Ralph Hollins' Nature Notes
DAILY DIARY
HAVANT NATURE NOTES for 2015
Wildlife diary and news for Nov 23 - 29 (Week 48 of 2015)
Mon 23 November
Little Auks, Green Sandpiper, Short Eared Owls and Turkish Tutsan
Reports of storm driven Little Auks remind me of past autumns when I read of people along the south coast finding dead and dying Auks in their back gardens and dumping them in their wheelie bins for the local council to bury in unmarked graves on their landfill sites. Once I myself found a dead bird in the Bells Copse area of Havant Thicket with injuries suggesting that it had been speared by the sharp end of a broken branch as it flew through the trees, probably in the dark when flying low to avoid the brunt of the high winds. A better memory is of finding one resting on the sheltered water of the IBM Lake in Portsmouth.
These memories were stirred when Brian Fellows recently reported that a Kite Surfer off the south coast of Hayling had seen one on the sea there in Nov 15 and a search of the internet yesterday showed that the past week has brought another storm driven surge of these birds to waters around Britain, the great majority of the birds having been seen on the north east coast but with a few seen in southern England or the north coast of France. The magnitude of the surge was best seen on the RBA website which listed total numbers reported to them from all over the UK, while the Trektellen website gave totals from individual sites reporting to Trektellen. Nov 21 was clearly the peak day of this event with RBA reporting a UK total of 3601 birds compared to the next highest day total of 62 birds on Nov 20.
Trektellen had a peak count of 584 from Craster in Northumberland among 22 reports, 8 of them from northen England. Also on Nov 21 Sandwich in Kent reported 9 birds, Lulworth in Devon had a single bird and across the Channel in France Cap Gris Nez had 2, Dunkerque had 5, Gatteville had 11 and Le Clipon had 6.
One report which reminded me of past 'back garden' sightings came from Devon on Nov 19 and read ... "Just had a call from Robin Khan. He spotted a small black and white bird by the side of the roundabout at Clyst St Mary around midday. He stopped the car and went back to the bird which was still alive and turned out to be a Little Auk!! It seemed healthy so he took it to Exmouth where released and flew out to sea unharmed. So hopefully this casualty of the storms will survive!."
Another bird rescue story came in the recent Radio News and was of a Short Eared Owl found exhausted on a North Sea oil rig and taken by helicopter to a bird rescue center in Scotland - mention of this species reminds me that a couple of days ago I had a phone call reporting a sighting of a Short Eared Owl hunting over the Langstone South Moors and today, when I took a late afternoon walk along the South Moors shore, I found a birder with a telescope trained on the spot where he had seen one of these owls plunge into the grass - he told me had had had excellent views of one there yesterday so it seems that at least one has been hunting the moors for three days in succession.
My own sightings today were limited to a noisy Green Sandpiper flying south following the Lymbourne Stream when I was in the Lymbourne sping area and as darkness was falling seeing Turkish Tutsan still flowering beside the Brockhampton Stream where it had been planted in an informal garden alongside where a small sailing ship had been berthed before it was swept out to sea some 20 years ago!
Wildlife diary and news for Nov 16 - 22 (Week 47 of 2015)
Fri 20 November
My November flowering plant list reaches the proud Dart's Player's target of 180.
This afternoon a new section of cycleway running along the south side of the railway from the new housing just south of the New Lane level crossing to Warblington School just south of the level crossing at Warblington Station was to be opened at 2:30pm (presumably timed for the end of the school day to allow children needing to get from the school back to homes in Havant without having to use the busy main road from Emsworth into Havant).
As I might on occasions find this to be useful and not knowing where it would emerge at the New Lane end I decided to make Nore Barn area my target for an afternoon visit and to come home via the Warblington Shool area some time after the scheduled opening of the cycleway.
I set out along the usual road route towards Emsworth and, on reaching Selangor Avenue, turned south onto the footpath leading to Nore Barn where I left my bike and walked west along the 'Church Path' to the entrance of the field immediately west of Nore Barn (Field W on my map of Warblington Farm at ).
In this field I followed the northern and eastern hedges down to the pond from which the eastern stream of the farm exits under the seawall into the creek running along the south of Nore Barn Wood. As soon as I reached the edge of the pond I had a big surprise in finding a single plant of Common Centaury covered with red flower buds (which would no doubt have been open were there to be enough sunshine to arouse them). Crossing the field to its western hedge I found two fungi in the grass - one was the common Yellow Fieldcap (Bolbitius vitellinus) which grows in cowpats, the other was larger and looked similar to the Fairy Ring Champignon (Marasmius oreades) in forming a large ring in the grass but which was clearly a different species which I could not name on the spot so I gathered a specimen to take home. With the aid of my books I soon named it as Clitocybe rivulosa which is a poisonous species.
I found a photo on the internet which you can see below - to help you recognize and avoid this species it measured about 5cm across the cap and had a short stem (less the 30mm long and 6mm wide), with decurrent pale brown gills and an overall sickly whitish look.
An image of Clitocybe rivulosa
Next I retrieved my bike and rode to the shore to have a look at Field V behind Conigar Point. The wheat crop in this field was cut some time ago, long enough for the interesting weeds that grow in it to come to maturity.
Clambering in through the gap in the hedge the first thing I saw was fresh Field Woundwort in flower at the edge of the cultivated area immediately in front of me. From this entrance I walked across the field to its northwest corner finding masses of Field Madder in fresh flower and plenty of plants of this field's speciality, Dwarf Spurge.
This was not in flower but had unopen flower buds to qualify for my November flowering list (which now numbers 180 species after today's four additions). It could be mistaken for the Common Fumitory that was also present and which did have open flowers but to give a clue to what to look for I collected a specimen of the Dwarf Spurge and show two photos of it below - the first shows the mass of leaves which is what you see as you approach the plants which form small bushes some 20cm tall (note that my specimen is only a small fraction of the complete plant) and my second photo is of a single strand taken from the complex mass to illustrate the shape of the individual leaves.
The Hants Flora says the species is locally common but the distribution map shows that it grows where there is a mass of chalky soil in the arable fields of the northern half of the county - I have not seen it anywhere else in the Havant area other than this one field.
Samples of Dwarf Spurge
On my way home I followed the broad path along the north edge of Nore Barn Wood and, close to the spot where the Hairy Garlic once grew in the northern hedgerow, I found Cow Parsley in full flower.
Following the roads up to the main A259 I was pleased to see that the promise on improving the cycle lanes (which had seemingly been limited to the northern side of the road west of Selangor Avenue) is now being extended, as originally promised, into the centre of Emsworth.
The whole road has been re-surfaced to its edges, temporarily removing the cycle lane markings and making it rather dangerous for cyclists to use the road so I stuck to the footpath along the southern side of the road!
