Catching Up, Partly

Five days can be a long time in Blogland, and so it is right now. Too much material to do it proper justice, so here is a very much thrown-together post...

Birding etc...

Finally I am getting back to some sort of birding routine, with a few morning walks at West Bay. The first was on Monday, and the timing could hardly have been better. A pod of Common Dolphins off the seafront around 06:45, slowly heading east...

They weren't too far out but, as usual, not easy to photograph.

Cetaceans are not an everyday sight here, and these were my first dolphins since the back end of last year, so I put a message out on the local birding WhatsApp group. Less than ten minutes later, a message from Mike Morse at West Bex:

'Group of 13 egrets coming your way Gav. Too far out for me to know if any Cattle Egrets in mix'

At this point I was heading up West Cliff, and the sea was out of view. So I retraced my steps until I could see it again, and waited...

Here they come...

...and there they go: 13 Cattle Egrets!

A much-anticipated West Bay & Eype patch tick for me, and a perfect illustration of why I love our little WhatsApp group. Also my camera. With bins alone, those egrets would likely have remained 'egret sp', but 2000mm of zoom nails it.

The camera came in useful again this morning, when a group of six ducks plonked onto the sea, well offshore. Four were definitely drake Common Scoters. I guessed the other two were probably females, but couldn't be sure...

The main pic is full-frame 2000mm zoom, and the pale cheeks of two female Common Scoters are obvious when you enlarge it a bit. 

There hasn't exactly been a flurry of migrants so far this week, but a few Wheatears and Willow Warblers, a Garden Warbler every morning (probably the same one!) and a Sedge Warbler so far. Better than nothing...

Garden Warbler

First Wheatear of the 'autumn'

Just after the Cattle Egrets went through I heard a Wood Sandpiper calling, but never saw it. I am pretty sure Wood Sand must be a patch mega. My only other local bird was at Cogden (or West Bex?) a few years back, also an unseen fly-over.

That's about it on the bird front, but there is sometimes other stuff to look at. Yesterday morning I came across my first patch Roesel's Bush Crickets, a busy little gathering of four or five in some long grass. I took some snaps from a distance...

Roesel's Bush Cricket - a winged female...

...and an unwinged male.

In April last year I learned that a rare (though naturalised, not native) plant lives at West Bay (thank you, Seth) so made an effort to look for it this week. And here it is, I hope...

A big mat of Rottingdean Sea-lavender Limonium hyblaeum.

Up close, the flowers are rather nice.

Unexpectedly fleshy leaves at the base - visible lower left here.

Obviously I cannot get fully involved with botanising (because I am mortal, with just the same 24 hours a day that everyone else gets) but the occasional diversion is manageable.

Which brings me to the final chapter in this post...

Moths etc...

Saturday night, August 5th

Pretty poor. 40 moths of 21 species. None new for year.

Probably the best moth of the night: Nutmeg, our third.

Sunday night, August 6th

52 of 31; one new for year and garden.

New for the garden. Listed as 'local'. There are lots of blobs on the Dorset Living Record map, though just two in the Bridport area.

A worn (and quite small I think) Rivulet, our second this year.

Worn Rivulet vs worn Small Rivulet.

A really fresh Cydia splendana.

Another Blair's Mocha - number 16.

Loads more moth stuff to catch up on, including one or two belters, but no time now. Soon.