A gorgeous Fox in the Cemy.

Sunday 7th September 2025.

It is always lovely to see a Fox in the Cemetery.

It was back over Highland Road Cemetery this morning with my dogs, but that persistent breezy south-easterly wind was still blowing and so viewing any birds in the trees was not going to be easy. On a positive note, it was very mild and in fact, quite warm as temperatures were up in the low 70’s. Rain was forecast in the afternoon for a few hours, but we didn't get any that I knew of. I didn't put the Moth Box on overnight as Becky and I got back late from a lovely meal out over Petersfield with friends; so it was nice to have a lay in this morning.

Highland Road Cemetery, Southsea:

Unfortunately, there were very few notable birds seen or heard today over the Cemetery with just 8 species recorded. Yes, the wind didn't help and although I heard ‘ticking’ Robins virtually everywhere in the Cemy, I never actually saw one! So it was left to the other wildlife to keep me entertained and arguably the best sighting was a young dog Fox.

Above, a Hornet-mimic Hoverfly enjoying a sprig of Buddleia and below, Ivy Bees feasting on the nectar from Ivy.

Above, I found several Rush Veneer micro moths in the short grass and below, Cats Ear flowers were everywhere as was Yarrow.

I first encountered the Fox over in the south-eastern end of the Cemetery, giving himself a good scratch. However, a dog-walker with a very inquisitive and angry looking Labrador spooked the Fox and it disappeared into a nearby garden. It was when I was leaving the Cemy, that the same Fox was seen walking along the footpath near the main entrance and then back over into the Cemetery once more and not taking a blind bit of notice of both me and my dogs. Gorgeous creature.

The Fox over in the south-east corner was having a scratch in the sunshine. Below, a sprig of Purple Toadflax was still growing on the perimeter wall in the southern end.

Above, a view of the Mausoleum and below, this is a Blue Atlas Cedar tree within the Cemy. I have been using my Google App from my mobile to identify many of the ornamental trees within the Cemetery.

The Ivy is now starting to flower and in turn, attracting a lot of insects that included Ivy Bees and Batman Hoverflies. I even found a Hornet-mimic Hoverfly nectaring on a Buddleia flower, but the only butterfly seen this morning was a Red Admiral that would not linger long enough for a photo. Still, a pleasant walk was had and I certainly enjoyed seeing a Fox in the Cemy again.

Above, a Batman Hoverfly and below, large clumps of Honey Fungus growing near one of the footpaths.

Above, Ivy Bees nectaring on the Ivy flowers. Below, the Fox enjoying the sunshine.

The main bird grabbing a lot of attention currently is a Saker Falcon that has been showing very well over the back of Portsdown Hill. It has been seen taking Pigeons and even Red-legged Partridges and there have been plenty of ‘Lazee Birders’ taking some amazing images of the 'Buzzard-sized Falcon'. The bird is an obvious escaped bird, but everyone is saying it really is worth going to see.

In Hampshire today:

The Saker Falcon behind Portsdown Hill having caught a Red-legged Partridge. Photo by Graeme Loader.

Farlington Marshes still hosted the eclipsed drake Garganey, the two Little Stints and now 4 Glossy Ibis were seen along the Stream area. However, it seemed that Keyhaven Marshes was the place to be with a Curlew Sandpiper, Short-eared Owl and a Honey Buzzard seen there today. 

201 bird species for Hampshire so far.

Saturday 6th September 2025.

My first Little Stint of the year (with a Black-tailed Godwit). There were actually two birds present, a juvenile and an adult, that spent the day on the Stream area, which was east of the main Lake.

It was a breezy day with a south-easterly blowing across the south coast, but it was sunny and bright and today was going to be full of birds. Not only down Farlington Marshes where we spent the day, but also over my house early in the morning when I was checking the Moth Box. We met up with some of the ‘Lazee Birders’ on the reserve and enjoyed each other's company watching some entertaining species, which included three new species for both my Hampshire and UK Year list.

My Moth Box:

A nice selection of moths present this morning that included from left to right: Dark Sword-grass, Flounced Rustic, Four-spotted Footman and a Clancy's Rustic.

The numbers of moths over this week have certainly dropped, but 30 moths of 15 species wasn't too bad I suppose. There was an element of quality among them, especially when a Four-spotted Footman drops in of which I quickly potted before it flew off. I had a small influx last month, but this was the first one since then. There was just the one Golden Twin-spot moth, but even that didn't linger and a Flounced Rustic, Clancy’s Rustic and a Dark Sword-grass are your typical Autumn moths, but most welcome. It was just the usual fare among the micro moths this morning. 

