Monday 31 December - Christmas Trimmings

... a belated happy xmas to all and good luck for 2013.

The last couple of weeks have been a mixture of ham, anitbiotics and more ham. The inevitable happened, working hard until xmas, then succumbing to a seasonal virus, which wiped me out for the last few days.

Gary and Jenny visited on Saturday with their boys, so Gary and I decided to go out birding for a couple of hours on Sunday morning before everyone else surfaced. Luckily it was a rare dry morning, we headed down to Fishbourne Creek. On route, Gary managed to perform what is becoming his Winter party trick and called 'Waxwing'  as we drove past the Goodwood motor circuit. I swung the car around and sure enough a single Waxwing was at the top of  tree and had found some berries in the roadside bushes, we took a few quick pictures then left it to feed.

The roads were still flooded as was the path from the Apuldram church on the way out to the creek.

A couple of Redwing were in the churchyard bushes, and the wind certainly picked up as we arrived next to the channel. A few Brent Geese, Wigeon and Redshank were in the channel and we noticed a single birder further up walking through the wet vegetation, flushing what appeared to be Snipe, when we caught up with him latter he said it was a Jack Snipe.

The river feeding the creek from the waterworks was seriously overflowing and normally the area where it enters the creek holds the most waders, but the wader count was fairly low with a few Turnstone, only one or two Dunlin groups of Curlew on the far shore and a handful of Lapwing. a Rock Pipit and a few meadow pipit were near the footpath with a couple of Grey Wagtail. The Brent Geese started to move as the tide rose and a couple of male Goldeneye were in the channel. We walked out to the area we had seen the birder flush the Snipe and before too long a Jack Snipe was flushed.

We headed home and did a circular  walk  before a late lunch, birds were a little thin on the ground but a couple of Bullfinch, a calling Marsh Tit, 2 Buzzard and a single female Reed Bunting was the first I'd seen in the area.

Waxwing

Rock Pipit

Brent Geese

Brent Geese

Saturday 10th December - Cold beginnnings

A cold and frosty start coupled with a heavy and long working week resulted in some extra duvet time this morning, but when the frost had cleared I headed out in bright sunshine and up to the downs again. (mainly because if I headed towards Chichester I would have been stuck in Christmas shopper traffic).

Astonishingly, I haven't seen a Fieldfare yet this winter, (I normally clock my first ones either the end of September or start of October) and feel like I must have been walking round with my eyes shut. Today's thrushes didn't fix it, with lots of Blackbirds, Song Thrush, Redwing and Mistle Thrush but still no Fieldfare !.

In the arable fields many of the birds were as per a couple of weeks ago with a a large finch gathering of Reed Buntings, Linnets, Yellowhammers, Chaffinch, Goldfinch and a single Brambling, meadow Pipit and Skylark, but no Corn Buntings. plenty of Grey Partridge flocks, proving that they are leaving these birds alone on the shoots.

A ringtail Hen Harrier was a brief viewing as a quartered along a hedgerow on the brow of a hill to disappear the other side. At least 6 Buzzards, 4 Red Kites and 3 Kestrels were the other birds of prey on offer.

I moved onto Rackham overlooking Amberley Wildbrooks. A large flock of Canada and Greylag Geese didn't hold any wild interlopers and several hundred Lapwing were scattered over the grazing meadows. c300 Wigeon, 50 Teal, 10 Pintail, 25 Shoveler and c40 Black-tailed Godwit boosted the wildfowl numbers but despite a good search for an hour or so, nothing else of significant interest.

I moved on again to Waltham Brooks, just being able to negotiate the footpaths with wellingtons as there was still a considerable amount of standing water. A pair of Stonechats were on the first part of the path and a squealing Water Rail suddenly took flight then fell back to earth after realising they  don't normally do much flying. A single Lesser Redpoll was with some Goldfinches in an Alder, but again little else was showing. I crossed the railway line to the sewage works and the bushes held 4 Chiffchaffs, Firecrest and 6 Goldcrest and a Long-tailed Tit flock. I probably wasn't there late enough to wait for a Barn Owl, although the light was starting to fade around 3pm.

