www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Thanks Wurzel . I think the Slow Worm was surprised to find itself stuck on the wet path on the last day of October. It was lucky to escape the attention of the many dogs out that day!
Thanks David, it was a pleasant day, but then any day out of London is pleasant


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November 2023

Tuesday 7th was a chilly but mostly bright day and not to be wasted so I set off once again to enjoy walking the wilds of Sussex, a circular walk starting and ending at Lancing ring and taking in Cissbury and Chanctonbury Rings. The birdlife on the Adur estuary caught my eye to start with, it was low tide and a few Waders were sitting around or looking for breakfast. At Lancing ring, I stopped off at the usual butterfly hotspots on the off chance and was rewarded with four Red Admiral, two of whom sat. On the more exposed path to Cissbury Ring it was mostly birdlife but a further three RA did make flybys. Plenty more birds were active at Cissbury with a large flock of Long-tailed Tit mixing it up with a sprinkling of other species. Last year I had a bit of luck on a steep slope on the southern side of the ring so I tried my luck again. The sun had warmed the air a fair bit out of the wind but despite plenty of flowers, there was no butterfly life today. On the other side of the path it dropped down further into a coombe, the head of which is fenced off from the lifestock grazing the rest of the coombe and home to a rabbit warren. Next to the entrance to one of the holes was a splash of red, the sun had obviously awoken it from its rabbit infested hibernation spot. The rest of the day was a little more cloudy so it was strictly birds again.

November 2023

Saturday 11th. Save for the occasional Red Admiral, the butterfly season was finally over now as far as I was concerned. Today was all about birding and the stars had aligned perfectly for some Wader watching down in Essex. It was going to be a near cloudless sky and high tide was in the morning which meant the sun would be mostly behind me whilst the waders waited for the tide to turn. There were already sizable flocks on the lagoon at the eastern tip of Two Tree Island when I got there, as usual the bulk of which were a mixture of Knot and Dunlin which were continually added to as the morning wore on. A generous sprinkling of Ringed Plover were present, numerous Snipe lurked in the more overgrown islands, Avocet today numbered in the hundreds, and Lapwing put on a display Other species seen were Black-tailed Godwit, Grey Plover, Turnstone, Curlew, Oystercatcher and Redshank. I was sat there for about 2 and half hours, 2 and a quarter of which was spent wishing I’d worn more layers and remembered my gloves! By 1pm though the tide had turned and the waders were leaving to start feeding on the exposed saltmarsh and mudflats again. I took a walk around the island finding a few more species. Out of the wind it was relatively warm, and enjoying one of these sheltered spots I found a Red Admiral busy laying eggs. This one was notable being the last butterfly I photographed in 2023, although the last I saw was another RA on the way to the winter social at the end of the month.

Those are fantastic wader shots Bugboy - really portrays the wonder of seeing a swirling mass of birds all flying in synchrony and a cheeky Red Admiral too

Have a goodun

Wurzel

I simply don't have the patience for birds, Paul, but you clearly do, and it adds another dimension to wildlife spotting at that time of year.

Good that the Red Admiral made an appearance. Always nice to see one in mid-November.

Some cracking bird images in your recent reports Paul.
I am not really a birder although I have a passing interest and can appreciate nice photos of them. I don't usually have time to go looking in the winter and am usually restricted to 'lazy' birding looking at what visits my garden and taking some photos through the windows, otherwise I am usually too busy earning brownie points to use in the summer

Cheers,

Neil.

Thanks Wurzel. I don’t think still images really do justice to the experience of thousands of waders flying in unison, just the sounds of all those wings whirring, a simple wonder of nature.
Thanks David. I don’t normally sit in hides for hours but at this place with so many birds in front of you, there’s always something going on to keep my interest. I just wish it wasn’t such an exposed hide… its more of a lean-to really!
Thanks Neil. I'm more of a casual birder, in fact I went on my very first proper bird twitch only yesterday! Nothing wrong with ‘armchair birding’ though, you get stuff in your garden I struggle to find. Bullfinch for example are usually just soft whistles from a hedgerow or a small white rump vanishing round the corner for me.

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November 2023

Tuesday 28th. It was a good few weeks before I was able to go out again, days off and good weather just weren’t aligning. Even so I only had a few hours spare to go for a wander on my local patch. The Grey Wagtail was up to its usual antics on the Wetlands (I only noticed whilst editing the photos that this one seems to have lost most of its digits on its left foot), and it was the usual suspects out on the water. Kingfishers were heard again but still not seen. It was relatively quiet on the Marshes, the winter thrushes had yet to show themselves (I’d actually seen my first Redwings a while ago whilst chasing LTB). There was a Little Egret and a Lesser Black-backed Gull parading about though. I disturbed a snoozing Fox and Squirrels were doing their best to make sure no new Sycamores would sprout next year. On the way back to the wetlands Some finches were found And finally back at the wetlands I had better luck with one of the Kingfishers. That was it for November, December wasn't much better either, just two more posts for last year.

Great shot of the Grey Wagtail Bugboy They're great value birds to my mind, lovely colours, lovely character

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Nice to see that kingfisher again, Paul.

How is that squirrel managing to balance on the end of such a weak twig?

Thanks Wurzel. They are aren’t they, very bold and active little things.
Thanks David. I’ve no idea how it was balancing, there were half a dozen up there on similar sized twigs. More from my local Kingfishers below

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December 2023

Saturday 23rd. December was a rather damp dreary month, particularly on my days off when with erring regularity the heavens routinely opened for extended periods of time, so it wasn’t until it was nearly Christmas that I managed to get out again. This one was a local trip again, hoping to get lucky with the local kingfishers again. Now the trees were mostly leafless they should find it more difficult to hide away.