Above, this male Four-spotted Footman moth was a nice surprise. Below, a Yellow-barred Brindle.

The Moths recorded this morning included the following:

MACRO MOTHS	MICRO MOTHS
Golden Twin-spot x1	Rusty-dot Pearl x5
Four-spotted Footman x1	Double-striped Pug x1
Flounced Rustic x1	Common Plume x2
Clancy’s Rustic x1	Ruddy Streak x3
Dark Sword-grass x1	Light Brown Apple Moth x1
Yellow-barred Brindle x1
L-album Wainscot x6
Lesser Yellow Underwing x4
Large Yellow Underwing x1
Pale Mottled Willow x1

Finally, there was a lot of visible migration going on overhead while I was checking the Moth Box as I recorded up to 5 separate Yellow Wagtails, three Tree Pipits (2 and a single bird) and a Curlew! The Wagtails and Pipits were all heard only, but the Curlew was seen flying high up calling and then headed off south. This was a Garden ‘tick’ for me, which now puts my Garden list on 72 species recorded here.  A Chiffchaff was calling in nearby gardens and then eventually seen flying around in the big tree behind my garden. Finally, a Fox was ‘barking’ somewhere north of my garden. Probably a female that needed a bit of ‘nookie’?

Andy’s Moth Box, Cowplain Marsh:

A more difficult Square-spot Rustic to identify.

There were just 16 moths of 10 species in and around his Moth Box this morning and just the ordinary fare one expects to see at this time of year that included up to 3 Square-spot Rustics. A bit disappointing considering the many moths he had last Saturday.

A Lesser Yellow Underwing moth.

The Moths recorded in Andy’s Garden this morning included the following:

MACRO MOTHS	MICRO MOTHS
Lesser Yellow Underwing x2	Common Plume x3
Large Yellow Underwing x2	Beautiful Plume x1
Square-spot Rustic x3	Ruddy Streak x1
Double-striped Pug x1
Vine’s Rustic x1
Willow Beauty x1
Bright-line Brown-eye x1

While checking the Moths, a Chiffchaff and Nuthatch were heard to call in neighbouring gardens and a Swallow was seen flying high overhead. His Pond is looking nice and clear as Andy, Geoff and I had a coffee overlooking the Pond.

Matt & Emma’s Moth Box, Fareham:

A rare immigrant moth, the Vestal.

The guys put out their Moth Box for the first time this week last night. Among their 19 moths of 11 species, they had a moth I have been hoping for this Autumn, a Vestal. It was going to be a dry night and this morning, they were rewarded with the following moths:

MACRO MOTHS	MICRO MOTHS
Riband Wave x1	Chevron Grass-moth x1
Maiden’s Blush x1	Common Grass-veneer x1
Square-spot Rustic x2	Common Plume x1
L-album Wainscot x1	Beautiful Plume x1
Vestal  x1
Four-spotted Footman x1
Large Yellow Underwing x8

Farlington Marshes & Langstone Harbour:

A mixture of both waders and wildfowl along with a Cormorant and Grey Heron on the Lake at Farlington Marshes.

Today, I managed to get over the 200 species seen in Hampshire as I picked up three more ‘year-ticks’ on Farlington Marshes. Both Little Stint and a Ruff were seen on the Stream area and an eclipsed drake Garganey was on the Lake, of which I am grateful to Jason Crook for finding it among the many ducks present.

Above, Ringed Plovers coming onto the reserve from Langstone Harbour as did these Mallard, below.

A Greenshank and a Black-headed Gull out on the mudflats when we arrived.

We firstly made our way to the Lake first as the rising tide was bringing in both the waders and wildfowl onto the reserve and especially the Lake area. On our way there, a quick look in the harbour, we picked out at least three Greenshank feeding on the exposed mudflats. Arriving at the Viewing Platform, already we could see large numbers of both Black-tailed Godwit and Redshank on the edge of the Lake, with smaller numbers of Redshank among them. At the back of the Lake, up to 18 Greenshanks were present, most resting on the edge of the water and I found both a juvenile Little Ringed Plover and a Dunlin just behind the main flock of waders.

Above, a Grey Heron flying towards the Lake and below, a Sand Martin flying next to a flock of Black-tailed Godwits.

Above, a male Common Blue butterfly. These were abundant by the Bushes area.

There were good numbers of wildfowl too and of course, they were all in eclipse plumage for this time of year. Species present included Mallard, Teal, Shoveler, Gadwall, good numbers of Wigeon and up to 5 Pintail and 6 Tufted Ducks. At least two Little Grebes were seen and the drake eclipsed Garganey was picked out by Jason, as mentioned, feeding over on the south-east side of the lake, mostly on its own, but always remained distant.

