Ouse Estuary birds

Robin

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This morning I called in at Mill Hill, but only saw a few Meadow Browns and a mushroom. I then headed for Newhaven where I met Mark who was following a female Wall. The old rubbish tip area where I had seen my first Clouded Yellow two years ago is about to be developed as a superstore. An ecology team has been busy since my last visit a week ago. They have constructed polythene walls dividing the whole area into segments to capture Great Crested Newts. Collecting containers will trap the newts that try to find a way around the barriers. They will be translocated into the adjacent Ouse Estuary Reserve, which is ringed by a newt-proof wall. I then spent some time at the nearby Tide Mills.

Mushroom at Mill Hill

Next to the Ouse Estuary Reserve on land marked for development:

Shaggy Ink Cap mushroom Coprinus comatus

Roman Snail

Roman Snail

Tide Mills:

House Sparrow

Dunnock

Dunnock

House Sparrow

Mill Pond

Happy hound

Pampus Grass

Small Coppers at Cissbury Ring

Small Copper

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This afternoon I visited Cissbury Ring. The commonest butterfly was the Small Copper, with the largest numbers I have ever seen on the ground covering brambles on the north east area of the top. I also saw Whites, 2 Common Blues, Red Admirals, many Speckled Woods and two Silver Y moths.

mating Meadow Browns

Common Blue

Common Blue

Small Copper

Small Copper

mating Craneflies

Speckled Wood

Meadow Brown

female Common Blue

Southern Hawker and Fly agarics

 male Southern Hawker

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Yesterday morning visited Pulborough Brooks and joined the RSPB. We had a lovely walk around part of the reserve, but the highlight was stopping to watch two Southern Hawkers patrolling a pond. One hovered invitingly near me and after many attempts I managed to get some half decent shots at one thousandth of a second. Every so often the two males would meet and have a territorial dispute before returning to their respective parts of the pond.

Chicken of the woods

Later I found some Fly agarics at Iping Common.

Fly agaric Amanita muscaria

This beautiful mushroom is poisonous

Autumn fret at the Tide Mills

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After lunch we motored to Newhaven to visit the Tide Mills again. There was a sea fret over Newhaven when we arrived, but this lifted after a while. We sat at the spot where I had seen the weasel a few days before, then walked around the area of the Tide Mills and the beach.

"I have an itch"

"that's better"

Common Garden Spider Araneus diadematus

Little Egret

Yellow horned poppy Glaucium flavum

Viper's Bugloss Echium vulgare

Pampas Grass Cortaderia selloana

Rose hips