Thu 19 November
Yesterday's unidentified fungus now has a name
I finshed yesterday's entry by mentioning a fungus found in Langstone Mill Lane which I had been unable to identify but which I now feel confident is Cortinarius causticus as shown in the following photo from the internet.
An image of Cortinarius causticus
A distinctive feature of those that I found in Mill Lane was the shape of the cap which measured 5cm across - from the rim it sloped up, then levelled out, and finally had a large central hump (which mycologists call an 'Umbo'). The next thing I noticed was the cap colour which was off white with undertones of yellow - when cut to reveal the flesh within the cap I found that was thin and yellow while the gills were brown of a deeper tone than shown in this photo. The stem was straight, narrow and white with no ring - it measured 5 cm. Last night I cut off the stem so that I could lay the cap on a sheet of paper to obtain a spore print and this morning there was a good deposit of rust brown spores on the paper.
My books give the season as autumn and the habitat as deciduous and coniferous woodland which agrees with where I found the fungus beside the short path leading from the east end of Mill Lane to the main road just north of the crossing to Langstone High Street.
Stefan Buczacki, in his Collins Guide to Fungi, says that the species is often found in troops or tufts and when I gathered a specimen to take home I found I had a tuft of three whose stems all grew from the same spot.
Two other things omitted from yesterday's entry were that the Swan family of five cygnets and their parents were again off Langstone Pond and that when in Mill Lane I found a mass of the tiny white flowers of Stone Parsley on regrowth of the stumps of some of these plants which had been cut down.
In view of the almost total absence of any juveniles among the Brent Geese along the English Channel this winter I was excited to see that on Nov 15 the Portland website told us that there were 21 Pale-bellied Brent at Ferrybridge and posted a photo showing that at least 8 of them were juveniles. A couple of other reports from Portland (on Nov 12 and 16) were also of interest in showing that the vast flocks of Woodpigeons that we see each autumn apparently flying around in circles with no known origin and no destination do sometimes fly south across the Channel along with significant numbers of passerines which seem to spend their autumns flying east and west, again with no evidence of heading south (though it is clear that many of them do reach us from the continent). On Nov 12 Portland reported the following as heading south:- 7000 Wood Pigeons, 627 Goldfinch, 461 Chaffinch, 260 Starlings, 71 Meadow Pipits, 42 Linnets and 36 Bramblings.
On Nov 13 another 8000 Wood Pigeons flew south (but some 5000 chickened out and flew back north). On Nov 16 25000 Wood Pigeons flew south and if you have 2 minutes to spare you can watch a procession of 'dots in the sky' at . With them went 750 Goldfinch, 300 Chaffinch and 2 Bramblings.
Also at Portland a Red Admiral arrived in the Observatory moth traps during the night of Nov 16/17.
Other insect news is that at least one Wasp flew out of my garden nest this morning (Nov 19) while four Hornets were seen around their nest in the Itchen Valley Country Park yesterday (Nov 18).
Other late insect sightings have been a Long-tailed Blue on Brighton racecourse on Nov 11, a Painted Lady in a Ryde garden on Nov 10 and a Humming-bird Hawkmoth in the Brighton area on Nov 8.
Latest dragonfly sightings have been Common Darters in Gloucestershire on Nov 16,
a Southern Hawker in Cornwall on Nov 16, a Common Hawker on the Isle of Arran on Nov 14 and a Migrant Hawker in Norfolk on Nov 11.Finally my sighting of Brent on the West Hayling fields on Nov 13 prompted Chris Oakley to tell me that he saw hundreds on the arable fields between Bosham and Nutbourne while driving back from Chichester on Nov 14.
Wed 18 November
My first Lesser Celandine flower
A dry morning allowed me to repeat yesterday's walk, this time with a camera to show you the impressive Salvia plant that I found.
First I checked out the Lesser Celandine site in Juniper Square and discovered that there were now two flowers open.
Celandine flowers in Juniper Square
Across the A27, in Rectory Road, I started by taking a couple of photos of the garden of number 21, where the exotic Salvia grows, which I described yesterday as having interesting plants but showing no signs of tidy gardening.
From a distance the small garden is hidden behind an untrimmed hedge of Wilson's Honeysuckle (Lonicera nitida) with a flowering plant of Borage seemingly growing from the pavement at the road end of this hedge. A closer view, looking into the garden, shows the Salvia plant as the centrepiece of this seemingly totally neglected area
The garden of 21 Rectory Road
I could not reach the Salvia plant to measure the length of its flowers but estimated that the fully open specimen in my picture below measured 4 or 5 cm long. To complete the scene I also took a photo of the Borage plant.
Close ups of the Salvia and Borage plants
From Rectory Road I headed for the Langbrook Stream via the Langstone Technology Centre approach road and then turned south along the streamside path. A few yards downstream from the road I took a photo of the Yellow-flowered Strawberry fruit with one unopen flower bud and when I reached the South Moors I took another of the Tufted Forget-me-not still flowering in the stream running down the centre of the Moors to the Tamarisk Pool near the mouth of the Langbrook Stream. Between these two points there was nothing else still flowering and later, walking along the shore, the gale force wind would not allow me to stand still enough to use the camera!
Yellow-flowered Strawberry fruit and Tufted Forget-me-not flowers
Walking back along the shore I found a single Parasol Mushroom sheltering from the gale in a ditch on the landward side of the seawall near the mouth of the Langbrook Stream and a little further on I found Sea Campion flowering on the shingle - this, and the Tufted Forget-me-not, were both new to my November list bringing the total to 176 species. Crossing the Langbrook to come home via Mill Lane I saw my first Velvet Shank fungi on the tree which overhangs the stream a little down from the bridge, and at the other end of Mill Lane, close to the main road I came on another cluster of fungi which I have so far failed to identify.
Finally, back at home, the Wasp nest in my garden which has been quiety active since the summer is still managing to send out one or two Wasps when it is not raining.
Tue 17 November
My first Lesser Celandine flower
This morning a brief pause in the wind and rain allowed me out of the house for a brief walk to buy Christmas cards from the Havant Arts Centre but I decided to extend my walk to visit Juniper Square where I had recently seen a lot of fresh growth among the Lesser Celandine plants which thrive on the east side of the peripheral road which has no houses fronting onto it (only the back entrances to some houses in Orchard Road).
The Celandines grow on an earth bank at the southern end of this road before it turns to run west towards South Street and today a search of this bank found a single fresh Celandine flower growing under the shelter of a bramble.
Having found this flower I went on over the A27 to Southbrook Road to see if any flowers were showing in my traditional spot for finding the first Celandine of previous winters on the bank of the Lymbourne Stream where the warm water (which has not long emerged from underground warmth at the Lymbourne Spring) enables them to flower earlier than other local plants.
