Thursday 17th September 2026.
A thoroughly wet and miserable morning today with a breezy
south-westerly that brought in thick cloud overhead around 8am, with first drizzle
and then persistent heavy rain up to around 10am. It did get brighter briefly,
but more rain came in here in Southsea. This afternoon was completely different
with bright sunshine and some high cloud.
The Moth Box was off last night as I didn’t want to take
another chance with the inquisitive Fox coming into my garden and disturbing
the egg trays etc or worse! My wife has ordered some Fox repellent of which I
can spray around where I keep my Moth Box, which, I hope, will arrive very
soon. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore Foxes, but when they potentially
wreck my Moth Box and also leaving ‘scat’ in my garden; sorry, I will not
tolerate that. Its bad enough with all these Cats in the area taking out the
birdlife in the gardens and although I will not harm them in any way, there is
only so much a keen Birder like me will take.
On a different footnote, the RSPB is now saying that there must
be a ban of feeding birds in our gardens between May 1st to October
31st due to the fact that it ‘promotes the spread of diseases in
garden including the parasite Trichomonosis which caused serious declines of
both Greenfinch and Chaffinch across the UK’. I do know that ‘Cowplain Marsh’
has a steady supply of food for the birds and Andy’s garden is frequently receiving
good numbers of birds. Consequently, I have contacted him regarding the RSPB’s message.
I, personally, have stopped feeding the birds since the end of last winter this
year, mostly due to the fact virtually nothing was actually feeding on the food
I was putting out.
Pembroke Road, Old Portsmouth:
Despite the grim weather on my first shift this morning, I
still notched up 10 bird species in all and that included a big flock of 25+
Swallows flying overhead, all heading west against the wind. A further two more
were seen flying low over the Bowling Green and then heading towards the
Curtain Moat.
Several Blue Tits were noted up in the trees opposite and my
first Blackbird of the week was heard giving off its alarm call, but no
sighting of the bird. Sadly, I have not seen or heard the House Sparrows from
the Bowling Green hedgerow now for some time and only can assume they have
dispersed north to the countryside? Out of interest, I wrote about a dead
Carrion Crow on the Bowling Green and also that the groundsman upon this Green
have not removed it. It turns out that it is a ‘stuffed’ bird and being used as
a decoy to scare off other birds, including the Crows! Sorry, guys. It is not
working, lol!!!
In Hampshire today:
This excellent photo of last week's juvenile Red-backed Shrike on Farlington Marshes. Photo by Pete Appleton.
Mark Francis kicked off the day nicely when he found a Grey
Phalarope flying along the shoreline at Hill Head. This afternoon, Jason Crook
found a juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper at the Lake on Farlington Marshes and with
one still at Pennington Marshes this morning; could this be two birds in
Hampshire? Jason also found up to SIX species of Tern from the southern end of
the Reserve out in the harbour that included a Roseate, Black, Arctic, Common,
Sandwich and Little Tern! Incredible!
Late news from yesterday, while at Wake Lawn, Eastney, I
spotted a Hummingbird Hawk-moth flying around one of the gardens. At one point,
I thought it was about to settle on the fascia of a nearby house, but instead
it sped away.
Seconds later, a Clouded Yellow butterfly flew past me and
continued towards Milton Common. When it comes to nature, I simply never switch
off!
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