Not much to report at home either where if anything the increasing cold has temporarily reduced the number of birds at the feeders although at first light there seems to be the equivalent of a Blackbird Lek under the bird table with 8 males this morning. No Brambling this weekend although I saw 1 briefly a week ago. A single Siskin and a Bullfinch were probably the most interesting although a flock of 8 birds flying over were probable Yellowhamers but were too brief and distant to be certain which is a shame as it would have been another house tick.

male Reed bunting

Waltham Brooks

Chiffchaff

Firecrest

A different Chiffchaff

again

teal

Sunday 25th November -Garden birds

After the torrential rain and floods right through last week and Saturday night, devastating much of the country,  it was a pleasure to have a small amount of benign bright weather on Sunday morning. On Wednesday I tried to visit one of our offices in Barnstaple, Devon, by a train leaving Paddington at 7am - only to find 8 hours later I was back at Paddington having not made it further than Bristol (still about 90 miles to go). The train having to reverse back to Bristol from somewhere in somerset once it encountered the floods.

I haven't spent much time or attention on the garden feeders for much of autumn to date (the squirrels have been winning that battle !) but I had an hour or so before we went to Sal's birthday lunch.

The surprise,  3 male Bramblings !, that spent 30 mins around before flying off - hope they remain in the area for the Winter.  In addition, 5 Goldfinch, 1 Siskin, 2 Greenfinch 8 Chaffinch, 1 Bullfinch, , Robin, Dunnock, 1 Jay, 3 Magpies, Jackdaws, 2 Pheasant, 6 Great Tits, 8 Blue Tits, 3 Coal Tits, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, several Blackbirds and Woodpigeon. 5 Redwings landed briefly at the top of one of the trees in the gully and a Sparrowhawk made a couple of passes. A few photos from the very grubby kitchen window below.

I now need to work out how to up the anti on the Squirrels. There are 5 of the little buggers, they get to the feeders and eat through the wire/plastic/metal or knock over and generally prevent the birds from feeding. 

I've tried greasing the poles to the feeders, firstly with Olive oil, which works for a limited time, then with Chili oil, which had the same effect but just for a small while longer, then with Vicks VapoRub ( Having experienced what happens with this if you accidentally scratch yourself in the wrong place after applying, I was hoping to watch the Squirrels dance away in excruciating pain imagining the burning sensation they would be feeling in their nether regions) . It did work momentarily, but again, especially with the wet weather, only until the pole washes down and they can get enough traction to shimmy up the pole again.
I've looked at the accessories you can buy - cones or baffles for the poles and feeders called 'Squirrel Busters' - just not convinced they would work the Squirrels are more canny and more violent than these contraptions - and they're expensive. So nothing for it, but to continue with the experiments over the winter - Look out Nutkins your time's up buddy.

2 male Brambling

Brambling
 

a ringed Goldfinch

Coal tit

Sunday 18th November

Sunday, incredibly had mild weather and wall to wall sunshine. I was able to cut the grass in the afternoon which I'd assumed I wouldn't get the chance again before next spring.

I started Sunday morning by heading early down to Selsey. With fairly calm seas and a low tide in bright sunshine, the most I was hoping for was maybe some visual winter migration over from the continent, but there was none of that . However on the sea there were 2 Great Northern Divers, a Slavonian Grebe a Red-necked Grebe, c100 Common Scoters with just 2 males in the flock, several Red-breasted Mergansers, a single Razorbill, a distant Kittiwake, a Great Skua and a Rock Pipit on the beach. 

I then went inland and headed towards Amberley and onto the downs around North Stoke, having intended to do this last weekend but being distracted by the Hooded Merganser.

The managed arable downland here is great and as soon as I got out of the car there were Corn Buntings and Yellowhammers in the shrubs and bushes, Lots of Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Reed Bunting, Linnet, Pied Wagtail, 2 Lesser Redpoll all feeding on the natural seed generated by the plants in the field edge strips. I counted 28 Grey Partridge in 4 or 5 different coveys. lots of Blackbirds and Song Thrushes but no Winter Thrushes. The main viewing in this area is raptors, and it was slightly disappointing, I did have 7 Buzzards, 3 Red Kite and 2 Kestrel but no Harriers , Merlin or Peregrine which often frequent the area.

.. Home to mow,

Corn Bunting

Reed bunting

Red Kite

Sunday 11th November - Saturday Jinx

This week a Hooded Merganser had been seen at Pagham. A sawbill diving duck, in the wild they breed in North America (Note that I reservedly say 'in the wild').  I'd seen plenty on both trips to Canada frequenting inland lakes and generally in the company of other North American Duck species such as Buffleheads, Lesser Scaup etc. Genuine wild birds are a rarity in the UK, although sorting out the genuine wild from the friendly captive bred or collection birds that have escaped is problematic. I had seen a male bird at Radipole in 2009, but without much analysis the fact it was trying to mate with a Tufted Duck and was first to the bread suggested quite strongly it had never attempted an Atlantic crossing. The Pagham bird was reported as an unringed 1st Winter female with all flight feathers intact, which slightly increased it's chances of being the genuine article, either way it was worth a look.

