23rd July, 2016 Beachy Head Very hot and sunny with sea-mist late morning W 0-1

A very hot morning right from our arrival in the early morning. We covered Birling lane and scrub opposite, the Birling to Belle Tout loop including Belle Tout wood, Shooters Bottom and the Old Trapping Area when the sea-fog rolled in. New migrants seen included a Lesser Whitethroat at Birling, 6 Sedge Warblers and 2 Willow Warblers. The elusive Cuckoo was still present at Birling and a second Cuckoo was found by Doreen in the Old Trapping Area. No diurnal migration was seen.
Butterfly numbers had improved with 40 all male Chalk Hill Blues were on the wing near Belle Tout.

Red-legged Partridge 1 flushed from the gorse above B/T wood
Cuckoo 2 (1 Birling and 1 Old Trapping Area)
Rock Pipit 1
Sedge Warbler 6
Lesser Whitethroat 1 Birling
Common Whitethroat 10
Willow Warbler 2
Corn Bunting 4

Wall Butterfly 1 in Shooters Bottom (possibly a new site for this specie)
Brown Argus 1 (very worn)
Chalk Hill Blue 40 only males seen
Small Copper 1
Small Skipper 60+
Essex Skipper 5
Dark-green Fritillary 3 (Been a very poor year at Beachy)
Marbled White 20
Gatekeeper 70
Meadow Brown 30

Six-spot Burnet moth 70
Diamond-back moth 40

Late news for yesterday; RE had 2 Nightingales calling in Whitbread Hollow and LP had 1 in Shooters Bottom.

The elusive Birling Cuckoo giving a fly past

A more obliging Cuckoo in the old Trapping Area

 

Male Chalk Hill Blue-40 all males seen this morning

A faded Green-winged Fritillary-I have only seen 6 so far this year

Wall Butterfly in Shooters Bottom (I can't recall seeing them in Shooters before).

 

Essex Skippers-at least 5 were seen

Many Six-spot Burnet Moths were on the wing