Friday August 28 - Earlswood Lakes

 This morning, with a vague plan to go to either Earlswood or Morton Bagot I stumbled downstairs and checked my phone. John Oates had just found a Wood Sandpiper on the mudflat at Windmill Pool, Earlswood. That made my mind up.

After a brief look at the mudflat at Engine Pool (I hadn't read the message carefully enough), I joined John at Windmill Pool where the Wood Sandpiper was still showing well.

It showed the crisp markings of a juvenile, and although John had been out in torrential rain yesterday without much joy, it seems likely that the recent weather was responsible for its arrival either late yesterday or overnight. It didn't seem particularly bothered by humans walking past, but dogs were a different story and always caused it to flush.

I tried taking some video of it here before I wandered back to the causeway with John. We last saw the Wood Sandpiper half way along the pool with a Common Sandpiper after it had been flushed by dog-walkers.

Back at the causeway John showed me two species of fern for my PSL list: Wall-rue and Black Spleenwort.

Wall-rue

Black Spleenwort

Finally, on my way home I decided to pause along Springbrook Lane to see if any Whinchats had arrived. I didn't see any, but I did get a tick. Peering over the wall of the bridge I noticed a distinctive looking moss. It turned out to be Grey-cushioned Grimmia, The first bryophyte for my list.

Grey-cushioned Grimmia

I'll be putting my moth-trap out tonight, so I'll probably extend this post tomorrow morning.

Wednesday August 26 - Morton Bagot

 Recently I saw an extraordinary picture of eight Great White Egrets and 27 Grey Herons paddling in the shallows at Belvide Reservoir, and now thanks to a message from Mike Lane, I was able to see one in the flesh at Morton Bagot.

Admittedly just one Great White Egret and one Grey Heron (which flew off before I got the camera out). Nevertheless this was the second Great White here this year, and the first I managed to see.

Mike had seen it in flight over the raptor watch point, and noted it had appeared to lose height over the flash field. Lucky for me.

Wednesday August 26 - Earlswood Lakes

It's not often I head into the countryside and more or less ignore the birds, but yesterday I did just that. Following a recent conversation with John Oates when I let slip my new-found enthusiasm for pan-species listing, he kindly offered to show me as many of the trees around the lakes and in Clowes Wood as he could in a couple of hours. So yesterday morning I took him up on the offer.

In summary, I was shown 15 species of tree, seven species of fern, and three species of horsetail. Some were ones I had seen before but hadn't got around to ticking off, but many (mainly ferns) were entirely new.

Hybrid Black Poplar populus x canadensis

Greater Horsetail

Common Male-fern

I probably haven't picked a very good time to get into plants. Everything is drooping, brown, vegetated and hard (i.e. even harder than usual) to identify. John did a fine job of finding trees and so forth for me, but its one thing being shown things and quite another getting to know them. It's definitely a work in progress.

I have ordered a Fern field guide and new camera batteries (I managed to use up two batteries during the morning) so when I go on my own I'll be better prepared.

This morning I went back, but to look at birds. I only had time to check Windmill Pool, but it was nice to be back looking at familiar species.

Juvenile Little Ringed Plover

As you can tell from the above photo, it started to rain before I left.

I nearly forgot. In the Scrublands I photographed a lichen which I believe is called Oakmoss.

Sunday August 23 - Morton Bagot

 Another sunny morning, of course, saw myself and Dave undaunted by our recent quiet visits, giving the patch another go. We're now at the right end of August and the birds started to respond.

To begin with we found the first of an eventual three Whinchats. That one was in the hedge bordering the scrape field (now lacking water entirely), and we soon found it was accompanied by several Whitethroats, a Stonechat, and best of all a Redstart.

Before we left the field, Dave spotted a Clouded Yellow.

We then switched our attention to the flash field, scoping the furthest flash from the ridge and looking through the largest gap in the trees. From here Dave spotted a Goosander unexpectedly swimming around among the distant Mallard. This was the first here this year, and a species which is scarce at Morton Bagot at the best of times. Unfortunately it proved impossible to photograph, as did a Badger which trotted across the field before disappearing into the cover of the long grass.

We moved down to the hedge and got into the best spot to watch the nearest flash. Initially it looked like a bit of a waste of time, but as luck would have it the cattle in the field decided to approach and inadvertently flushed 13 Snipe, 24 Teal, and four Green Sandpipers all virtually invisible until they were suddenly flying around in panic.

Little else was seen, aside from two or three more Stonechats at Netherstead.

Briefly, the garden moth trap on Friday night produced a decent count of 86 moths of 29 species for the GMS. Best in terms of our garden was the ridiculously tiny Apple Leaf-miner (only the third I have noticed), two Beet Moths (the first since they crashed onto the seen in 2022), and a Small Blood-vein (first for a couple of years). My favourite though were a couple of Chinese Characters, a moth which hides in plain sight by looking like a bird-dropping.

Weird or what?

