always the scenery to look at! Absolutely scandalous lack of decent mobile/internet coverage along the Suffolk coast still though-can't even make a call let alone get 3g, no wonder news filters out slowly sometimes!

At Minsemere, the world's noisest reserve, quieter outside the hides than in, and the Collared Pratincole showed well hawking insects and then landing on one of the islands at East scrape:

Plenty of Marsh Mallow:

Red-Tipped Cudweed:

Sea Holly:

Also on the East scrape, a good mix of waders (similar to that on the Ferry Pool here!) and plenty of Little Gulls:

The Marsh Harriers showed well from outside Island Mere hide:

Ran the annual taxi service from Oving to Southwold this weekend, managed to get in an hours birding...

At Walberswick "North Fields" (by the harbour entrance if anyone was wondering, could find zero location info previously..), Yellow Legged Gull, distant Caspian Gull (not pictured) and 150 Mediterranean Gulls:

At Minsmere, lots of noise in the hides and some Marsh Harriers:

And in the competition for worst record shot ever, the Essex White Winged Black Tern (it's on the pole if you were wondering..!!!)

Not a bad day today!

At Medmerry from the Easton Lane viewpoint, two Green Sandpipers and a Wood Sandpiper:

At the North Wall Breach Pool was a Common Sandpiper:

At the sluice, plenty of Thick Lipped Grey Mullet were feeding:

And there was a Yellow Legged Gull roosting on the saltings.

On the Ferry Pool at Sidlesham were four Green Sandpipers, a Common Sandpiper, the Spotted Redshank, Little Ringed Plovers, Redshanks, Dunlin and a Curlew Sandpiper:

Redshank on a telegraph pole:

Curlew Sandpiper:

From Coastguards at Selsey, the flock of Common Scoter and two close range Eiders:

Curlews galore at Fishbourne Creek (well I call it Dell Quay) this morning, with at least 45 birds showing:

Apart from that, two Greenshanks and a single Mediterranean Gull were the highlights; no sign of the Yellow Legged Gull for me.

The Ferry Pool at Sidlesham held much the same as recent days, Spotted Redshank, Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plovers & Ringed Plovers amongst the waders. Looked like the local cattle had made an incursion into the back of the pool at some stage judging by the churned up margins!

Not much at Church Norton except the odd Sandwich Tern having a preen.

I'm not really a great one for butterflies other than having a general passing interest but did quite fancy seeing the Purple Emperors at the Knepp Estate at Dial Post. They duly obliged with two iridescent males in the oak tree tops and a close range female:

Also present amongst others, two Turtle Doves, a Red Kite, numerous Buzzards, Pied Wagtail and lots of Green Woodpeckers.