Feathered Ranunculus moth & Honey-buzzard this weekend.

Sunday 26th September 2021.

A fairly bright start to the morning though a lot of cloud cover soon rolled in, but it was pretty mild with very little wind. Again, a reasonably nice haul of moths for this time of year and included my first Feathered Ranunculus (above) of the season along with several Lunar Underwing and L-album Wainscot. The only migrant birds flying over while I was checking the moth box were Meadow Pipits again, but apart from the noisy Herring Gulls, all was quiet.

Above, one of many Willow Beauty's this morning along side a Lunar Underwing moth. Yesterday, I was too busy helping my daughter move into her new house in nearby Drayton. It was here that I spotted an interesting raptor flying low overhead being pursued by a couple of Carrion Crows and as it got nearer, I could clearly see it was a Honey-buzzard! That was a total surprise as I clearly noted the long straight tail and its long head, completely different from a Common Buzzard. I honestly thought I had missed this species this year, so that was a real bonus and puts me currently on 189 species for the year.

This superb juvenile Purple Heron was gracing the fields behind the North Wall at Pagham Harbour, though quite elusive at times, but, luckily, local birder Sarah Russell managed to grab some distant photos of the bird.

The Purple Heron over Pagham Harbour was being quite elusive during the day, but a Birding friend, Sarah Russell managed to not only see the bird at dusk, but also managed to grab a few decent photos of the bird (see photos). Birding pal Geoff Farwell took a stroll around Beacon Hill in the morning where he saw the following: 6+ Chiffchaffs, 2 Blackcaps, Marsh Tit, 30 Stock Dove, 2 Red Kite & Common Buzzard along with a passage of Swallows. The following moths were noted this morning:

Moths recorded this morning included this morning:

• 1 Feathered Ranunculus
• 3 Lunar Underwing
• 12 Willow Beauty
• 1 Large Yellow Underwing
• 2 Lesser Yellow Underwing
• 1 Garden Carpet
• 1 Silver Y
• 5 L-album Wainscot 
• 2 Lime-speck Pug
• 4 Double-striped Pug 
• 2 Square-spot Rustic
• 2 Tachystola acroxantha 
• 1 Light Brown Apple Moth
• 1 Common Plume