When I got there I had difficulty in finding a single Celandine plant but en route, in a garden on Rectory Road (the short road connecting the A27 overpass to Southbrook Road) which has a collection of unusual plants and little attempt at tidy gardening there was a new and impressive cluster of plants which I believe to be exotic Salvias standing the best part of a metre tall and bearing long, deep blue, flowers. A search of the internet suggests that these are one of many cultivars of Meadow Clary (Salvia pratensis) which, in its wild state, is described by Fitter and Fitter as "one of our most gorgeous wild flowers".
As these plants are now in full flower I assume they are not Salvia pratensis but a similar plant imported from the southern hemisphere.
When we get another break in the weather I must take my camera to record these plants.
Also seen today was a healthy flowering plant of Dove's Foot Cranesbill which I was surprised to find was not already on my November list and which, with the Celandine, brought the current total to 174 species.
Yesterday (Nov 16) while cycling home from Warblington, a single Comma butterfly flew across my path to possibly become my last butterfly of the year - a fresh Comma is the last species to be reported from Sussex (seen near Lewes on Nov 12 with a Red Admiral being seen at Selsey on the same day), while the Isle of Wight had a Painted Lady in a Ryde garden on Nov 10. Perhaps more surprising is that Portland Bill recorded 11 individual migrant moths of 4 species still arriving on the night of Nov 11.
Mon 16 November
A bright yellow toadstool that I've never seen before and both Cow Parsley and Fool's Parsley to add to my November list
Today was forecast to be dry and with a moderate wind so I decided to do my monthly cemeteries round, starting with Warblington Cemetery in the morning. The first surprise of the day came as I was passing the Warblington Farm barns at the southern end of Church Lane where a single plant of Cow Parsley was in full flower and within the cemetery was another surprise called Nostoc commune - a strange blue-green alga containing cynobacteria to which we owe our ability to live on this planet thanks to their role, some 2.8 billion years ago, in providing the planet with an atmosphere containing oxygen. Later in the day I also found this alga at the Havant cemetery where it demonstrated why it is sometimes called 'Witches Butter'. In both locations it appeared to be growing on a stone base on which it will have mysteriously appeared 'out of thin air'. Here are my two photos showing a 'dry' form at Warblington and a 'wet' form at Havant
Nostoc commune at Warblington and Havant cemeteries
To get a better idea of this species read the following web page written by an organisation offering to eradicate this unwanted species from your garden - that's gratitude for a species that made life on earth possible!.
While at the Havant Cemetery I also came on a bright yellow fungus which I have never come across before though it is said to be common. I believe it to be Hygrocybe quieta and here is my photo of one of the specimens found in the grass of the St Faith's section.
Hygrocybe quieta in Havant cemetery
The Fool's Parsley mentioned in today's heading was found at the end of the day when walking home through Havant and brought my November flowering plant total to 172.
Wildlife diary and news for Nov 9 - 15 (Week 46 of 2015)
Fri 13 November
I struggle against the wind and the curse of Friday the 13th to find 10 more flowering plant species on South Hayling
The weather forecast for today was for heavy rain during the morning followed by a dry afternoon with a strong westerly wind so I did not set off for south Hayling until after an early lunch when the sun was shining but even in Havant the headwind as I rode down the Billy Track kept me in a low gear.
Crossing Langstone Bridge I was seriously concerned that any sudden gust of even stronger wind could blow me off the cycleway into the traffic - luckily I survived but had to struggle with the wind all the way down the Hayling Coastle Path. South of the Oysterbeds the windsurfers were achieving 'personal best' high speed runs when the wind was behind them.
On the West Lane fields what seemed like 1000 Brent were on the young wheat crop.
This is the first time I have seen Brent on the fields and I cannot find any reports of them coming ashore to feed on crops but I'm pretty sure today's birds were not the first to do so. As an aside I was wondering what stage of development the crop had reached and got a more comprehensive response than I had expected when I asked Google to tell me what stages of growth were recognised by agricultural experts - have a look at the table of numbered stages to be found after the brief introduction on the following webpage at .
On reaching south Hayling I continued my struggle into the wind along Ferry Road to check if the Bell Heather was still flowering on the Golf Course opposite the Kench and to my surprise some plants were still in flower.
While stopped I also found Sea Radish and Autumn Hawkbit flowering in the roadside grass.
At the harbour entrance I could find nothing new so I turned back and nearing the end of the Kench shoreline I stopped to investigate a half-hidden yellow flowered plant which I could not name so I collected a leaf and a flowering shoot which had both incipient seed pods and at least one flower - back at home I convinced myself that the plant was
I rode on to the Golf Club entrance where I turned south outside the golf club fence to make an unexpected find in the shape of at least one flower on Butcher's Broom before I came to the expected Pale Toadflax at the south east corner of the mini-golf course. From here I rode on til I was south of Staunton Avenue but instead of turning north I continued east along the common and was rewarded with flowers on Tamarisk (which turned out to be new for the month).
A few yards further on I had a totally unexpected find well outside a garden of several Blue Globe Thistles (Echinops bannaticus) which you will probably recognize in the photo below (taken from the internet).
Blue Globe Thistle (Echinops bannaticus)
Just one more flower for the list was the Cocks Eggs (Salpichroa origanifolia) before the relatively easy ride home with the wind behind me.
There, after a much needed rest, I updated my spreadsheet to show a total of <FONT FACE = "Arial" SIZE=4 COLOR="#FF plants for November and am now ready to put the results online.
Thu 12 November
One more wild flower found in Havant
A short walk around Havant after lunch today discovered that the miniscule flowerhead which I had found on Nov1 in the gravel drive of a house opening onto Prince George St, which at the time seemed likely to be Common Corn Salad (Valerianella carinata), had grown into a full-sized plant and justified inclusion in my November list. Later, close to the Langstone roundabout I also found Spotted Medick with flowers, bringing my November count to 160. The photos below are not mine but are taken from the internet.
Common Cornsalad and Spotted Medick
On my way home I came up Town Hall Road and had a brief look for the Black Redstart which Martin Hampton saw there a couple of days ago with no expectation of seeing it. So far this month I have seen 13 South Coast reports of Black Redstart, several of them being combined sightings from several locations on the same day (e.g. on Oct 31 when a major influx occurred the Dorset County website gave me a single report including 27 birds seen at 8 sites of which Portland Bill with 14 birds was just one). Looking through these reports the great majoriy seem to be of birds that have not yet settled down for the winter and have only been seen once at the reported site - the exceptions being Portland Castle, the Meon shore chalets at Titchfield Haven, and Medmerry near Selsey Bill, at all of which one or more birds have been seen on more than one day.
I guess the things which attract the birds to stay are a good supply of food (they eat insects, spiders, worms, berries and seeds), shelter from winter weather, and lack of disturbance - while the complex of buildings at the Old Town Hall site may offer shelter it has little in the way of food and is subject to continuous human disturbance. Of course these are not the only factors determining where the birds settle - one other factor must be population size (i.e. competition for sites), another must be the weather, and I guess this was a factor in the years between 1972 and 1988 when these birds bred regularly at several of the forts on Portsdown.
Also today the post brought me the latest HOS Kingfisher magazine which had a very interesting article by Alan Cox on how birds navigate on migration.
Alan wrote about the contribution of a German called Wolfgang Wiltschko (and his wife Roswitha) over 50+ years to what now seems to be the answer to this question - they have eyes which can 'see' the earth's magnetic field using an aspect of quantum physics. Alan sums this up by saying ... "Bird migratory sense appears to be an exquisite genetic adaptation combining elaborate photochemistry with quantum physics."
I first came across the possibility that quantum physics might be involved in a BBC TV programme presented by Jim Alkalili last summer and a search of the internet today came up with the following as the clearest (to me) explanation of what's involved - see
Brian Fellows latest blog entry (dated Nov 11) told me something that I was not aware of, that Japanese Honeysuckle has jet black berries at this time of year but his photo of them illustrates the way that I separate this species from the native Honeysuckle and its 'garden centre' variants.
In the garden varieties the flowers are all based in one terminal cluster whereas in Japanese Honeysuckle the flowers are arranged singly in the leaf axils on either side of the stem. In addition to the normal 'climber' type plants the genus Lonicera also contains a couple of very common species used for hedging rather than flowering (search Google for 'Lonicera nitida images' and 'Lonicera pileata images') and there is one more species (Tartarian Honeysuckle) which is found on Hayling Island and which I often mention in the summer months when its delicate pink flowers can be seen on the west side of the road leading to the Sinah Gravel Pit lake at its junction with Ferry Road - this may be the only specimen growing wild in Hampshire as the species is described in the Hants Flora as very rare and its discovery in 1990 is ascribed to Dick Barrett with whom I once worked at IBM
Tartarian Honeysuckle flowers in summer
Tue 10 November
Havant Thicket brings my November wild flower list to 159 species
While making my breakfast this morning the door bell rang and I found Martin Hampton on the doorstep wanting to tell me that as he walked up Town Hall Road beside the Spring Arts centre he had just seen a Black Redstart on the roof of the Old Town Hall.
Needless to say I got down there as quickly as possible but, not unsurprisingly, did not see the bird.
Another bird that I did not see yesterday, but have a better chance of seeing in the near future, is a female Goosander which Peter Raby photographed on Langstone Pond yesterday.
This morning the strong southerly wind pushed me uphill through Leigh Park to Havant Thicket after a brief pause at Havant Health Centre to collect a repeat presciption for Eye Drops which I have to use since having a detached retina repaired back in 2001 - at the Health Centre I also collected my first Sun Spurge tick for the month. My next find was not a plant but a large cluster of Giant Funnel (Leucopaxillus giganteus) fungi which can be be seen in the grass on the east side of the Petersfield Road just north of its junction with Wakefords Way.
The photo below is from the internet and only gives a rough impression of what I saw in open graassland with a similar number of fungi, each with a cap some 30cm across and on stems around 40 cm high.
Giant Funnel fungi
In Havant Thicket, at the foot of Horsefoot Hill, I found Wood Sage, Devil's Bit Scabious and Dwarf Gorse still in flower (but at the very end of their flowering) and as I worked my way up the hill I managed to find one or two plants of Golden Rod which had not gone to seed. Stopping to check these I found one plant of a Hawkweed species which had relatively fresh flowers so I collected a stem which had no flowers but whose leafiness and hairiness allowed me to say, when back at home, that it belong to the Subauda group of this complex tribe of plants.
Continuing my circuit around the Thicket I could not find a single example of the common Ling heather that was still flowering but I did find Tormentil still in fresh flower.
Heading home I had left the Thicket and was walking up the steep slope into Leigh Park Gardens when I had a bonus in finding Germander Speedwell starting to reflower as if this was spring.
A little further on, in the Cedar Drive area, I kept my eyes open for the 5 cm long 'furry catkins' that I found on the ground here in early December last year. On that occasion the ground was covered with them but I had no idea where they came from and I had to seek help from Martin Rand who referred me to a tree specialist to learn that these were the male flowers of the Cedar of Lebanon and that late autumn was their 'breeding season'. Today I found just a few and have also found a photo on the internet which I believe shows the male catkin on the right and a tiny female flower on the left - in due time the female will grow into the substantial cone shown in the second photo
Cedar of Lebanon flowers and cones
Wildlife diary and news for Nov 2 - 8 (Week 45 of 2015)
Sun 8 November
A dozen more flowering plants for November
Yesterday afternoon the clouds parted and the sun came out so despite the continuing strong wind I walked down to Langstone to see if the Winter Heliotrope which Brian Fellows had found starting to flower in Emsworth on Nov 6 was also flowering beside Wade Lane outside Wade Court.
I have been keeping an eye on that site as the first flowers normally appear there in early November but, in my experience, they never come up until we have had the first frost. This year that rule was broken both here and in Emsworth when I found a single flowerhead though none of the flowers that I saw were fully open - today I put that right when I found another single flower head among the array of leaves lining the east side of 'Rusty Cutter' roundabout where the A3M joins the A27.
Going back to yesterday's outing I walked home up Pook Lane from the shore in the hope of finding Dog's Mercury in flower and surprised myself by finding one fresh young plant with fully extended male catkins and surrounded by three or four more young plants with catkins starting to be detectable.
Today, with cloudy skies and a fresh southerly wind, I pushed my luck by getting on my bike and heading for Farlington Church, then walking the bike up the steep side of Portsdown to meet the Portsdown Hill Road outside Fort Purbrook. Before reaching Farlington I found a mass of the white-flowered Potato Vine (Solanum jasminoides) in full flower in Bedhampton. Admittedly this is a garden plant but, once planted, it takes control and grows over any garden fence to qualify for a tick in my list of wild flowers, besides which it is a member of the Nightshade family and has many genuinely wild relatives. I have already mentioned the Winter Heliotrope I found when leaving Bedhampton and when still negotiating the cycleway round the north of the big roundabout I added Musk Mallow to my list.
Nothing else went on my list until I was well up the steep slope of Portsdown where the road cuts through the large underground reservoirs of the Portsmouth Water Company. Here Marjoram, Field Scabious, Burnet Saxifrage, Ploughman's Spikenard and one small plant of Small-flowered Cranesbill were still flourishing before I crossed the Portsdown Hill Road to have a look round the short cul-de-sac road giving access to the hill top Golf Course.
Here I found plenty of Eyebright but nothing else new before I continued up the Hill Road in the hope of seeing the Lesser Periwinkle I found at this time last year under the hedge bordering the Hoylake Road area. Failing to see either leaves or flowers of this plant I started the easy downhill ride back to Bedhampton and around the north of Havant to the Havant Health Centre, under the southern hedge of which the Oxyloba variant of Greater Periwinkle flowers almost year round and I was not disappointed today.
Thinking I would find nothing else new for my list I rode on homewards down Leigh Road and then along Eastern Road towards the New Lane level crossing but, as I was about to cross the underground channel of the Lavant Stream which makes its subterranean way through the town centre to join the Langbrook Stream, I was stopped in my tracks by the sight of White Comfrey in full flower on just one of a series of these plants growing on the north side of the road where a driveway goes north to some houses.
These plants were the first to flower this year but now just one was flowering.
This brought my November list up to a round 150 but I still have to visit Havant Thicket.....
Fri 6 November
Fungi enjoying rain on my lawn
My lawn currently has eight species of fungi and so, despite the light rain, I took my camera into the garden this morning to record what was there and to demonstrate my reward for leaving my lawn for some 50 years undamaged by the chemical treatments which most gardeners think to be essential for producing a good crop of (to me) totally uninteresting grass.
Perhaps the commonest and most easily recognizable species, now that the season for Blackening Waxcap is over, is the Parrot Waxcap, named for its green and yellow colouration, and I have started with this as the one you are probably most likely to see. Next I have chosen the Meadow Waxcap whose colour picks it out from the others.
Parrot and Meadow Waxcaps
The next two are also reasonably large with caps around 5cm across and the white colour of the first - Snowy Waxcap - stands out at a distance. The second - the Herald of Winter - is less easily spotted but a close view shows that its grey brown is partially camouflaged by a thick coating of sticky slime.
Snowy Waxcap and The Herald of Winter
The next two would be easily overlooked for their small size (usually no more than 3cm tall) and their total non-conformity to a 'mushoom like' shape.
The first, Trichoglossum hirsutum, is sometimes called an Earth Tonque while the second looks more like a colourful small yellow worm.
The traditional mushroom fulfils its purpose in life by dropping its spores from a height which should allow the wind to carry those spores to distant places where they can generate a new underground fungus plant to exchange (via their roots) the minerals it can extract from the soil with the sugars created by photosynthesis in above ground plants.
The 'non mushroom like' fungi 'shoot' their spores out into the air using a complex mechanism that can be simplistically likened to a highwayman's pistol but the fungus world has many other ways of dispersing its spores, among them attracting insects to what smells like a rotting corpse and palstering them with a sticky 'spore mixture' when they land on the 'corpse'.
A sophisticated application of mechanical principles is used by the Bird's Nest Fungus which creates bundles of spores (simulating bird's eggs) in the bottom of a bowl shaped structure (the nest) whose design is such that a raindrop striking the inner edge of the nest will run down the side and under the eggs, propelling one or more of them high into the air - what's more, to prevent the ejection of unripe spores each 'egg' is attached to the nest by an elastic thread which will pull an unripe egg back into the nest but will snap to release ripe spores.
Earth Tongue (Trichoglossum hirsutum) and Clavulinopsis helvola
My last two fungi are called White Spindles (another 'worm') and Mycena fibula a tiny but very common species of the mushroom type.
White Spindles (Clavaria vermicularis) and Mycena fibula
While out on the lawn I thought I would check out a Holly bush to see if it, like one I saw on Nov 1, was already showing flowers.
Sure enough I did find one cluster of flowers and as with the first one it was on a stem which had recently been cut back.
An early Holly flower
Turning to a different subject possibly connected with a fungus I was recently listening to the 'Costing the Earth' programme on BBC Radio 4 and heard of yet another tree killing disease that has recently reached Europe from South America and which threatens to destroy the Olive Trees which supply our Olive Oil and provide an income for a huge number of farmers in the Mediterranean region. If you are interested in this have a look at
Wed 4 November
My November flowering plant list now up to 134 and reports show 16 Dragonfly species on the wing in October
After the good weather on Nov 1st which gave me a list of 110 flowering plants in the Havant area we still have not been driven to take cover by the strong winds and heavy rain forecast for November though there is now only one significant habitat (Portsdown) left to give any signficant boost to my flower list and I doubt I will feel like exploring that in the increasingly wet and windy weather. Today's outing was to the Bedhampton, Broadmarsh and Budds Farm area during which I found 16 more plants for the list, including Hybrid Water Speedwell in the Water Works overflow channel with fresh Teasel flowers and Spear Thistle nearby, Golden Samphire and Black Mustard on the Broadmarsh shore, both White and Ribbed Melilot plus Perforate St John's Wort where Harts Farm Way ends at the A27 interchange, and the remnants of flowering Bugloss by Southmoor Lane - these, plus a few omitted as not very exciting, brought my total for this month to 134.
Before November is out I expect to add Winter Heliotrope and Dog's Mercury to the list but I doubt the total will exceed 145 and it is of some interest to me to compare that figure with my totals for the preceding months of this year which have been:-<BR
&&&&&&&&Jan 43
&&&&&&&&Feb 47
&&&&&&&&Mar 74
&&&&&&&&Apr 148
&&&&&&&&May 222
&&&&&&&&June 289
&&&&&&&&July 267
&&&&&&&&Aug 276
&&&&&&&&Sep 233
&&&&&&&&Oct 184
While trying to complete my records for October I found I had not got round to looking at the British Dragonfly Society website reports for the month and it may be of general interest to list the last dates on which dragonfly species were seen.<BR
&&&&&&&&Oct 1 - Ruddy Darter and Brown &&&&&&&&Hawker - both in Norfolk
&&&&&&&&Oct 2 - Emerald Damsel, Beautiful Demoiselle and Gold Ringed - all in Cornwall
&&&&&&&&Oct 4 - Yellow Winged Darter at Dungeness and Azure Damsel in Lancashire
&&&&&&&&Oct 6 - Emperor in Nottinghamshire
&&&&&&&&Oct 8 - Black Darter in Norfolk
&&&&&&&&Oct 13 - Vagrant Emperor in Devon
&&&&&&&&Oct 20 - Wilow Emerald Damsel in Norfolk
&&&&&&&&Oct 25 - Southern Hawker in Lancashire
&&&&&&&&Oct 28 - Red Veined Darter, Common Darter and Common Blue Damsel all in Hampshire
&&&&&&&&Oct 28 - Migrant Hawker in West Midlands
These are not necessarily the last sightings for the year - if you go to
you will see that six species had been reported in November as I write this.
Further, if you are unfamiliar with the names of some species reported, you can discover what they look like and other info (such as when they first appeared in the UK) by visiting .
This page lists the species and by clicking a species name you will see the full info for that species.
Wildlife diary and news for Oct 26 - Nov 1 (Week 44 of 2015)
Sun 1 November
A good start to November with 110 flowering plants and my first Fieldfare
This morning's mist soon cleared and did not hamper my walk around Havant in search of wildflowers of which I found 91 before lunch as well as hearing the 'chack, chacking' of a Fieldfare in the tall trees of Havant cemetery.