So first thing Saturday I headed to Pagham in the rain (which didn't stop while I was there). The familiar Saturday morning feeling of another bird disappearing on Friday night soon started to sink in as there was no sign of the Merganser as the high tide started to recede and it wasn't seen for the rest of the day. Compensation was a Black Brant in the Brent Goose flock, A large wader count with 3 Spotted Redshank, c300 Golden Plover, Grey Plover, Dunlin, Redshank  Black tailed Godwit, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Snipe, Dunlin, Turnstone, Lapwing . Duck were well represented with Teal, Wigeon, Shelduck and Pintail in decent numbers and a Med Gull was with a small group of roosting gulls. A Kingfisher flew over the North Wall, Also seen,  Grey Wagtail, Reed Bunting and Meadow Pipit, with a presumed calling Water Pipit that flew over. I headed home late morning and it looked as if it was about to stop raining, which it did after  lunchtime, which worked well for the impressive  Firework display at the girls' school on Saturday night.

Sunday morning I was out again first thing for another morning, my plan was a seawatch at Selsey then to head inland to the downs to look for raptors as the forecast was more favourable.

I wasn't expecting a huge haul of birds on the sea, but faired better than expected. It was a bright sunny and unexpectedly warm morning. A fairly large flock of Common Scoter were just offshore - probably numbering 75+ in various groups. They were nearly all females apart from a male Velvet Scoter , also 2 female Eider on the sea. There was three fairly distant flocks of Little Gulls that totalled 65 birds with a few passing Kittiwake and Gannet. 2 Red-throated Divers flew East and several Auks moved at a distance with only one Guillemot close enough for a definitive ID. Then news came through that the Merganser was seen back at Pagham - well I had to.

and yes it was there, on arrival the Hodded Merganser spent time continuously diving and feeding in a channel close to the footpath and then flying to the harbour until it eventually disappeared nito a creek. It's difficult to add to the debate about it's wild credentials other than it was free-flying and happily feeding on small fish, it was also quite vocal with a single frog-like croak being heard repeatedly, which a few of the local comedians decided the 'croak' translated  to the bird saying 'bread'. I spent a while in the area, as it was very pleasant in the sunshine, chatting to several others. The Black Brant was present again, as was a Spotted Redshank, In addition to yesterdays birds. a Greenshank and a Stonechat were seen. My diversion back to the North Wall meant the trip to the downs was put on hold so I headed home for a relaxing afternoon.



Hooded Merganser

Sunday 4th November - Weekend Mist

Misty and  murky with rain showers - spent a lot of the weekend around the house with autumn food.

My only real foray was a walk from the house - which I hadn't done for quite a while, so with bright blue skies I headed out, an early morning Buzzard took of from the tress in the garden (turned out to be the only bird of prey seen) . The ground was completely sodden making the firmest paths slippery and the boggier ones almost impassable.

Just behind the house the field hedge held Bullfinch and lots of Blackbirds, before walking down the lane towards the last farm houses, Dunnocks, Robins, Song Thrush and 2 Redwings flew past along with a calling Meadow Pipit, Pied Wagtail and a smart Grey Wagtail. There did seem to be a number of thrushes around with more Redwing encountered. A tree by the first pass of stream held a tit flock with mainly coal tits. then calling Goldcrests were seen but not much else until the footpath reached the edge of a ploughed filed where a large puddle blocked the footpath but a large flock of Chaffinches numbered c100 and were making flights between the hedge and the field for foraging. An influx of Brambling had been reported in parts of the country over the last week and I was hopeful that maybe one had attached to this Chaffinch flock, but no luck and only a single Lesser Redpoll was picked out on the ground . Further along a Group of 4 Bullfinches with a small Goldfinch flock then as I neared the furnace pond a large fruiting Yew held up to 40 Redwing and a number of Siskins . The furnace pond only had one sad looking female Mallard and then the heavens opened I was at the furthest point from the house on my vaguely circular walk and it sheeted rain until I got home. So no great surprises but interesting Finch numbers building up. Which was further indicated back at the house as within the week the feeders had up to 12 Chaffinches, the first Greenfinches for a long time and 3 Goldfinches.

Lets hope the large flocks of Waxwings arriving in the North and East drift down this way and even the reports of a Northern European Pine Grossbeak invasion would be welcome if it extended to this part of England !

The only pictures below reflect that I haven't managed a decent shot of a bird for a few weeks - will need to rectify this !



As I headed down the lane from the house  the morning sky looked great -but not for long.

