Down South and the South Downs

An early start last Sunday with Mark and Paz picking up Darren on the way for a twitch down south to Pagham Harbour near Chichester for a Hudsonian Whimbrel that had been found there earlier in the week, the bird was best viewed from behind the churchyard at Church Norton and was indeed showing when we got there, a little distant but good scope views were had, it flew a couple of times showing its diagnostic dark rump but also in comparison with the Eurasion Whimbrels there it was a slightly larger bird, paler and more brown looking with a bolder head pattern and markedly contrasting dark primaries, after enjoying the bird for the best part of an hour it then flew off to the other end of the reserve so we took our leave and headed off to nearby Titchfield Haven for the long staying Greater Yellowlegs. After fortuitously failing to find the Bridge Street car park we ended up on the coastal road where we spied a group of birders watching intently, we parked up and joined them to find the Yellowlegs showing there and remarkably close, unfortunately it was on the rising tide and after two or three minutes it and the small flock of Black Tailed Godwits it was with flew off to the area they favoured at high tide, we hung around a while longer, there was a good selection of other stuff typical of the area, Little Egrets, Mediterranean Gulls, Common Terns etc and chatted with some familiar faces before driving back around and managing to find the Bridge Street car park, we walked out to the Posbrook Floods and relocated the Yellowlegs getting longer but more distant views of it, a Cetti’s Warbler teased nearby, we thought it was going to pop out and pose for us but no. We had been hoping that Saturdays Black Eared Wheatear in the New Forest would still be around but they are notorious one day birds and there had been negative news on it so we decided on an afternoon with the Butterflies at Martin Down near Salisbury, superb place but very expansive, full of flowers including Fragrant and masses of Greater Butterfly Orchids, quite a few Turtle Doves purring away, kicked up a few Moths including the distinctive Burnet Companion and a good number of the more common Butterflies then eventually Paz found a couple of Small Blues, Butterfly tick for me, superb little things we ended up seeing 40-50 of them during which time Mark and Darren came across another Blue type, it was a lovely sky blue colour and seemed to have a different flight pattern to the Common Blues and although it was very worn there was a hint of chequered fringes to the wings, tick number two, Adonis Blue, it was all topped off nicely when a Badger ran across in front of us. A few Red Kites and Buzzards seen near Oxford as we headed home.

Hudsonian Whimbrel, just a bit distant for decent photos

compared to the Eurasion Whimbrel on the left a bit paler with stronger head markings

flying off showing its dark rump

good views of the Greater Yellowlegs for the first two or three minutes

Banded Demoiselle

Burnet Companion

a rather tatty Brown Argus

Small Heath

Fragrant

and Greater Butterfly Orchids

Brimstone

first of the main target species, Small Blue

with an underwing pattern reminiscent of Holly Blue

ensuring future generations

and the second target, we were pretty happy this was Adonis Blue although it is fairly worn there is a hint of
chequered fringes

a lovely sky blue colour

and the underwing pattern looks spot on

a quick snap of the Badger as it sped past us