Sunday 24th April - Happy Easter !

Another glorious day - the Easter Bunny made a bit of a mess and left several empty wine bottles last night, but the girls were successfully left with sufficient chocolate eggs.

A day enjoying the weather, the garden and family stuff. I did however see an Osprey drift South over the garden at 1pm - First saw it and thought it was a big gull but had the bins to hand and sure enough it was an Osprey, seemingly without being hassled from the Buzzards, and just glided straight through. I'd only recorded one here before and that was 11 years ago.

Friday 22nd April - Summer already ?

The weather has been astonishing - today up to 25c and perfectly blue skies and its been like this since before I went to Ghana, Spring lasted a couple of weeks and straight into Summer (even if this is actually better weather than we normally have in Summer). So making the most of this over the weekend.. and we think we've found a house !.

This morning I went to Selsey again for three hours - was there at 6.15am - so plenty of time to catch up with the rest of the day afterwards -  Lots of people already there !

A Bonxie was on the sea on arrival and a light passage of birds trickled through with 34 Whimbrel, 75 Common Scoter, Common, Sandwich and Little Terns, 1 Yellow Wagtail off the sea, 1 Arctic Skua and the highlight being 1 Pomarine Skua at 7am. 5 Great Northern Divers were on the sea.

Ghana April 10th - 19th

This was an organised birding trip to this West African country and was fairly short by birding trip standards, just 8.5 days in the field but with enough crammed in to look for as many of the Upper Guinea endemics as possible. So long days were in order. The transport and connections worked perfectly, the locals were very friendly, the accommodation was basic but functional (mostly), lunch and dinner was chicken (or dried chewy fish) and breakfast was omelet, the weather was hot and sweaty, up to 40c, but it only rained on one day in the late afternoon, and the local guides knew their stuff very well and importantly the beer was cold !

In Summary 301 species were seen and a further 22 heard only Over 120 of those seen were new for me, so an exceptional total. With the key species of the trip being the fantastical Yellow-headed Picathartes seen well after a short hike and sitting motionless on a rock ledge for 3.5 hours dripping with sweat !   Forest birding and difficult light wasn't particularly conducive to photos so a selection below is the best of a poor bunch on offer although the dry weather meant the forests were pretty bug-free - apart from the bitey ants.

Rather than list 300+ birds a few of those seen included Spot-breasted Ibis, White-breasted Guineafowl,  Hartlaubs Duck, Long-tailed Hawk, Green, Yellow-billed and Violet Turacos, Frasers and Akun Eagle Owls, Chocolate-backed and White-bellied Kingfishers, Blue-headed and Black Bee-eaters, White-crested, Black Dwarf, Red-billed Dwarf, Black Casqued and Brown-cheeked Hornbills, Yellow-footed Honeyguide, Rufous-sided Broadbill, White-throated Blue Swallow, Forest Robin, Lowland Akalat, Kemps Longbill, Violet-backed Hyliota, Red-cheeked Wattle-Eye............. and the list goes on



African Emerald Cuckoo



Velvet-mantled Drongo



Sharpe's Apalis



Canopy walkway - Kakum NP

 


Blue-headed Bee-eater

 


Double-barrelled Froggy in action

 


Western Grey Plantain-eater

 


Preuss's Cliff Swallows.



African Pygmy Kingfisher



Ant Swarm - they bite !!!



Little Grey Greenbul



Red Glider



Rock Pratincole







 


Grey Woodpecker



Whistling Cisticola



Exhausted after the days birding this Black-crowned Tchagra decided to lay low out of view.



Oriole Warbler



Brown-eared Woodpecker



Red-necked Buzzard



African Hobby



Blue-bellied Roller



White-throated Bee-eater





White-bellied Kingfisher



Saturday 9th April - Packing and Hols

The weather remains spectacular for this time of April with warm temperatures and clear blue skies. With another southerly breeze predicted I headed very early to Selsey Bill.  Large numbers of Common Scoter and a single Velvet Scoter passed by and both Red-throated and Great Northern Divers were on the sea. Waders were represented by Grey Plover, Knot, Sanderling, Dunlin, Turnstone, Whimbrel and Curlew. A single Arctic Skua, 3 Little Gulls and Common, Sandwich and Little Terns. Sand Martins and Swallows flew in off the sea and a Wheatear was on the beach. A brief walk around Church Norton before heading home showed Sedge and Reed Warblers singing and plenty of Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs and a single Whitethroat. So a pretty productive morning in very good weather.

I had an hour or so a home before heading to Gatwick to pick up Sally and the girls from their week in Portugal. The first garden Swallow of the year appeared and after noticing a small commotion a Red Kite was circling over the garden been harassed by the local Buzzards I've managed to see these a couple of times a year for the last 4 years.  Now to pack for my Ghana trip tomorrow.

Local Buzzard

Red Kite over garden

Sunday 3rd April - Spring overtakes Winter.

It wasn't a particularly early start and half way to Pulborough I realised I'd forgotten my bins, so an enforced delay  to the start but even when I arrived at Pulborough just before 10am there weren't many people around. I particularly like Pulborough in early Spring as it is a place where migrants can pitch in briefly.

It wasn't as warm as yesterday but was still fairly bright, and awash with birdsong. Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs were particularly vocal, Green and Great-spotted Wodpeckers, Nuchatch and Treecreeper, Goldfinch, Greenfinch Chaffinch and Linnets all seen on the first bit of pathway, and unexpectedly a very early Whitethroat in a Blackthorn bush. The brooks held lingering waterfowl in Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall and Shoveler, there were plenty of Little Egrets a single Little-ringed Plover and a group of hirundines dropped in when it clouded over with c30 Sand Martins, 2 House Martins and 1 Swallow.

I moved onto Coldwatham, where the flooded area held similar birds to Pulborough, the sewage works had singing Willow Warbler and a group of 8 Swallows flew through with a Sand Martin, with the highlight being a Sedge Warbler which gave short bursts of its song before showing itself.

Saturday 2nd April - Into the land of the living.

.. Well last weekend was a wipe-out. A lingering cold the previous week manifested into something heavier which laid me out for the weekend but relented sufficiently to endure work and so with more determination I was itching to get out this weekend.

Sally and the girls were dropped at Gatwick  early morning for their week in Portugal and I headed down to Selsey arriving at 7am. The winds had been SE for the previous day which is probably the only good direction for a productive seawatch at Selsey and luck was in as there were a fair number of birds moving almost exclusively in an Easterly direction.

A steady movement of Sandwich Terns continued until I left in all c250 . Large numbers of Common Scoter in various size flocks 450+, 2 Velvet Scoter, Great Northern Diver 4os, Red-throated Diver 8, Brent Goose 26, Little Gull 3, Common Tern 4, Med Gull 2, Eider, 14, Great Skua 1, Red-breasted Merganser, 6, Turnstone, Oystercatcher, Gannet, Fulmar, Kittiwake 2, Shoveler 2, Teal 7, Shelduck 3. 

It was also bright and a fairly pleasant temperature which made it an enjoyable 3.5 hours. I then headed to Pulborough where a flock of 20 Waxwings were at the garden centre firstly hawking insects from the tops of trees then enjoying the remnants of some cotoneaster berries.




Waxwing enjoying Cotoneaster for lunch.



A few of the 20 Waxwings.