Out on the reservoirs the usual suspects were floating about but a pair of Shelduck flapping about caught my eye. I could hear the distinctive piping calls of a pair of Kingfisher further along on the usual channel they frequent where they can easily be viewed from so I quietly crept along, finding a male doing what they do best. He tried to hide away but the lack of leaves was on my side. There was also the brief sighting of the female too.

You've come up to date very efficiently, Paul, given you were concerned about how difficult you thought it would be a few weeks ago.

Love seeing the birds. The kingfishers especially are an almost incongruous site at this time of year!

Thanks David. As I said a few posts ago, November and December weren’t very kind to me so catching up wasn’t going to be hard

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December 2023

Sunday 24th. The final outing for the year was down at Barnes Wetland Centre where a Bearded Tit had been seen a few times recently which would be a lifer for me. He unfortunately was a no show but a Scaup was an interesting find, particularly as on closer inspection of my pictures it may well be a Scaup x Tufted Duck hybrid. He looks very Scaup-like but he has a small tuft on his head which true Scaup never have. His beak also looks more Tufty than Scaupy… Nothing else out of the ordinary showed up for a while, Wigeon were grazing Gulls were frolicking And Coots were being Coots Then just before leaving a female Goldeneye sailed past the hide I was in and there completes 2023.

Your hybrid duck is interesting Bugboy ................have you considered Scaup x Ring-Necked ,for me its head is more Ring -necked than Tufty ........................just a thought .
Allan.W.

Thanks Allen, although TBH I’m just going by the pictures in my Collins Bird Guide, I really haven’t much of a clue without that! Presumably if it is a completely wild hybrid then Tufty X Scaupy is the most likely parentage, both being UK natives. If it’s a captive escape then the parentage could be any of those North American relatives as well.

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Now I’ve finally caught up with last year (I’m already behind this year), I figure I should do a bit of a look back so I can at least post a few butterfly pictures on here again! I’m not going to re-post the same old pictures again though, at least not in the same way and I’ll keep the waffle to a minimum.

So my season got off to a faltering start with the warm spell in February when I found a Brimstone and a Comma during a walk in the Sussex Hills. Also ticked off a week later that month was the Red Admiral but only a few ropey record shots were obtained.

In March I added the other two adult hibernators, both seen locally, and also had a distant Small White encounter. Despite continuing rubbish weather I managed to get out enough to add a further eight species to the tally before the end of April, the prize being a Large Tortoiseshell on Perry Hill.

A cracking start to year season Bugboy - I think I know which would have been the stand out sighting

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Hello Bugboy ,
I,ve just been looking through a twitter page called "Bird Hybrids " .........some very unusual bits and pieces on there . 90% of the birds depicted are Duck / goose species ,amongst them ( and some way back !) on the 30th Dec '22' is a drake duck very similar to yours ,from a Gravel pit in Bucks ...........Pochard / Tufty .........take a look if you get a chance.
Allan.W.
PS; The post was by Adam Bassett.

Thanks Wurzel, it was a pretty decent way to start the season
Thanks Allen, but I don’t use twitter so won’t be able to have a look at that page.

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Of course, May is when things really start going and I spent a fair amount of my spare time in Sussex chasing a range of spring species adding the spring Skippers, Common Blue, Small Heath, Painted Lady, Large White, PBF and Wall by the end of the second week. Many of these were against a background of the hundreds of Dukes to be found at the Kithurst site. The second half of May added Brown Argus and Small Blue to the tally and a trip further afield gave me Adonis Blue and Marsh Fritillary in Wiltshire. The month came to a close in Chiddingfold where the Wood White were found in decent numbers.

January 2024

Saturday 6th. I started the year with another attempt to find myself the Bearded Tit that was apparently still active at Barnes Wetland Centre. Once again not sight or sound of the pesky thing was found in my presence. Overall it was a rather drab, lacklustre day, as visualised by this lone Snipe looking forlornly around wondering where his friends had all gone. I caught a Kestrel having a spruce up. A few Siskin were found feeding in the Alders. The Shoveler is probably my favourite of our native ducks. And near the end of my visit a Bittern came out from his hiding place giving my my usual long distance, heavily cropped shot. The weather looked better the following day and I had plans to catch up on something I’ve been after for a very long time.

Bearded Tits are a tricky one - you can go one day and they're all over the place and the next time there isn't a sniff of them I'm intrigued as to what you wanted to catch up with Bugboy?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks Wurzel but you’ll have to wait, just gonna post a few more butterflies first

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I continue looking back over last year with a visit to June, the first half anyway which added a further seven species. Whilst most were searching for the BVW at Hutchinsons bank, I concentrated on the Glanvilles which were having a bumper season . Large Skipper and Meadow Brown also both made their season debuts down at Denbies Whilst at Hockley Wood the Heath Fritillaries were nice and plentiful and I found myself a very eye catching ab amongst them. The Norfolk Swallowtails didn’t happen for me last year. Like many others, I came away from Strumpshaw empty handed but several were seen on the Kent coast either from overwintered pupae or as new immigrants and I managed to sandwich one of these in between two visits to see the Epsom Black Hairstreaks. My first Marbled White also appeared down on the Kent coast. The second half of June was equally as busy

I think in your next birding post you'll be ' waxing ' lyrical !