Above, another photo of the male Common Blue butterfly on a Fleabane plant. Below, one of the 6 Cattle Egrets in flight over the reserve.

One of the many Yellow Wagtails present today by the Cattle.

While checking out the birdlife on the Lake, Yellow Wagtails were flying over, though the vast majority were heard only, but later in the morning, we eventually got some great views of the birds among the Cattle. Flocks of both Sand Martin and Swallow were passing through in good numbers throughout the day and we even came across our first September Swifts flying over the Bushes area. Andy found them first, with up to two birds seen together flying high over the reserve several times.

Above, three Yellow Wagtails following the Cattle on the Stream area and below, a flock of Greenshank with a Black-tailed Godwit flying over the Lake.

Above, this big juvenile female Peregrine spooked the resting waders during late morning.

We got some info from Graeme Loader that the two Little Stints (and adult and juvenile) were both showing well along the Stream and best viewed by the bench. We had to be careful though, as a Wasps nest was close by, but no-one got stung. From the Bench, we obtained good views of the Stints (my first of the year) feeding on the Stream area and though I got some shaky film footage, we still got reasonable views of the birds. Other notable waders along here included a Common Sandpiper and thankfully for me, a Ruff, which briefly flew out of the cover of the dead reeds and landed back in the dead reeds and out of view (my third ‘year-tick’ of the day)! There had been up to four birds here and were seen earlier this morning. However, we did ‘dip’ on the Wood Sandpiper seen here this afternoon, but a Green Sandpiper made up for that as we watched it fly off east high over the Stream.

Above, one of the 6 Cattle Egrets flying over the reserve and below, Yellow Wagtails on the sea wall.

While watching the waders, along came the Peregrines; a male bird and a dark juvenile female  bird that attacked the waders by stooping at great speed towards them. Though I do not think they were successful at first, they might have been lucky while we were not looking? Still, a superb sight to watch. Not only did they spook all the waders, but the three Glossy Ibis that had been present for the last few days here, were also spooked and showed well for us as they circled over the nearby fields and then landed back into the dead reeds. I say ‘dead reeds’; for last year, the whole place flooded due to the poor maintenance of the Sluice gates and literally destroyed most of the superb reedbeds here! The only greenery growing within the dead reeds were clumps of Sea Club-rush as Geoff explained.

Above, the Glossy Ibis along with many of the waders got spooked by a pair of Peregrines hunting over the reserve.

Behind us, up to 6 Cattle Egrets were resting by the Cattle and when the Cattle slowly made their way towards us, we counted at least up to 50+ Yellow Wagtails among them and some came close enough to get some reasonable photos. There was some ‘chacking’ going on within the brambles next to us as a Lesser Whitethroat, my first decent view of one this year, flew out and landed on another larger bramble and showed very well.

Above, a Cattle Egret flying over the Info Centre. Below, Geoff checking out the Stream area for the elusive Wood Sandpiper.

Above, the small duck in the top left hand corner was my awful effort to get a photo of the Garganey! below, the juvenile female Peregrine over the reserve.

Above, another Yellow Wagtail on the Stream and below, Hemp Agrimony growing among Fleabane plants. It certainly attracted the butterflies.

Above, a female Common Blue butterfly on a Fleabane plant and also a Footballer Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus). Below, Black-tailed Godwits come into land on the Stream area.

Above, I disturbed a moth flying low over the grass, which turned out to be the immigrant micro moth, Rush Veneer. Below, one of the Little Stints feeding with a Black-tailed Godwit.

Happy with our sightings here, we tried out luck again back by the Viewing Platform on the Lake. By now, Jason Crook had joined us and he picked out the Garganey for us and so, three species that Andy had seen earlier this year were well and truly on my year list. Happy days. A Kingfisher flew in and landed down below us before flying back whence it came from. Amazingly, Jason was watching what he thought was a Starling at first through his binoculars flying over the fields in the distance; but then realised it was most likely a Quail! But it could not be relocated and consequently, a great bird for the reserve went begging.

Apologies for the shaky film footage, but it was breezy when filming the Little Stint on the Stream today.

We had another look at the Stream area and also the small pool in front of the Info Centre, but nothing new to report; but what a great day. Incidentally, there were a good number of Common Blue butterflies around the Bushes area along with Meadow Browns and I even found a Rush Veneer moth, which I potted and identified. Yes, a great day with my mates and a good chat with several Lazees too.