SE Nature Notes w/e May 15th
17 May 2010
Portsmouth & Portsdown
A Cosham garden has great spotted woodpeckers feeding young, great tits, robins and chiffchaffs with nests. Blackbirds have already fledged young.
A common blue butterfly was seen on Portsdown on Monday.
New flowers on Portsdown this week included sanicle, salad burnet and milkwort. There were more green hairstreaks south of the old ASWE building.
Farlington Marsh's birds on Wednesday included a cuckoo. A little gull was seen along the stream on Friday. The gull was still there on Sunday when a greenshank, 13 dunlin and a wheatear were also present on the reserve.
The peregrines at Portsdown were still sitting on their nest on Thursday.
There was another Dartford warbler sighting at Fort Cumberland on Thursday and on Friday a spotted flycatcher was there.
Havant hayling & Emsworth
Black terns, an arctic skua, 11 Manx shearwaters, 6 kittiwakes and a little gull were seen at Sandy Point Hayling Island on Monday. On Friday a pomerine skua and 13 common scoters were added to the list.
At the Hayling Island oyster beds on Tuesday there were around 30 pairs of common terns settled on the islands. Dame's violets have their first flowers. Glaucous sedge was a new find on this site.
A cuckoo was heard at Stansted on Wednesday evening and a female seen at Sinah on Saturday morning. At Sinah a bird seen fleetingly was probably a Dartford warbler.
A north Emsworth garden had a pair of bullfinches this week. Wrens are nesting in the garden.
On Saturday an osprey was chased away from the oyster beds by gulls, terns and crows. On the ground a very handsome summer plumage grey plover was feeding in the channels.
A female mandarin duck with 5 ducklings is still on the Lake in Staunton CP.
Fareham and Gosport
A male garganey has been on the floods at Titchfield Haven this week.
Hobbies and a greenshank were seen from the Titchfield Canal Path on Saturday.
Waterlooville and South Downs
Red Kites have been seen in two locations in this area this week and ravens in one.
On Chalton Down on Monday butterflies seen included common and holly blues, dingy and grizzled skippers. Pyraustra nigrata and aurata moths were also seen.
Butterflies on Butser Hill on Saturday included grizzled and dingy skipper, and 79 Duke of Burgundy fritillaries, green hairstreaks and a common blue. Burnet companion and cinnabar (right) moths were also seen. There were very similar sightings in the Meon Valley on Sunday.
A stoat was seen on Old Winchester Hill on Sunday.
