Working over Selsey today.

Monday 24th January 2022.

Local birder, Christine Whiffen nailed this superb photo of the Spotshank at Nore Barn recently.

It’s back to work (groan!) again today after a nice three day break and my jobs today took me to Selsey, in West Sussex, for a change. The weather was overcast and cold again and it looks as though this is going to be the norm for the rest of the week. Still, better than rain all day. I didn't do any birding yesterday due to the fact, my wife and I had a nice cooked breakfast at the Southsea Beach Cafe (a few Herring and Black-headed Gulls loafing on the calm sea) in the morning and then household chores for the rest of the day.

My friend Alta, who resides in South Africa, sent me another moth for my to try and identify. Thankfully, there is a Facebook site that helps identify such moths and one chap came up with this species: Parachalciope mahura. A very striking moth indeed.

My journey to Selsey produced several Common Buzzards perched on roadside trees along Selsey Road, Donnington and even a Long-tailed Tit flew across the road! There have been some interesting birds of note recently including a return visit of the Richard's Pipit at Wildmoor, Basingstoke and the adult Ring-billed Gull was in this afternoon's roost on Ibsley Water, Blashford Lakes. The Yellow-browed Warbler is still at Hook-with-Warsash and a Glossy Ibis was seen flying over the M27 in Bursledon, Southampton and another in the north of the county, at Church Norton.

My wife, while tidying up one of our spare bedrooms, found the remains of this Bright-line Brown-eye moth. 

Birding pal, Geoff Farwell, has sent me via text, his sightings over the weekend where on Saturday, he took a stroll over Longwood Warren where he had the following: 2 Corn Buntings, 7 Yellowhammer, 130 Skylark, 25 Fieldfare, 160 Linnets, 3 Stonechat, a single Brambling, 1,700 Wood Pigeons, 86 Stock Doves, Raven, 8 Red Kite and 16 Common Buzzards. On Sunday, he went to the Chidden area and had 195 Fieldfare, Marsh Tit, 5 Red Kites, 3 Common Buzzards, a Raven and 300 Rooks! I am catching up with last week’s Winter Watch and so far, it has been superb and with four more shows this week, I have something to look forward to and not those bloody awful soaps my wife wants to watch! Finally, I would like to thank both Alta and Christine Whiffen for their photos today. 

Virtually ten years ago to the day, I took this photo of the adult Ring-billed Gull at Walpole Lake, Gosport. This bird regularly for many years, return to the same lake and would help guarantee us 'listers' to make a pilgrimage down to this part of Gosport. Currently, it looks like the one on Blashford Lakes is now the most regular bird in Hampshire.