I also heard the songs of Dunnock and Wren as well as the ubiquitous Robins.
After lunch I got on my bike to enjoy the warm sunshine as I cycled past Farlington Marshes to the Eastern Road entrance, adding another 19 flowering plants to give a total of 110 species for the day.
During the morning I also came on a fungus which I cannot recall ever seeing before. I found it when walking east along the north pavement of Southbrook Road in Langstone, shortly after turning into Southbrook from the main Langstone Road. I had already seen several fresh Honey Fungus, and several masses of very small dark capped 'bonnet Mycena' type fungi, in the roadside grass when I came on a group of about five smallish fungi (flat cap about 5 cm across and stems about 40 by 4 mm) with striking orange red caps, off white stems and dark brown, crowded, gills. After searching my books and the internet I cannot name them confidently and the nearest I can get is Cortinarius sanguineus which fits the look of the cap but not the gills or stem.
Another mystery find of the morning was a tiny flowering plant growing in the gravel drive on the east side of Prince George St in Havant - it seems to be Common Corn-Salad and I have counted it in my list though it should be flowering in June rather than November and should be noticeably larger in size.
Just before finding that, walking along the north side of Waterloo Road opposite the public car park in Prince George St, I checked the regular site where I expect to find Common Whitlowgrass after Christmas and found many of these distinctive plants confidently identifiable by their leaf rosettes looking as if they may flower before Christmas this year (they were not included in today's total!).
Among today's flowering plants were several that deserve a mention for being unexpected.
The first of these was a Holly Tree which had several clusters of its tiny white flowers already out a another was to find one Buddleia bush still bearing new fresh flowers; the next was to find a tall plant of Water Figwort with fresh flowers by the L then came the Musk Storksbill growing outside Pemberley House alongside Langstone Road just south of the north entrance to Southbrook Road (a little south of the Langstone Technology Park entrance on the other side of the road). Heading across the Billy Line towards Langstone Mill the large grass field which borders the Lymbourne Stream had a scattering of large Buttercup plants in flower and I assume they were the Bulbous Buttercups that abound here in the spring - before that, while still among the Langstone 'new' housing, I was surprised to find an Opium Poppy just opening a fresh flower.
My afternoon ride brought me more unexpected flowers.
Gorse, Blue Fleabane and Yellow-wort were expected and found but at the carparking area near the Eastern Road Tufted Vetch, Bladder Campion, Wild Celery, Hemp Agrimony and freshly flowering Traveller's Joy were unexpected additions to my list as were Common Knapweed and Wild Parsnip seen on the way home.
My outing ended with Common Ramping Fumitory and Green Amaranth still flourishing beside Solent Road opposite the Tesco carpark in Havant where I came across them on Oct 23.
Sat 31 October
Late October news
My database of reports extracted from south coast wildlife websites during October now has 1118 entries so I will limit myself to a few recent highlights starting with the first two reports of Long-tailed Duck, one of which flew west over Selsey Bill on Oct 24, the second being of one settled at Abbotsbury in Dorset on Oct 30.
Also on Oct 30 a single Velvet Scoter flew west past Christchurch Harbour and which remains the only report of the species that I know of.
The first Goldeneye to reach Dungeness was reported on Oct 20 and the only subsequent reports have been of one at Blashford on Oct 29 and two there on Oct 30 so they have started to arrive.
Also arriving are Purple Sandpiper with the first at Folkestone on Oct 23, the first for Hampshire being a single at Southsea Castle on Oct 29 and the first small flock of 8 at Christchurch Harbour on Oct 30.
Woodcock are also arriving with the first at Sandwich on Oct 21.
One on the edge of the New Forest on Oct 23 may not have been a migrant but two on the Scillies on Oct 26 and 3 at Dungeness almost certainly were.
Mention of the Scillies reminds me that I have only just discovered why I was missing news from the hotspot - they had moved their sightings from the page for which I had a bookmark to a different page on the same website and in case anyone else is missing out for the same reason the page to look at is their home page at
(just scroll down a short way to find the sightings).
Among the more interesting reports were of a single Turtle Dove seen up to Oct 27, a Dusky Warbler still there on Oct 29, a Spotted Sandpiper on Oct 21, a single Quail seen from Oct 20 to 23, a Hudsonian Whimbrel present from Oct 15 to 19 (only the second ever seen on the islands), a Red-flanked Bluetail on Oct 13 with a Radde's Warbler, a Snow Bunting and a Red-breasted Flycatcher on the same day, a Corncrake on Oct 11, a juvenile Garganey (present from Oct 10 to 29), an Isabelline Wheatear on Oct 8 and a Red-eyed Vireo on Oct 1.
Returning to the mainland Oct 30 brought news of 54 Guillemot and 92 Razorbill (plus many more unidentified auks) passing Dungeness on their way west. Less specific news from RBA was that there were at least 5 Glossy Ibis and 4 Rough-legged Buzzard in the UK on Oct 29 (one Rough-legged Buzzard has been at Scotney on the Kent-Sussex border since Oct 18).
A late Hobby was seen at Hastings on Oct 24 but another was seen at Arne on Oct 29.
The first Little Auk to reach the south coast was at Selsey on Oct 29 and Selsey had the first 'local' Snow Bunting on the shingle on Oct 29 though there had been some 10 previous reports from sites from Kent to Scilly since Oct 1. The first two Black-necked Grebe were at Dungeness on Oct 1 and maybe one of these was in Langstone Harbour on Oct 2 and 3 before 4 appeared on Oct 4 at Studland in Dorset which is nowadays their favourite wintering site.
The wintering flock of Avocets on the Exe esturay in Devon had reached 144 birds by Oct 26 but as yet there is no sign of wintering flocks in the Nutbourne area of Chichester Harbour or around Farlington Marshes.
Devon also currently has the biggest flock of Golden Plover with 1500 on the Taw estuary on Oct 27.
Turning to other wildlife the first Stinkhorn fungi have appeared in Nore Barn wood at Emsworth on Oct 28 (when a single Golden Spindle look-alike appeared on my lawn).
In Sussex more progeny of the immigrant Long-tailed Blue butterflies have hatched in Sussex with reports between Oct 25 and 28 from five sites (Southwick, Newhaven, Brighton racecourse, Beeding and Lancing). Other late butterflies seen on Oct 28 were a Meadow Brown at Beeding and a Wall Brown at Mill Hill while Oct 27 brought reports of Peacock and Red Admiral in Sussex and Comma and Speckled Wood in Hampshire.
