H is for holiday, Hudsonian Whimbrel, and a special surprise

I have finally managed to take some time off over the last week and as well as doing the patch have had the opportunity to spread my wings a little. Fortunately news of the Hudsonian Whimbrel at Pagham reached me while I was in the Chichester area so I managed to park easily at Church Norton with three other cars, it was a little more crowded when I left! Unfortunately due to my lack of preparedness for this first for Sussex I was dressed in Shorts and t-shirt with only my bins and bridge camera to keep out the stiff north-easterly and with a Whimbrel providing early confusion on sight things were quite tense for a period before the bird performed well off the spit enabling the assembling crowd to get to grips with its exciting plumage features... Seriously though a proper rarity and a top find, with all credit to the finders for being so prompt in getting the news out as I am not sure I would have fancied driving back later in the day!
Sundays WEBS count was much more mundane with the highlight being the resident Gadwall and Yellow Wags with the latter carrying huge mouthfuls of insects too hungry offspring. A single Marsh Harrier was the only other bird of any note, with the resident Red Fox, a few Variable damsels, and a Painted Lady providing a little extra interest.
Mothing has also picked up a little though this is relative with numbers still way down on any previous year. By way of interest a couple of new micros' were trapped in the week including the Celypha cespitana pictured right on the night of the 14th. The other new micro was Sitochroa palealis on the night of the 7th though unfortunately it was off before I could get a pic. On the macro front the highlight was a second Bordered Straw on the night of the 11th with new moths for the year as follow: Rustic (7th), Freyers' Pug, Turnip Moth, Large Yellow Underwing, & White-spotted Pug (11th), Dark Arches (13th),Bright-line Brown-eye & Rufous Minor (14th). As at the 14th totals were 108 macros' of 32 species and 21 micros' of 9 species from 29 nights trapping. For the same period last year I had trapped 330 macros' of 72 species and 77 micros' of 20 species from 35 nights trapping, even allowing for the short period when I was trapless these numbers indicate a very poor spring for most of our moths.
As for the special surprise, well that was in Blean Woods near Canterbury which I paid a short visit to on Monday the 8th. Whilst walking around some of the coppiced area I heard a rustle which curiosity made be investigate to reveal the little cracker pictured below. I have never seen Hazel Dormouse before so it was an unexpected treat to be able to watch this sleepy individual have a mooch along a bramble before climbing back into the coppiced Hazel where it belonged!