Bugboys mission

[Benjamin]

Some great round up posts with lovely collages Paul. It’s also really nice to see some updates from your local patch - I have many happy memories of cycling around the area with kids in tow.

[bugboy]

Thanks Rob, It’s still very much a southern thing all this late season activity (and the odd Heat Island further inland like the large Airports). Reading Neil Freeman’s PD is like going back in time 20 years with the start and finish of the season.
Thanks Ben. I’m glad you’re enjoying both my round up and my local updates. My next post is a little closer to your current abode.

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January 2024

Wednesday 24th. I’ve only been to Arundel WWT once, many years ago, and every winter I always plan to go again but until now have never quite got around to it. It’s not as big as Barnes WWT and if there’s not a lot going on it’s difficult to spend the whole day there. Today there wasn’t a great deal going on and I didn’t take many pictures for the first hour although a well posed Lapwing will always tempt me.

Something exciting finally happened after lunch, a Peregrine started mobbing a passing Buzzard. From the size comparison it looks like a female Peregrine and the Buzzard was wise to be very defensive, a Peregrine is perfectly capable of killing it should it want to, although what I witnessed was more just stroppy annoyance.

Once the Buzzard flapped off the Peregrine continued to put on a decent show, sailing around for a bit.

Later in the afternoon some more BoP kept my attention, a kite and a Buzzard this time being harassed by a Crow.

With nothing much more going on at the reserve I moved on to nearby Arundel Park. A low flying Buzzard, for once not being mobbed made for a good target.

I took a slow walk around the lake coming across a small flock of Goldcrest, amongst which was at least one Firecrest. Annoyingly (but predictably) they kept to the shadows so the pictures aren’t the best.

Firecrest

Goldcrest

Firecrest

[Matsukaze]

Enjoying the pictures! The kites have arrived in numbers here in east Somerset in the last couple of years, to the extent that I saw one over the garden on 1 January 2023, becoming my first bird sighting of the year. Their arrival has coincided with a drop in the buzzard population and I wonder if one is somehow displacing the other. The crows are not bothered by any change and continue to harass both with equal vigour.

[Wurzel]

Great comparison shots Bugboy - really shows off the orange partial collar and eye stripe of the Firecrest

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Some fine bird images again, Paul. You're right about buzzards being continually mobbed. Whenever I see one round my way (or red kites) they are almost always being harassed.

[bugboy]

Thanks Matsukaze. I'm not sure if Kite's have much effect on Buzzard numbers, they seem to fly together in Sussex without too much bother and I don't know how much of a cross over there is in food resources. I do know that Peregrines have effected Buzzard numbers in places though.
Thanks Wurzel, I'm still looking for a nice sunlit Firecrest though, sneaky little buggers!
Thanks David, that's the down side of being a Bird of Prey, there's always something out there that wants to show off and have a pop at an apex predator!


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The weather finally broke in November, and things finally became a bit wintery. This didn’t mean there were no butterflies though, Red Admirals still marched on for world domination at the beginning of the month (in places still laying eggs) and a Peacock came out from its hibernation spot on a sunny afternoon.

All in all a pretty good year with lots of happy memories and if my maths is right (rarely a guarantee), 53 species. lets hope 2024 is at least as good.

[trevor]

I'd go along with your very last sentence, 2023 was a pretty good year.
We can only hope that 2024 will be even better!

At least I've got off to a start.

[Neil Freeman]

Reading Neil Freeman’s PD is like going back in time 20 years with the start and finish of the season.

Yes indeed! Notwithstanding a few random February sightings in recent years, my season is fairly consistant in kicking off around the third week of March. At the other end of the season things tend to fizzle out here by mid October or even earlier.
This is still a bit longer than I used to see back in the 1970s and 80s with things now extended by at least a week or two at each end of the season.
There are other parts of the midlands, particularly further south in Warwickshire and to the west in Worcestershire, where things seem to start earlier and finish later than here where we are on higher ground.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

"I'm still looking for a nice sunlit Firecrest though," I reckon that it's because they're so bright - if they came out into the sun they'd dazzle and temporarily blind us

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[bugboy]

Thanks Neil, having said all that, my local patch still seems to be stuck in the 80’s. April to September is generally it!
Thanks Wurzel, a small price to pay!

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January 2024

Friday 26th, a day that became a bit of a Bird of Prey fest. I took a trip down into Sussex and a wander around the Amberley/Burpham hills area. As usual Kites and Buzzards were numerous. There was also a Sparrowhawk early on before I’d even had a chance to get my camera out my bag. It was whilst I was trying (and failing) to stalk some Redwing & and Fieldfare that I caught sight of some BoP drifting around some distance away. With the naked eye they were difficult to work out what species they were but there was a little voice in the back of my head repeating “Eagles, Eagles, EAGLES!” A view through my bins immediately confirmed the little voice, two White-tailed Sea Eagles soaring past. Not quite a lifer, I did see them at the Sussex nest site last year, but that was just a perched one in a tree at a distance, but this was a first sight of one of these monsters in flight. Not quite the flying barn door experience, at this distance more of a garden gate experience, but no less enthralling. All pictures are very heavily cropped!

Unfortunately, they weren’t drifting in my direction and to keep them in sight I had to scamper up the steep side of the combe I was in, oh to be 20 years younger ! Only one was visible by now but it had been joined by a Raven who proceeded to (probably rather noisily) escort it from the premises. Having a Raven flying alongside does help to give a sense of scale to these immense birds.

The Combe was also full of Hares, which once the Eagles had gone, I spent a bit of time watching as they bounded away from me after I’d carelessly spooked them from their forms.

Another Sparrowhawk appeared as I was watching a Great Tit turf war progress. Its appearance put the turf war to sleep, at least temporarily!

It was mostly Kites and Buzzards for some time after this, plus a couple of Kestrel. It was after a wander around Perry Hill and walking back out the other side of Burpham village, that I saw something white fluttering a way in front of me. In the weak January sun, I knew there was no need to rush, it would settle. It was flying towards me along the hedge and as it got closer, I could see it was yellow so it was obviously a male Brimstone, my first January butterfly for quite a few years.

Kites and Buzzards still filled the sky but I did catch the briefest glimpse of something else as it floated over a hedge, dark, long winged and with what looked like a white rump. The only thing I can think what it was was a Juvenile Hen Harrier, just wish I had a better sighting than a two second glimpse.

I did get a much better look at the final species of BoP, this time a juvenile Marsh Harrier.

A pretty decent day, glorious weather, lots to see and my first butterfly of the year.

[bugboy]

February 2024

Saturday 3rd. February hasn’t been particularly good for me as far as getting out. The few sunny days have been whilst I’m at work and my days off have invariably been drab grey days at best and more often all-day downpours. It’s all the even more frustrating since Facebook is full of butterflies at the moment! Today was a drab grey day but the lack of any persistent rain tempted me out to Chobham Common. I was after Dartford Warblers, pesky little birds who are easy to hear (and see from a long distance) but don’t like you getting close, their favoured Heathland habitat not helping since there’s little to hide behind.

It was all quiet for most of the first half of my walk, but I did come across another avian heathland specialist, the Woodlark. In fact, I came across them several times but all but the first time they saw me before I saw them.

It was a few hours later when I finally heard the short scratchy warble of the main target. There was also the scolding noise they make when they know danger is near and they’re hiding in dense scrub, from what I think was the female. When he thought he was safe, the male popped out again to sing the song of his people. A very handsome little bird with his deep maroon underparts, slate grey head and crimson ringed eye. They’re about the same size as a Long-tailed Tit, complete with long tail which coincidentally, recent genetics show us Long-tailed Tits aren’t actually Tit’s at all, but closely related to the Warblers!

After deciding the game of hide and seek with the Warblers ended in a draw I moved on, once again disturbing the Larks on the edge of the path, and put up a load of Snipe in a marshy area that used to be a small shallow lake (or a very large pond) when I first started visiting here about ten years ago. I did attempt some in-flight pictures which were mostly out of focus blurs, the poor light really didn’t help. However I did manage to capture one recognisably Snipey which turned out to be the much less common Jack Snipe, identifiable by the proportionately much shorter bill.

Jack Snipe

Common Snipe

[Wurzel]

Cracking set of bird images Bugboy Those Eagles are like flying barn doors and then at the other end of the scale a diminutive Jack Snipe Here's a for the January Brimstone

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Great to see that Brimstone, Paul.

If things were only to brighten up here, I'm sure there'd be a few round my way too.

[Allan.W.]

Excellent work with the Jack Snipe Bugboy ! seen a few but they move off so quickly when flushed (ie; when you nearly step on them !) incredible that you managed a flight shot ! Of interest on a local birders blog (1st week January ) the excellent "PLODDINGBIRDER "
he mentions finding hiding Jack Snipe using a thermal imager at first (or just before ) light ...............take a look !
Allan.W.

[bugboy]

Thanks Wurzel, January was a pretty good month for my birding, and February started off not too badly too, just those damn sunny days didn’t fall right for me or I’m sure I would have some more Lepidoptera to show off!
Thanks David, there’s been plenty of brightness around here, unfortunately all whilst I’ve been stuck at work.
Thanks Allan, it was 100% luck getting that shot, only realised it was a Jack when I got the pictures home on my computer.


