Purple Hairstreaks

On this day in 1988 I had just come out of Salisbury crown court after being nicked at Stonehenge on somewhat spurious grounds (that were later found to be not legally valid fwiw). 

Stonehenge 1988: not my pic, Arthur L. stuck it on the Torpedo Town group if I remember rightly...this is after the sunrise, police helicopters telling eveyone to disperse. Soldiers dressed up as coppers (wearing regimental shirts was always a giveaway!). Among the chaos and riot squad getting handy I have to say there were plenty of good moments, good people and good times believe it or not. Bus loads off to court, getting done and walking back to Cholderton Woods where the riot police were marching in. Dad paid my bail good man that he was! Winter Solstice I remember as much more chilled! 

Free Festivals gradually fell apart until the coup de grace at Telscombe Cliffs finished them off really..if you thought this was chaos ...well, what a night that was...

On this day in 2026 I am watching Purple Hairstreak butterflies at Pagham Harbour. It's a funny old world.

Happy Solstice y'all lol.

Purple Hairstreaks (there were some at 'henge too just a different type!):

 

Nightjars & Woodcocks

Solly and I went to Lavington Common for the Nightjars on Saturday while Debbie was on the Moonlight Walk in memory of dad. 

We had at least six birds churring on the plantation side, including good views of perched bird, a Tawny Owl,  a Woodlark, c.20 Stonechats and three Woodcock flyovers complete with roding calls (not sure how may birds this actually was though). Sol found lots of isopods, moths and insects various so he was an extra happy lad.

Quail

 GM found a Quail at Lockgate, you can just about hear it above, just before half-way through.

Storm-petrel

An odd bird was seen offshore at the Bill on Saturday the 6th; it appeared at first glance(s) to be a petrel sp, with its small size and clean white underbelly but eventually the consensus was a 1st summer Black Tern-very rare in Britain, from what I understand of the literature, as these stay on their breeding grounds and do not migrate-well this one did! It was in the company of a Black Tern with a bright white rump, also an oddity as usually only WWBT would show this...

Next thing to happen: two Kittiwakes past east with a trailing small, dark bird which was almost certainly a Storm-petrel but no one else got on it so it was frustratingly "let go"...certainly an interesting start to the morning!

Later on a visiting birder with an enormous Swaro bino-scope picked up a probable Storm-petrel moving towards the Mile Basket and views soon confirmed it was one, a European Storm-petrel, very nice too. Presumbaly the same bird as I had had earlier.

Two Balearic Shearwaters, one nice and close, and a few Manx Shearwaters were the best of the rest.

Moths

 ...it's that time of year... best recently for us was a male Ghost Moth, a Lobster Moth, also a few Poplar Hawk-moths have put in appearances and also a Portland Ribbon Wave, plenty of commoner stuff but we sit and wait for an EBS!

Portland Ribbon Wave:

Lobster Moth:

Ghost Moth:

Wild Quail Hunt

So Quails all through Sussex then! One at Medmerry then no doubt! Well yes and, er, no... One was reported as singing last Friday but not until Saturday so obviously couldn't check it out until that evening and not surprisingly no sight or sound of it. So since then several e-bike trips from Pagham RSPB to Medmerry Stilit Pools for me and they have yielded, if you've read this drivel this far you probably have guessed the answer, zero Quails. 

And zero Golden Oriels. 

Or Bee-eaters.

Or with the noble exception of a couple of Corn Buntings at Ham and four Greenshank on the Stilt Pool anything else of note really. And it's been this way for quite a while.

Lots and lots of Yellowhammers and Skylarks of course, not a bad thing...(and apparently breeding Redshanks are the new poster boys and girls)...but there could be so much more with a bit of imagination...

So if only there was a migrant trap to west of Selsey...hmm there is of course and, as noted above, it's called Medmerry. But a problem. Only about 5% is accessible to birders. There was talk of a hide or birding access being arranged to those lovely brambles, scrubby areas and trees in the centre of the reserve but this seems to have died the inevitable death. 

I'm sure many of the locals would be happy to pay for a key if thats what it took. 

Paths we used to go down (the one by flint barn for example) are now gated "RSPB & wildlife only"- never see anyone counting the butterflies like I used to do there though. Another area and data set lost.

New scrapes behind the sea wall anyone? 😉

A bit of botany:

Broomrape, a parsitic plant (note legume host top right) at the North Wall:

Grass Vetchling at Medmerry:

Honeys & Hawkers

Fifty-five species at Woolbeding today, checklist HERE with Honey Buzzard x 4 and Goshawk omitted (i think this is a bit odd really, surely technology exists to let through "sensitive sp." from known and publicised watchpoints?).

Other highlights were being there on my own very early for 2.5 hrs and soaking it all in before anyone else turned up (joy) and singing Woodlark, Garden Warbler, a low flyover Crossbill and a perched Honey-buzzard well spotted by MB. Two distant Honeys too and another giving lovely scope views found by NM.

In the afternoon the wife and I went to Nunnery Lake and had c.six Norfolk Hawkers, really hard to photograph in the heat but decent naked-eye/bins views. Also Kingfisher, Cetti's Warbler, Reed Warbler, Egyptian Goose and a surprise Firecrest.

Going back a day, five Eider and a party of Arctic Terns at the Bill were nice and I jammed into a Spotted Flycatcher at the sheep field at Church Norton so have had worse days. 

Woodlark: