Weekend Round-up

Dotted Chestnut - Warnham Local Nature Reserve

A busy weekend around all the sites meant that there was lots of fantastic wildlife reported. Starting off with the moth trap at Warnham Local Nature Reserve which has finally started to get some results after the Beast From The East part 2 hit us last week! The best moth of the weekend was the Dotted Chestnut (Conistra rubiginea) which is nationally scarce and always nice to see in the traps. It is one of the few moths that hibernate after first being on the wing in October/November before reappearing in the spring. The second moth of note which we don't trap very regularly at Warnham is the Grey Shoulder-knot (Lithophane ornitopus) which can be seen below. It is quite similar to the more common Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) but the former is generally paler with the dark antler marks at the head end helping with identification. This is also an interesting moth as its larvae have a tendency to be cannibals!

Grey Shoulder-knot - Warnham Local Nature Reserve

The ringing has been very quiet at Warnham lately and there have been very few opportunities to actually get any of the nets up on the Reserve either due to windy conditions or flooding so it was nice to be able to catch a few birds this weekend. The highlight was this Greenfinch which was the first of 2018. They have been very few and far between in recent years which is a theme carried out nationwide sadly as many of the Greenfinches seem to be struggling to beat some of the avian diseases found in the UK.

Greenfinch - Warnham Local Nature Reserve

Meanwhile at Chesworth Farm I added a new fly to the species list when I found the larval mine of Chromatomyia ramosa on Teasel. This is part of the agromizid fly family, all of which mine leaves of various plants. The adults are very difficult to identify and most of them need genitalia examination to be sure of their identity but many of the leaf mines are quite simple to recognise. In the picture below you can see the light coloured markings which are moving away from the central vein. These are caused by the larvae of the fly eating the leaf from within the leaf structure itself.

Chromatomyia ramosa on Teasel - Chesworth Farm

Finally at Southwater Country Park a quick check of the oldest stand of Blackthorn on the site produced a number of the scarce Brown Hairstreak eggs. They are absolutely tiny so I make no apology for how bad the picture is! This is the second site we have found the eggs at this winter after the Friends of Chesworth Farm found some earlier in the month when carrying out a hedgerow survey on the Farm.

Brown Hairstreak Egg - Southwater Quarry

Warnham Local Nature Reserve

Greylag Goose - D. Verrall

A murky day greeted us on the Reserve this morning however it was to be an excellent day for sightings. First of all there was a decent increase in Tufted Duck numbers which was pretty unexpected. Several Redwing were bombing around Mill Meadow eating the bevvy of worms on the damp grass and a flyover Great White Egret at c11.45am was the undoubted highlight but sadly it did not make landfall onto the Reserve turf. The final highlight of the day was a total of 10 Common Snipe feeding on the northern edge of the Swan Island which is best viewed from the Aston Trelford Hide.

Below is a list of the species noted today on the Reserve:

GREAT WHITE EGRET 1, COMMON SNIPE 10, Little Grebe 1, Cormorant 5, Little Egret 2, Grey Heron 1, Greylag Goose 30+, Mallard 40+, Shoveler 1, Tufted Duck 29, Sparrowhawk 1, Pheasant 2, Moorhen 2, Coot 6, Black-headed Gull 100+, Herring Gull 10+, Woodpigeon 150+, Green Woodpecker 1, Great Spotted Woodpecker 1, Wren 3, Dunnock 2, Robin 4, Blackbird 7, Song Thrush 2, Redwing 6, Coal Tit 5, Great Tit 20+, Blue Tit 20+, Nuthatch 3, Magpie 15, Jackdaw 20+, Carrion Crow 2, Goldfinch 10+, Lesser Redpoll 1

Warnham Local Nature Reserve

Goosander - I Redman

Late on Sunday afternoon visitors may well have had the fortune of seeing the Reserves 11th record of a Goosander. This stunning male Goosander was photographed by Ian Redman as it spent c15 minutes on the millpond in the late afternoon sunshine before departing in a northerly direction. Ian was sat in the Heron Hide when at 2.50pm the bird appeared to fly in from the south when it landed and drifted around on the lake looking nervous until it eventually flew off at 3.05pm.

Goosander - I. Redman

Goosander - I. Redman

The Goosander is a medium-sized duck and part of  the group known as the 'sawbills' after their long, narrow bills with saw-like 'teeth' which are good for gripping fish. The Goosander is perfectly shaped for swimming underwater after fish due to it having a long and streamlined bodyshape. The male Goosander has a dark green head, a black back and a long, red bill with a hook at the tip and white sides and breast which sometimes have a pink glow. The female is grey with a gingery or rufous brown head and a white throat.