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February 2024

Sunday 4th. Just a couple of hours locally again. It was another dreary grey day so any early butterflies were still off the menu. One of the Kingfishers provided a welcome splash of colour.

Out on the marshes a gang of Redwings were hunting worms with a couple of Mistle Thrush, no Fieldfare today.

Mistle Thrush

Redwing

[Wurzel]

I do like a Redwing They're such charismatic birds and the eye stripe to my mind gives them a certain daredevil look It always seems odd seeing these 'winter' visitors with the final butterflies from one season and the first butterflies from the next

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[bugboy]

Thanks Wurzel, Redwings do still seem to hold on to the old version of when a British winter starts, I was still in shorts and t-shirt photographing LTB when I saw my first ones this season!

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February 2024

Saturday 17th. The few sunny days we’ve had recently continue to elude me on my spare time so it was on another butterflyless grey, breezy and somewhat damp day in the depths of Sussex. Annoyingly half the train lines were out of action this weekend which severely limited my destinations, so it was the old faithful Victoria to Bognar Regis line which presented itself as a rather obvious choice on account of it being one of the few still running. I decided to go to a very flooded RSPB Pulborough Brooks. My usual route, walking along the side of the river Arun wasn’t possible without the use of a boat so I caught the bus, getting there before opening time. I spent the first hour exploring the heathland which was a bit quiet, a female Great-spotted Woodpecker being a standout bird.

Birds do learn very quickly the areas that are safe to show themselves to us. A few miles down the road in Amberley getting close to a Pheasant is impossible, here they just don’t care!

At one of the feeding stations numerous woodland birds familiar to anyone with a bird table flitted amongst a group of photographers, the couple of Nuthatch were the prize for me here.

Down at the hides the flooded meadows had become home to Teal and around a hundred Pintail.

Also visible was a Peregrine and a Reed Bunting.

More ducks and waders were found in the hides overlooking the western end of the reserve.

I had a good hour to kill before my bus back to the train station so I took another wander around the heathland to the south of the visitor centre where I had a little more success than the morning finding a Nuthatch in a more natural setting along with a couple of Treecreepers.

The following day did hold a glimmer of hope with the promise of some brighter conditions developing in the afternoon after yet another deluge.

[bugboy]

February 2024

Sunday 18th. Well, it turned out the forecast was spot on, allowing me to arrive at Amberley just after the mornings deluge had passed and glimmers of blue sky could be seen in the distance. It sounded like spring was in the air too, Skylarks were particularly noisy and were joined by the tinkling tunes from Goldfinch and Linnet here and there as Dunnock’s shouting at each other along the hedges. A sizable flock of Yellowhammer were also feeding along one of the hedges where a strip of set aside land left a lot of feeding opportunities for them.

The usual selection of Buzzard and Kites soured overhead but even as the sun warmed the air causing me to shed a couple of layers, not a butterfly was to be seen. More signs of spring occurred as I walked along Perry Hill. A group of four Raven appeared over the rise and proceeded to display feats of aerial daring dos. I’ve read about their courtship and pair bonding displays but never witnessed it myself. It’s very impressive and consists of lots of swooping and diving, periodically flipping upside down for a few seconds and synchronised souring, all to the tune of their raucous croaking. I had a ten-minute captivating show (I just hope a courting pair of Large Tortoiseshell weren’t behind as I watched the Ravens!)

It really is the Ravens upside down, not my photos!

Part of the days plan was to attempt to explore Burpham Meadows which always gets completely waterlogged after even the lightest shower, so I had worn my wellies. Unfortunately, I had discovered quite early on in the day that both had sprung leaks so that exploration was cancelled, and I was only able to tentatively wander the ends of the path, again no butterflies but joining the Kites and Buzzards overhead was a Peregrine, the bird of the moment it seems. It’s quite possible the same one I’d seen at Arundal WWT (or at least its mate), I imaging its only a 5 or 10 minute journey away as the Peregrine flies!

Grey Partridges were also extremely vocal and walking back to the station I managed to catch sight of a few, more early springtime shenanigans were going on as I peered through a hedge, pointing a long zoom lens in their direction…

Now the favourite pictures threads have finished and the days are getting longer, I might be able to start adding some butterfly images to my posts again soon!

[Wurzel]

Great to see the Ravens Bugboy as well as the Grey Partridge with it's heart shaped marking, a little late for Valentine's but we'll let him away with it

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

...Now the favourite pictures threads have finished and the days are getting longer, I might be able to start adding some butterfly images to my posts again soon!

Let's hope so, Paul, though in the meantime feel free to post more bird images. I've really enjoyed seeing them these last few weeks.