To end this ragbag of recent news - on Oct 29 the Rye Bay website commented on an uncommon bat species (Nathusius Pipistrelle), which appears in Britain as an occasional migrant, and gave us a link to a Sussex Wildlife Trust webpage describing how a Nathusius Pipistrelle had been trapped at Rye Harbour on Oct 10 and was found to have a tag which had been fitted to it on Aug 20 this year in Latvia proving that this bat had flown at least 905 miles from Latvia to Sussex. For the full report see .
Wed 28 October
A sunny ride round north Hayling
While hanging out some washing to take advantage of this morning's sunshine I noticed a new fungus on my lawn and believe it to be called The Herald of Winter (Hygophorus hypothejus) - a very slimy species with grey-brown cap 5 cm across and bright white gills and stem.
Here is an image taken from the internet (ignore the wet pine forest ground!).
The Herald of Winter Waxcap
This morning's high tide was forecast to be the highest of the month so I got on my bike to have a look at it as I rode over Langstone Bridge to the Oysterbeds shortly after it reached its peak. Much of the bund walls were submerged and waders familiar with the harbour had flown to the islands or to Farlington Marshes to find somewhere to sit out the tide but there were still thousands of recently arrived birds trying to find a foothold on the remaining dry land, many of them failing to do so and flying round over the area in large swirling flocks. The majority of these birds seemed to be Dunlin or Grey Plover with a number of Brent and Wigeon on the water. My best find here were some large plants of Yellow-wort in full flower.
As I was leaving I saw a single Mute Swan cygnet in the lagoon and wondered if this could be the missing sixth cygnet from Langstone Pond showing an independence and urge to explore the world rather than a weakness and inability to keep up with its five other siblings. I can't prove this but when I got back to Langstone over an hour later the two parent Swans were at the seaward end of the High Street, the 'gang of five' cygnets were on the pond, and what must have been the sixth cygnet was on the harbour water close to the seawall of the pond.
So it has survived and is looking strong and healthy.
I continued my ride via Daw Lane and Copse Lane, seeing a flock of some 50 Stock Dove on the fields north of Daw Lane and finding more flowers on the Butcher's Broom beside Copse Lane before reaching St Peter's Church in Northney where the Strawberry Tree overhanging the road was festooned with tiny white bell-shaped flowers.
Despite the sunshine the only butterfly seen today was a white species - probably Small White - reminding me that we are now close to the end of the
butterfly season and it may be of some interest to list the last appearance of each that I am aware of after scanning both the Hampshire and Sussex butterfly websites yesterday - here is the list that I came up with.
Clouded Yellow - Oct 25 at Dungeness<BR
Brimstone - Oct 20 at Botley Woods
Large White - Oct 20 at Hill Head
Small White - Oct 25 at Eastbourne
Green Veined White - Oct 1 at Brighton
Brown Hairstreak - Oct 11 at Coldwaltham
Small Copper - Oct 25 near Lewes
Long-taile Blue - Oct 25 at Beeding (fresh British born insects of which more may still appear)
Common Blue - Oct 3 on Downs above the Cuckmere
Adonis Blue - Oct 11 at Upper Beeding north of Shoreham
Holly Blue - Oct 25 at Eastbourne
Red Admiral - Oct 26 at Horsham
Painted Lady - Oct 25 at Portland
Small Tortoiseshell - Oct 2 at Old Winchester Hill
Peacock - Oct 20 at Botley Woods
Comma - Oct 20 at Gosport
Speckled Wood - Oct 20 at Gosport
Wall Brown - Oct 4 at Mill Hill (Shoreham)
Meadow Brown - Oct 12 at Portchester
Small Heath - Oct 2 at Old Winchester Hill
Other insects which caught my attention were Humming-bird Hawkmoths at Eastbourne and Dungeness on Oct 25, a Clifden Nonpareil moth at Waterlooville on Oct 12, Southern Hawker dragonfly near Gosport on Oct 11, Migrant Hawker at Farlington Marshes on Oct 25 and Common Darter at Gosport on Oct 20.
Looking at the Brtish Dragonfly Society latest sightings as I write this I see that Oct 26 brought reports of Southern Hawker, Common Darter and a possible Black Darter in Lancashire, and Migrant Hawkers in Norfolk.
Oct 20 had Red-veined Darters and Common Blue Damsels at Badminston in Hampshire and Willow Emerald Damsels in Norfolk. Oct 13 had a Vagrant Emperor on Lundy Island (seen by Ivan Lakin, one time Farlington resident).
Oct 8 had two Ruddy Darters in Norfolk.
Oct 6 had an Emperor dragonfly in Nottinghamshire. Oct 4 had an Azure Damselfly in Lancashire and a Yellow-winged Darter at Dungeness.
Oct 2 had a Golden Ringed dragonfly in Cornwall with Beautiful Demoiselle and Emerald Damsel.
Finally Oct 1 had a Brown Hawker in Norfolk.
Wildlife diary and news for Oct 19 - 25 (Week 43 of 2015)
Sun 25 October
A lovely start to winter
My day started with the discovery that a troop of snowy white waxcaps had appeared over night on my lawn, accompanying a smaller clump of Meadow Waxcaps which have been present for a couple of days - these have both cap and gills of a distinct peach colour (there are other forms of this species in which the gills are white). For photos and info on the Snowy Waxcaps see
and for the Meadow Waxcaps see .
After breakfast I got on my bike for a visit to Farlington Marshes, arriving there with the tide high and the water glassy smooth, unperturbed by any wind.
First stop was at the lake where the reeds were alive with Bearded Tits - I saw at least a dozen in small groups of two or three together but was told that the total was 31 birds.
I was also told that a couple of Twite had been seen earlier in the morning but no report of them has yet appeared on the HOS sightings page - while checking the sightings reported there I see that I missed the best bird of the day by about ten minutes (a White Rumped Sandpiper at the deeps at round 12:30) and I also missed a Short Eared Owl by about the same margin.
In compensation for dipping on these two I convinced myself that I saw and heard a Wood Lark which arrived from the north, called as it flew over me, and pitched out of sight on the outer edge of the newly exposed saltings near Little Binness island south of the main marsh.
I certainly can't claim to have identified this bird on the single "lu" note that I heard, especially as on checking Xeno-Canto none of the call notes recorded there sounded like the "lu" which I heard and which instantly reminded me of the repeated "lu-lu-lu" of Woodlark song.
Among other birds that I definitely did see were half a dozen Stonechats and a couple of Rock Pipits, while when pausing to eat a banana outside the reserve building I was entertained by a noisy Water Rail in the reeds and a busy Migrant Hawker over the stream.
I also watched a number of what to me were Mayfly-like insects fluttering around and landing on reeds close to me - I was pretty sure that Mayflies are true to their name and appear in May but then I remembered an entry dated Oct 23 on the RX (Rye Bay) website by Patrick Bonham about Caddis Flies with photos of insects similar to what I was seeing and which Patrick said were currently filling his moth traps - this current date for them to be on the wing was confirmed by Michael Chinery's Collins Guide to Insects (Pages 183 - 9).