Goosander - I. Redman

Other sightings from today included:

GOOSANDER 1 (Male), Grey Heron 2, Coot 3, Cormorant 4, Shoveler 1, Tufted Duck 21, Carrion Crow 7, Red Kite 1, Redwing 7, Little Grebe 1, Wren 2, Treecreeper 2, Sparrowhawk 1, Pheasant 3, Blue Tit 8, Great Tit 5, Egyptian Goose 2, Nuthatch 2, Blackbird 4, Lesser Black-backed Gull 2, Black-headed Gull 40+, Herring Gull 20+, Kingfisher 1, Robin 2, Great Spotted Woodpecker 2

Warnham Local Nature Reserve

Warnham Local Nature Reserve

A very cold night with temperatures reaching -5°C meant that three-quarters of the millpond had frozen solid. This meant only one thing...gulls! With last nights influx it was no surprise when I was greeted by over a thousand mixed gulls on my arrival into work. I wandered down to Aston Trelford Hide as this is the best hide to view the gulls from and started to scan through the ever-growing flock. After about an hour I was getting a bit cold and thinking about a cup of tea when I caught a glimpse of a white-winged gull in the flock. Eventually it came into full view and wow!!! It was the Reserve's second record of an ICELAND GULL...after a few quick phone calls to anyone I thought might be interested I set about getting a few photos just in case it decided to depart.

Iceland Gull - 1st Winter

Iceland Gulls breed in the Arctic and then generally move south for the winter but are not usually found this far south. In Sussex we normally have three or four records a year so this was a very welcome sighting. The only other record on the Reserve was in 2008 by previous warden Sam Bayley who had a brief sighting of one on the millpond.
The bird today was much more well behaved and stayed on the ice until about 12.45pm when it flew off towards the tip and sadly had not returned by the end of the day. I would imagine that this bird had been feeding on the tip early morning and then came to the millpond with the rest of the gulls for a brush up on the ice.

The most obvious identifying feature of this bird was it's wonderful white-wings rather than the dark wings of a Herring or Lesser Black-backed. The bird also has a short-stubby beak and very rounded head shape which gives the impression of looking a little dove-like. The bird was slightly smaller than a Herring Gull which rules out the other white-winged gull we see in Britain which is called a Glaucous Gull. 

Iceland Gull - 2nd Record for Warnham LNR

The bird above can be aged as a first-winter.  This means it was definitely born this year, the mottled cream colouration of the bird, the dark eye, pink bill-base and mottled head are all indicators of the birds age. When the wings are closed at rest you can hardly see the extent of the white in the wing but when it flight it is at its most obvious.

Continuing the gull theme there were also several other species of laridae present. These included Common Gull, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull and the biggest of them all, the Great Black-backed Gull. The latter is an uncommon visitor to us at Warnham and is only ever found during the winter months. This particular species is much more coastal in its habits and has not yet spread inland as the other species have done. Below is a picture of one of the nine Great Black-backed Gulls seen on the Reserve today.

Great Black-backed Gull - Warnham LNR

Lastly on the gull front today, several of the lads who had come to see the Iceland Gull gave me a ring late morning to say they think there might have been a second Iceland Gull out on the lake. So I quickly grabbed my scope and camera and popped out to have a look at the bird. It stuck out like a sore thumb but it did not look right structurally for another Iceland Gull. It was strong-billed and the same size as the Herring Gulls but not big enough to be a Glaucous Gull. It turned out, on closer inspection to be a totally white Herring Gull which is something I have never seen before but it certainly makes you look twice!

Leucistic Herring Gull - Warnham LNR

After all the excitement of the gulls there was little time to count much else but the other highlight was six Water Rails skating around early morning, the male Bullfinch was again showing nicely from Woodpecker Hide and there were still plenty of Redwing around the site.

Redwing - Warnham LNR

Warnham Local Nature Reserve

Great White Egret - S. Collins

A very busy day on the Reserve with lots of people visiting and as a result a nice mixture of birds were recorded. The best bird and rarest by far today was found by Sean Collins which was a GREAT WHITE EGRET. The bird above represents only the second record of this species at Warnham. The other record was also found in the same month on the 4th October 2013. September and October seem to be the month to see the species in Sussex after it presumably disperses from its breeding sites on the near continent. The Great White Egret is a recent colonist in the UK and has become much more regular along the southern counties of England but is seldom seen this far inland.  Despite a good search in failing light we did not relocate the bird roosting so presumably it moved on before nightfall. Well done to Sean for finding and photographing this stunning bird.

The only other avian highlight of the day was a first-winter Yellow-legged Gull that dropped in with 30+ Herring Gull in the morning but soon departed towards the tip. The nets were quiet again this morning with a single Marsh Tit being the only bird of note.

Marsh Tit

Totals from today are below:

GREAT WHITE EGRET 1, Yellow-legged Gull 1, Redwing 33, Woodpigeon 91. Carrion Crow 4, Water Rail 2, Grey Wagtail 1, Pied Wagtail 1, Robin 2, Blackbird 1, Great Spotted Woodpecker 2,  Grey Heron 2, Little Egret 1, Mute Swan 1, Coot 1, Mallard 36, Black-headed Gull 49, Herring Gull 38, Tufted Duck 2, Kingfisher 1, Great Crested Grebe 2, Little Grebe 2, Moorhen 2, Chaffinch 4, Lesser Redpoll 9, Marsh Tit 1, Long-tailed Tit 8, Wren 1, Goldcrest 1, Greenfinch 4, Common Buzzard 2, Red Kite 1, Starling 80, Sparrowhawk 2, Goldfinch 4, Dunnock 3, Coal Tit 3, Pheasant 1

Red Admiral 2

Migrant Hawker 1, Common Darter 1