Flooded field edge - 100+Chaffinches were feeding in the field

Saturday 27th October - Pumpkin Power

It can be frustrating when rarer birds turn up during the week as working in London means having to wait until the weekend often for them to disappear on a Thursday or Friday - I don't do much in the way of twitching rare birds but particularly if they're fairly close to home,  then I'll make the effort. A very smart an obliging male Desert Wheatear arrived in Worthing on Wednesday and had been giving excellent close views late into Friday afternoon, so I was up early and headed there for just after first light knowing that I had to be back late morning for a pumpkin carving commitment with the girls.

Several others were also there looking , but it was soon apparent there the bird had vanished - no doubt looking for somewhere giving a closer resemblance to desert than Worthing beach next to the pier. The more likely cause were the strong overnight northerly winds and bright clear skies. A small movement of passerines were battling the wind, with small flocks of Chaffinches, Siskins, Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits and a few Redwings moving along the coast with a few late Swallows and House Martins.

Back at home it is still fairly quiet around the feeders. There seem to be more Coal Tits around and still 3 or 4 Goldcrest a slight increase in Chaffinches, a dozen Siskins favouring the Alders and Pied Wagtails regularly fly over (but I think these are resident birds commuting over the houses). Still 30+ Redwings around the trees in the gully next to the house.

And thanks to Henry with the mushroom ID - Adie's very grateful as her project now looks impressive !

Anyone sick of Pumpkins ?

Maybe this was used to scare off the Desert Wheatear ?

These wee the ones I grew

Our Bantam Rooster remains unimpressed with Halloween

Taking pictures of our own ducks must mean it;s very quiet for wild birds.

Saturday 20th October - Funny Fungi

It turned out to be a weekend where I did little on the birding front, but Saturday morning Adie wanted to do a project for school so we decided to go and look for mushrooms and toadstools. I thought Ebernoe would be a good bet as a generally damp wealden woodland and in past years has been a fungi heaven at this exact same time of year. The issue recently has been that damp has been taken to new levels of damp.

We arrived in the mist and wandered into the woods via the furnace pond keeping our eyes peeled and seeing nothing that remotely resembled a mushroom. We then bumped into a chap with some camera equipment and meekly asked whether he'd seen any mushrooms. I got more than a bargained for as the answer was more technical about latin types of fungi (I recognised the bit about slime moulds but just nodded at the rest). The general gist was all the rain meant very little had appeared at all,  but very helpfully he did say that the old brick kiln furnace area was probably the best bet so that's where we went. We spent the next couple of hours looking around fallen trunks and roots and did pretty well taking pictures of what we saw in the very waterlogged and sodden understorey. A few Goldcrests and Long-tailed tits were encountered and we had a duet with a calling Tawny Owl that eventually took flight which we briefly glimpsed.

Birds around home were similar to last week, but with more Redwings, Blackbirds, Song Thrush and Mistle Thrush. At least 4 Goldcrests were around the place and Siskins and goldfinches in the Alders had increased (but none on the feeders which are currently extremely quiet. I had a few Meadow pipits flying over calling and 3 Cormorants flew past. There are still at least 4 raucous Jays around and more than one Tawny owl has been vocal both at day and night.

You'll see from the pictures below that I have no clue on the naming of the fungi - My fungi field guide is still buried in a box, I'll try and improve somehow to help Adie with her half-term project - so any guru who can name the fungi please own up.

Misty Furnace Pond at Ebernoe

An orange one

A Green one

One of these (Penny Bun - Cep)

One of those - (Glistening Inkcap)

Lots of these - Sulphur Tuft

Even more of these - Candlesnuff

but a small group of them

~.. and a big one of this

Sunday 14th October - Ouzel'd

First time this autumn the car had frost on this morning. Went out early to cissbury, to try for Ring Ouzels again. It was very misty driving over there, but on arrival the hill was clear and it was bright and crisp. 
 
I did a clockwise walk around the ring, taking the car park at the northerly point as 12 O'clock. (not to get confused by the real time which was just before 8am).  Several Goldcrests and flyover Skylark were the first birds seen with a large flock of c60 Goldfinches, and as I walked down towards the old rifle ranges in the SE corner (or 5pm). I heard several Blackbirds and then the deeper slightly more metallic clacking of a Ring Ouzel. I saw 3 birds that flew directly South and away down the valley, and another bird was sitting obscured in a tree, eventually just disolving into a bush. Much of the vegetation had been cleared from this area but it was amazing how a small stand alone Blackthorn held a dozen or more Blackbirds without any of them being visible.

I carried on walking round to about 7 O'clock, seeing several more Goldcrest a couple of Chiffchaff and a Blackcap, with Yellowhammer, