A beautiful morning in Apuldram.

Thursday 23rd September 2021.

The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Apuldram, near Chichester. There was plenty of wildlife within the Cemetery to keep me entertained while the Funeral service took place. 

There were no moths to look at first thing this morning as I gave the moth box a rest and a nice little sleep-in for me. Annoyingly, I had to pay another visit to Curry’s to rescue my Blog again and the nice young man, Roo, who spent a considerable amount of time on my Laptop, trying to unravel what Blogger is all about! I have to say, it is a bloody minefield at times and if it wasn’t for Roo, I think I could have given up. I came away happy that my Laptop was behaving again but £10 lighter due to the fact that my new Laptop does not take the SD card from my Camera and therefore I had to buy a bit of kit to install into the Computer to transfer the images!

On a positive note, I was working over a place called Apuldram, near Chichester, this morning and on such a beautifully warm morning, all went very well. Of course, I was keeping an eye out on the local nature in the Churchyard and came across a few interesting sightings. Both Great Spotted and Green Woodpecker were heard but not seen, as was a calling Buzzard, while all around, Common Darter dragonflies were abundant, landing quite close to sunbathe in the warm sunshine (see photo).

Speckled Wood butterflies were dancing over the graves along with a few Red Admirals, as I pointed out a Harlequin Ladybird to my work colleagues. They all know that I am into nature and sometimes have them spellbound while holding something interesting! I used to do some birding down this area which is quite close to Chichester Harbour where in the Winter, both Whimbrel and Little Stint used to overwinter, however, it is a favoured area for those Wildfowlers, which I detest. Other sightings today involved several Common Buzzards flying low over the A27 and also a few over the M275 and probably now the most common bird of prey in the UK. 

This male Bearded Tit was photographed by birding pal, Richard Tucker at Farlington Marshes yesterday. 

On Farlington Marshes today, a pair of Curlew Sandpipers were on the main Lake and the Glossy Ibis was still present at Nore Barn. A Great White Egret was present at Posbrook Floods, near Titchfield and another on Blashford Lakes today as well. Birding pal, Geoff Farwell texted me to say he had a Canary-shouldered Thorn by his moth trap last night along with a Box Tree Moth, Willow Beauty and a Square-spot Rustic as even his moth numbers have diminished.