June Summary

Highlights

An Osprey flew north over Rustington on 2nd June (C Jupp) and four Spoonbills headed west over Goring Gap on 16th June (R Ives).

Several Curlew heading west at Goring Gap on 22/6 and 23/6 were possibly the first autumn passage waders of the season and a Common Sandpiper on the beach on 26/6 (R Simpson) was almost certainly a returning migrant, whilst a handful of Sanderling and Turnstone over-summered on the beach.

                                                 Common Sandpiper - Goring Gap ( R Simpson)

Quail were heard uttering their distinctive “wet-my-lips” call on the Downs north of Cissbury between 27th May - 1st June and near Steep Down on 6th June.

Seawatching

There was some surprisingly late sea watching records with Manx Shearwater past Marine Gardens (1e) on 3/6 and Arctic Skuas past Goring (3e) on 9/6 and Marine Gardens (3e) on 11/6. 

Regular Breeders

                                                Yellowhammer  - Cissbury ( Duncan Kay)

As expected June was a very quiet month on the birding front with most of the news relating to resident breeding species.  Stonechats, Corn Buntings, Yellowhammers and Whitethroats all bred successfully around Cissbury with at least two different singing male Lesser Whitethroats also holding territories. Young Green Woodpeckers and Mistle Thrushes were also very much in evidence by the end of the month.

Swifts were reported throughout the month across the area with the biggest report being 23 near Broadwater and 12 along Boundary Road though at some traditional breeding areas numbers seem to be lower. The Worthing and Adur Swift Group do a fantastic job monitoring the local population and engaging with the public to raise the importance of Swift Conservation. 

Elsewhere up to six Reed Warblers were present at Brooklands with several males continuing to sing throughout month. 

Guest Blog Mike & Karen Galtry - Much ado about Mothing

 

Mike Galtry

                                                             Privet Hawkmoth (Mike & Karen Galtry)

Given that the birding has been pretty awful so far this year, perhaps it’s time to have a

look at some other wildlife. We run a moth trap at home, as do many others in the

area, and we have had our most diverse start of the year ever.

After a couple of traps in March yielding only 5 species and a complete blank in April,   

where a combination of bad weather and a holiday meant that we didn’t trap at all, it

wasn’t looking that impressive.

May is when the mothing picks up, and this has equalled 2024 as our most diverse May, with 64 species of macro moth and 12 species of micro moth recorded. (Given that it’s only recently that we’ve bothered with micros, a record total is not unlikely, but this has been a record for macros as well.) It’s always nice to brag about a new species for the list, and Great Prominent was a welcome addition, 

Great Prominent ( Mike & Karen Galtry)

The highlight of May for us is the Hawk-moths. Big, chunky and beautiful, they’re not rare (other people trap rarities, not us), but it’s pretty special to hold an insect with a wingspan of about 10 cm and wearing stripy pink pyjamas. We had 5 species (out of the 9 we have recorded at home). Other classy common moths included Buff Tip and Waved Umber.

Elephant Hawkmoths ( Mike & Karen Galtry)

June’s weather, particularly when we had a bit of cloud cover and south easterlies, led to an explosion of species. 68 micro species and 106 macro species, both way higher than our previous highs, included our only other new macro: a Red-belted Clearwing that flew in through the window. (They come to pheromones not light, so Karen obviously smells good.) An overdue Eyed Hawk-moth and a herd of Elephant Hawkmoths provided some bulk. 

Red Belted Clearwing ( Mike & Karen Galtry)

Our second ever Lilac Beauty was a treat, and we added 14 micro moths to our house list. (None of these met the editorial “tarty moth”). 

Lilac Beauty  (Mike & Karen Galtry)

Our year list to the end of June stands at 203, and with July as normally the biggest

month for species, things are looking promising. This list isn’t that special: I’m sure

there are others in the surrounding are who do as well or better.

Who needs butterflies?

Common Purple and Gold (Mike & Karen Galtry)

Weekly Round Up - What happened to the rest of May

12th-18th May

Rarities

As predicted last time, it would either be a rarity or a late trickle of seabirds moving up channel that would make or break the blog as May progressed. There were several rarities reported in Sussex, but all were well outside the Worthing 10km radius, so any local birders wishing to try and see them had to travel.

                                                   Black Stork (& Swift) Richard Phillips

Or may be not. With news of a Black Stork at Pulborough Brooks early morning on Wednesday 14th May some may have rushed off up the A24. However when it was reported to have flown off high to the south east, Richard Phillips had a hunch that it might head along the Chanctonbury escarpment and went out into his Steyning garden and waited.  Twenty minutes later he picked up the unmistakable silhouette  of a large stork soaring over the Downs towards him.   Despite the harsh lighting it was clearly the Black Stork, with a black neck, all black underwings and a neat white belly, rather than one of the Knepp White Storks taking a wander. 

This must have been a pretty impressive sight and would appear to be the first Black Stork noted in our area since a record over Cissbury from August 1991. Granted that Richard’s garden only just sneaks into the Worthing 10km, but the bird was flying south east and must have briefly moved through our airspace before being picked up again further east over Devil’s Dyke and then Beachy Head later that day.

Seabirds

Five Arctic Skuas were noted past Goring Gap and Marine Gardens including four pale morph birds close to shore on Monday 12th May. Common Scoter (155e) and Bar-tailed Godwit (1e) and Whimbrel (3e) were also recorded before Worthing’s die hard sea watchers packed up for the Spring.

Migrants and Summer Arrivals

The only other sighting of note was a Hobby hunting over the fishing ponds at Black Ditch, whilst a Common Sandpiper was present at Patcham Pond, slim pickings indeed for mid May. 

19th- 31st May

The rest of May just slipped away almost unnoticed. There were plenty of breeding birds singing on the Downs with Whitethroats, Blackcaps, Yellowhammers and Corn Buntings, whilst Swifts continued to be reported in small numbers over the town. However there were virtually no other reports across our immediate area as our attention shifted away from the coastal areas to the inland Sussex heaths.