Hobby over The Oaks and Swifts arrive.

Thursday 12th May 2022.

A Speckled Wood butterfly at Portchester Crematorium this week. There has been a distinct lack of moths at Portchester Crematorium this week and most likely due to the cold nights we are currently experiencing.

Finally coming to the end of another working week and there have been a few interesting sightings along the way. The weather has been mostly indifferent this week, starting off mild and slowly warming up and there is supposed to be a heatwave on the way as well! However, the evenings and overnight have been quite cold (down to 4 degrees tonight), so whether that is going to be good for ‘Moth-ing’ is anyone’s guess. Fine if you're near woodland, but potentially crap if you live near the sea like I do!

I don't think Spring has lived up to its rarity status yet, but as I write this, a male Blue Rock Thrush has turned up at The Naze, Essex this morning and the Black-browed Albatross is still present at Bempton Cliffs, East Yorkshire. Sorry, I am not driving all the way up there. Maybe it might pass Selsey Bill or Gillkicker one day? Hampshire and West Sussex have had the usual migrants coming through with a few Roseate Terns being found and although both Arctic and Great Skua have been passing Selsey Bill, the Pomarine Skua activity has all but dried up for now.

On the subject of Swifts, this superb photo of one today over Romsey by Andy Tew.

This week, Monday bird sightings kicked off with 2 Red Kites over Portsdown Hill in separate locations and a hovering Kestrel by the roadside. I finally saw my 3rd Swift of the year flying over the Hill heading north and this was after a birding friend of mine, John Goodall, had texted me to say he had just seen one over Albert Road, Southsea, earlier this morning! On Tuesday, I saw my first Hobby of the year; a very brief, but stonking view of a bird flying north very low over the car park at The Oaks Crematorium. That was a nice surprise. Also at The Oaks, a Green Woodpecker flew over the road there and a Great Spotted Woodpecker was ‘drumming’ consistently within the woodland adjacent to the main car park. Swift numbers are now on the rise and I saw quite a few today including over The Oaks along with a singing Chiffchaff.

Wednesday produced another Red Kite sighting while driving over Portsdown Hill and also a Common Buzzard, a Kestrel and a pair of Skylarks were seen near Skew Road. A few Swallows were noted and again, good numbers of Swifts were present in various locations during my working day. Today, it was virtually the same as yesterday, with Red Kite, 2 Buzzards and 2 Skylarks were noted over Portsdown Hill and at least two Buzzards were noted over the A27 while driving to Chichester. Swifts are well and truly in now and I enjoyed tonight watching them zoom over my house.

I am hoping to pay a visit to Martin Down shortly, hoping to see the elusive Turtle Dove. I dipped last year when Andy and I visited this superb site, but we did get a good variety of birds and insects there. This bird was photographed by Pete Appleton on the 8th May.

My birding pal, John Goodall, had a sea-watch from our old Shelter on Southsea seafront this morning between the hours of 6 and 7.45am and notched up a Common Sandpiper, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Mediterranean Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Cormorant and a Shag all going west, while a pair of Oystercatchers were going east!