Having spent an enjoyable weekend mostly around the house, I was itching to get out birding today, so was slightly uncertain waking up to a heavy freezing fog ! - Along with tornadoes and blizzards, thick fog is the other weather form that renders birding impossible. The forecast said it was going to lift and should be clearer on the coast so I headed off just after 9am to West Wittering, paid my £1 to enter the estate and walked out towards East Head with a clearing sky and a very light breeze. As soon as I was at the edge of the dunes a bird flitted fom the beach to the side of the dunes, scoped it, it was a
Lapland Bunting. It was with group of
Reed Buntings and
Yellowhammers, and spent a few minutes shuffling around the marram grass before taking flight with the group of c20 buntings, landed back where it started, then took off again and appeared to go further into the dunes - I didn't relocate it, but this has been a great autumn so far for Lapland Buntings and this was my 4th bird since September. I went onto the central path that goes through the dunes and noted a bird sitting on a bramble, a
Dartford Warbler, it flew right and behind me, so I re-traced my steps, came across 3 other birders, it had just flown past them and they had it skulking in the grass. A few moments later it flew out and into a small dead bush in front of us giving great views before it flew again. I wandered off looking for the buntings and a
Black Redstart flew past me, landed briefly and then flew a long way back to the groynes on the beach near the car-park. I did find a group of Yellowhammers and Reed Buntings further on in the dunes but no sign of the Lapland Bunting.
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| Dartford Warbler - East Head |
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| Dartford Warbler- brownish back suggests female. |
I walked out to the head, a scan in the channel picked up a fairly distant Slavonian Grebe, Red-breasted Mergansers (12) and Common Scoter (2). A large roost of Golden Plover c400 were on the mud along with Grey Plover, Sanderling, Dunlin, Bar-tailed Godwit, Knot, Curlew. A Rock Pipit was on the fence next to the saltmarsh. I then walked out to SnowHill Marsh, seeing a Chiffchaff in the bushes near the car park. I counted 27 Snipe on the nearest marsh, and there was a Spotted Redshank and a Greenshank at the far end. A Peregrine raced through causing uproar, chased a group of Oystercatchers out onto the mudflats and then headed off over the trees.
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Peregrine scattering Oystercatchers
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I'd had a fantastic list of birds in the morning and had spent quite a bit of time scanning through the Brents at various interval, there were lots of juveniles but all I could see were dark-bellied. The undulations in the fields at Wittering, which is good for hiding Brents, and the fact the Brents change field at regular intervals means its worthwhile to keep scanning. It wasn't until I was driving out that I saw the fairly obvious
Ruddy Shelduck that was in the middle of the flock.
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| Ruddy Shelduck with Brents at West Wittering |
Flushed with success I headed inland to West Dean woods and spent a couple of hours there. A Little Owl gave away its presence when a male Sparrowhawk landed in it's tree and was sent packing..
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| Little Owl - West Dean |
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Brambling was near the farmhouse with Chaffinches and a group of
Redpolls(7) flew over, heading deeper into the woods a single
Hawfinch flew over. I walked slowly back to the car but sort of got caught in the middle of a shoot (even though I was on the public bridleway ) I saw a
Bullfinch, then a
Firecrest (which I again failed to get a picture, as it was elusive in the Hedgerow) but had Pheasants and Red-legged Partridge pirouetting over my head to the sounds of the guns - so retreated to the car.
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