Wednesday 21st September - Burpham !

Village name that sounds like wind-ing a baby, in fact you wonder what these medieval locals were up to as in Sussex you can find the strategically placed villages of  Beddingham, Effingham and Offham .. will leave the rest to imagination. So back to Burpham....

A juvenile Pallid Harrier turned up on the Downs just North of the village of Burpham - tentatively id'd as a Montagu's Harrier at the end of last week but diligently re-examined from further scrutiny of photo's was then confirmed as a Pallid Harrier and although UK records have increased recently, it is still a particularly rare bird and especially in Sussex. With the way work was unravelling this week, I was beginning to think any sort of outing might be limited to a weekend slot but usefully my car was due to be serviced today at Pulborough - so I negotiated with Sal the use of her car for 4 hours before picking her up again from her shop.

I arrived in Burpham (and for those Australasian relatives that read this blog - nowhere in sight was there a creche full of fattened milk-fed babies waiting to belch)  at 9am in pouring rain and cursing my luck that my free slot in the week was going to be the only one where raptor watching had to abandoned by low cloud and drizzle - so I walked up the lane to a gate and the best viewing spot down the valley where another birder was waiting and had seen the Harrier much earlier in the morning before the rain set in - so my hopes lifted and within a few minutes we saw a nice male Hen Harrier struggling a little against the weather in the field in front of us. After a good hour and half the rain finally relented (largely due to me getting my flask out for a coffee) and birds started to move with good numbers of Skylarks, Meadow Pipits, Linnets and Goldfinches, a flyover Yellow Wagtail and lots of  Buzzards, Kestrels and both Grey and Red-legged Partridge being seen.

A few more people turned up and and the Pallid Harrier came into view on the horizon and drifted down into the valley making a couple of passes of what turned out to be its favoured strip of game crop. A few birders had gathered a few hundred metres away down the lane and probably had a better view so we decided to relocate to that spot, the Harrier reappeared but flew high over our heads and back next to the gate we had just relocated from !! (the law of sod working perfectly). But over the next couple of hours decent views were had  of the main distinguishing features of the bird being the full light collar bordered by dark boa, a distinct face pattern, including the bird perched in a field and then in a bush and it was a stunning bird to watch so well worth the effort. The photo's due to the distance and me are a little ropey but are good for the record. Also seen were a Red Kite, Hobby, Sparrowhawk and another small falcon that shot into a bush and I thought would be a Merlin but I couldn't relocate it.

juvenile Pallid Harrier



The valley on the downs north of Burpham from the gate.