Tuesday August 18 - Morton Bagot ....and then Earlswood

 Another quiet morning at the patch. It was largely cloudy for once, with a moderate westerly. There seemed to be markedly fewer warblers than a week ago, so they're starting to clear out. Noteworthy birds were a Peregrine on a pylon, and a Tufted Duck in flight over the flash field.

A flock of 50 Greylag Geese had no rare geese with them (the Tundra Bean Goose is still being reported occasionally at Arrow Valley Lake), while ducks were represented by six Teal and a few Mallard. Most of the waders had to be scoped from the top of the hill as they still favour the furthest flash, but in any case they were just five Green Sandpipers and a couple of Snipe. There are still two Stonechats on the tree-guards, but no sign of any Whinchats.

Never mind, my new found enthusiasm for trying to identify plants added a few species to my list, the best being Cyperus Sedge. I am inputting my plants onto irecord again (although I've never seen any evidence that anyone adjudicates on them).

Cyperus Sedge

One good thing about looking for plants is that you sometimes notice interesting insects. Today I added the very common (in my garden) Light Brown Apple Moth to the patch list, and also saw a hoverfly Helophilus pendulus which it turned out I'd seen here before.

Light Brown Apple Moth

Helophilus pendulus

Shortly after I had typed out the above, John Oates Whatsapp'd with news he'd found a Sanderling at Earlswood. I had seen the one there in May, but even so the chance of another one was too much to pass up.

I parked at the Wood Lane carpark at 15:30, noting to my dismay the sign saying it would close at 16:00. Unaware that this never happens, and that in any case I would have been able to leave, I was probably too rushed and was unable to find the bird. Fortunately I decided to drive across the causeway and enter the Malthouse carpark, where the sign says it closes at 20:00. This time I got the encouraging sight of a calidrid sp flying along Engine Pool, but too distant to be sure it was the Sanderling.

Things then got even crazier as I retraced my steps from down the Wood Lane side from the car-park. John texted that 10 Black-tailed Godwits had dropped onto the lake I was at. The walk down that side consists of a series of gaps, followed by yards of willows. I lengthened my stride, and found the Sanderling by looking through one of the gaps in the foliage.

Sanderling

I got a quick shot of the bird, an adult, before continuing towards the south end where the Godwits were...or had been. Another text from John; they were now off the Wood lane carpark. This was getting annoying. I hurriedly retraced my steps, almost stepping on a Brown Rat which dashed across my path, before finally seeing the Godwits.

Most of the Black-tailed Godwits

They were all juveniles, and I managed eight in the same shot. By now I was under considerable time pressure and had to head home without locating the Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers which were also there.

Many thanks to John for finding the birds. They reminded me just how exciting autumn migration can be (just not at Morton Bagot).

Sunday August 16 - Morton Bagot

 I have to be honest, Morton Bagot has been very samey for a while now. The same heat, the same lack of rain, and the same birds. Today's effort produced a slight uptick with the presence of two Whinchats and four Stonechats, and three Red Kites which included two juveniles.

Whinchat

We also saw a fair number of dragonflies and damselflies including a couple of Migrant Hawkers, a Brown Hawker, and a male Willow Emerald Damselfly. The latter was perched on a twig against the sun at the flash viewpoint.

Willow Emerald Damselfly

The furthest flash contained four Green Sandpipers, while the nearest could muster only six Lapwings and five Teal.

Teal

In the absence of much birding action I found myself increasingly drawn to the ground beneath our feet. Here I spotted what I believe to be several Robin's Pin-cushions, also known as the gall of a tiny wasp Diplolepsis rosae. 

Robin's Pin-cushion

On Friday night the garden trap went out for the GMS, and I caught 152 moths of 39 species. A third of them were Large Yellow Underwings, and in the absence of anything new for the garden the best of the rest were a couple of seconds: Small Ranunculus (last seen in 2019), and Golden-rod Pug (last in 2022).

Small Ranunculus

Golden-rod Pug

Friday August 14 - Morton Bagot

 I have to admit that I've spent most of the week hiding from the heat. My only two birding attempts concern an early morning visit to Bannam's Wood on Tuesday, where I watched Tony catch a Chiffchaff and we both had adequate views of Spotted Flycatcher, and this morning when I actually made it to Morton Bagot.

Pretty much as soon as I stepped from the car I noticed a Redstart and two Stonechats taking off from the posts near the dragonfly pond. Interestingly the Redstart was a female, so definitely not the bird seen last weekend. It was also very flighty and I struggled to get a decent shot.

My first thought was that the Stonechats were two males, but the view was brief and while I was stalking the Redstart I noticed only a female Stonechat, so I may have been mistaken.

As the weather warmed up, the birds largely disappeared into the undergrowth. The nearest flash contains no mud and few birds. I did however see a Willow Emerald damselfly dangling from the trees over the brook.

As I was leaving the site I ran into a HOEF work party led by Avery. She told me that the plan was to regenerate the Dragonfly pools by clearing half the reedbed away. The volunteers were also pruning the large bramble there. In the long term they hope to secure funding to deepen and re-wet the reedbed area.

Fair play to the volunteers who were putting in a shift under soaring temperatures.