SE Nature Notes w/e July 3rd
5 July 2010
Portsmouth & Portsdown
A second generation comma, a small blue and a late orange tip were on Portsdown on 27th and an Essex skipper on 30th. Ringlets were also seen this week.
A small yellow underwing moth was seen resting in a Southsea garden on Monday.
The peregrines in the Paulsgrove chalk pit are reported to have fledged 4 young this year.
Havant hayling & Emsworth
White admiral and silver washed fritillaries have been seen this week in Hollybank Woods.
Hedgehogs raised 3 young in an Emsworth garden this summer.
Two water voles have been seen in the River Ems this week.
Little terns were seen fishing near the Hayling Ferry on Monday.
Barn owl chicks in a Stansted nest box are the first to breed on the estate for 20 years. On Thursday 24th a group of 13 woodlarks was flushed in the park. A grey wagtail was a surprise in the sawmill yard.
On Monday evening a kestrel sat tight in a Langstone garden in spite of the presence of a human just yards away.
The numbers of little tern chicks flying and growing well on nests on the RSPB islands may make this a bumper year for them - if no disasters occur. The other terns and gulls are also doing well - so far.
On the oyster beds the news is not so good with common tern chicks being taken by Mediterranean gulls. However many of the chicks still there are now too large for the gulls.
Cinnabar caterpillars are now showing on common ragwort at the oyster beds and other sites. Goats rue is flowering round the scrubby edge of the car-park behind the garage. Milk thistle now has its splendid flowers.
A female peregrine attempted to take a gull chick at the oyster beds on Sunday 27th. It was about this time last year they began to visit the site.
Two Brent geese have been noted on S Binness Island.
Nightjars and a single glow worm (right) were seen in Havant thicket on 30th June.
A sand martin was seen flying south on Hayling Island on Saturday.
Fareham and Gosport
Birds at Titchfield Haven this week have included a cackling goose, garganey, water rail, 50+ avocets and bearded tits. In nearby areas there have been up to 4 gannets and a black tern off Hill Head; a kingfisher on the Meon Canal Path; a honey buzzard; and a nightingale in Botley Woods.
Waterlooville and South Downs
A small magpie micro-moth was in a Waterlooville house all day on Monday. The garden of the house had a wood mouse on Friday.
On Thursday the Trust walk on Oxenbourne Down found a number of small tortoiseshell, lots of ringlets, marbled whites everywhere but relatively few skippers. The best flowers were a bee orchid of the belgarum variety and deadly nightshade