So I feel fairly confident that I was seeing day-flying species of this large group which I have only been aware of previously as those intriguing under water larvae which encase their bodies in 'stone vests' of small pebbles and pieces of detritus which the larva somehow sticks together with its own form of superglue.
See Patricks article and photos at .
Nothing special seen on the way home but I cannot end without mentioning the glorious gold of the many Gorse bushes now in full flower all along the cycleway from Broadmarsh to Farlington Marshes.
Fri 23 October
Some unexpected flowers but no juvenile Brent
This morning I walked down the Langbrook stream where the only surprise was a short burst of Dunnock song. Reaching the shore I found around <FONT FACE = "Arial" SIZE=4 COLOR="#FF Brent but could not see a single juvenile among them.
Families with young often travel more slowly than parties of adult birds but it is now six weeks since the first migrants reached us and it has been cold in the Baltic so I would expect a significant number of young to have reached us by now but so far I have only seen one report of them (5 juveniles in Langstone Harbour on Oct 15) so I am expecting to hear that 2015 was a very poor year for their breeding success.
Figures from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust showing the percentage of young among Dark-bellied Brent wintering in the UK for each year from 2003 to 2014 vary from just 1.1% in 2008 up to 23% in 2014 and 28.4% in 2005 and the variability of these figures from year to year makes it likely that a good season last year will be followed by a poor one this year but we will have to wait a bit longer before counts confirm or deny this guess. For the WWT figures see
One other bird that I was hoping to see along the South Moors shore was Rock Pipit and just before leaving the shore two small birds flew in from the harbour and landed among the seaweed at the edge of the falling tide.
I got a distant view of one showing it was a Pipit but too far away to see the leg colour though I did hear a weak call confirming it was likely to be a Rock Pipit.
At the Budds Farm pools I was pleased to see at least five male Shoveler with at least twenty Teal and a few Gadwall plus at least one Tufted Duck.
In addition to a singing Cetti's Warbler I kept hearing short, high pitched calls which turned out to be coming from a small flock of Dunnock, presumably recent arrivals.
Throughout the summer I find Sea Wormwood on the South Moors seawall, often with well developed flower heads but never see any open flowers.
Today all those flower heads were covered with dead flowers but I still have never seen this plant with open flowers! Walking up Southmoor Lane I had better luck with several plants of Bugloss (Anchusa arvensis) bearing bright blue fresh flowers.
Later, after the bridge over the A27, I turned east along Solent Road only to find the pavement on the south side of the road was closed for work in progress.
This forced me onto the north side pavement passing the site where a new Marks & Spencers store is being built.
Here I found two good plant species in flower - the first being Common Ramping Fumitory and the second being a single fully grown and flowering plant of Green Amaranth.
If you are not familiar with this species here is a photo from the internet.
Green Amaranth (aka Pigweed)
Thu 22 October
The first Primrose flower was out today
A short walk around Havant today surprised me with a single Primrose in flower (albeit in a garden) and, in another garden, a Fatsia japonica bush in flower. If you are not aware of this name here is a photo taken from the internet
Fatsia japonica in flower
The only addition to my October wild flowers was a patch of Wavy Bittercress in flower alongside the footpath from Wade Court Road to Pook Lane while after crossing the A27 the old section of Pook Lane had a few fresh young plants of Dog's Mercury which will probably be in flower next month. The big field south of the Old Rectory had been ploughed and had attracted many Black-headed Gulls and something had caused a local Kestrel to give several bursts of its loud repetetive 'screams'.
Down on the shore two Lapwing were the first I have seen this autumn and at Langstone Pond a Cetti's Warbler was singing while off shore the two parent Swans were swimming out in the channel with their five remaining cygnets.
Wed 21 October
Harp traps for Bats and recent news from the internet
Watching the BBC Countryfile programme on Oct 11 I was interested in a segment on Bats and puzzled by the device being used to catch Bats in flight.
I had the impression that the device consisted of a vertical frame holding a large sheet of glass or translucent plastic in the flight path of the bats which seemed unable to detect its presence and would fly straight into it and slither down into a collecting tray from which they could be lifted out by hand for examination and tagging. I have always understood that the Bats echo-location system would detect anything in their flight path and so I was very puzzled by their inability to detect the large screen into which they flew at full speed.
Some time after the programme I was in converstion with Nik Knight and asked him what was going on. I knew that Mist Nets used for catching birds were sometimes used to catch bats (and Nik had told me in the past that they sometimes caught off-road night cyclists in these nets) but this time he told me that what was being used in the TV programme was called a Harp Trap and the photo below shows one - the metal frame holds a large number of nylon type threads with small gaps between the threads such that the threads do not reflect the sounds emitted by their echo location systems but do stop the bat's body, surprising and temporarily confusing it for long enough for it to be caught by hand when it falls into the collecting tray. This device gets its name from its basic similarity to a musical Harp (many strings mounted in a wooden frame) but has no musical abilities.
Harp Trap for catching Bats
I have spent much of the last few days trying to catch up with other people's observation recorded on the internet and here are a few random sightings that caught my attention.
Starting with last Sunday (Oct 18)I see that a single Turtle Dove was seen in Bournemouth and a late juvenile Cuckoo was still on the Isle of Wight.
Also on Oct 18 a Great Grey Shrike was briefly at Christchurch - others have been seen recently in the New Forest (Blackgutter area) on Oct 13, another was seen on several days around Oct 16 on the South Downs near Amberley, Oct 19 brought another to the Latchmore Bottom area of the New Forest and Oct 20 saw three in Sussex at Beachy Head, Iping Common and Blackdown.
Oct 19 brought a Bittern to the Lower Test Marshes near Southampton (one of several moving in for the winter). That evening a Night Heron was seen flying west over Dibden Purlieu near Southampton Water while in East Sussex the first Rough Legged Buzzard could be seen at Scotney near Rye Harbour. West Sussex had 70 Pintail in Pagham Harbour and in north Hampshire birders were surprised to see their first 5 Avocets at The Vyne near Basingstoke.
Also in Hampshire the count of Fieldfare flying over the area south of Fleet was up to 324 heading west (with another 300 seen over Wilverley Plain in the New Forest).
Portland had a Red-breasted Flycatcher and a Serin that day while near Romsey a total of <FONT FACE = "Arial" SIZE=4 COLOR="#FF Chaffinches flew north east.
Oct 20 brought reports of 8 Egyptian Geese at Goring and 9 at Climping making me wonder if these had come from the continent. Another species which attracts the attention of some birders at this time of year is Wood Pigeon and Portland reported the start of their mass movements with a small count of just 250 moving overhead.
Another relatively large flock was of <FONT FACE = "Arial" SIZE=4 COLOR="#FF Greenfinch on the shingle at the mouth of Pagham Harbour.
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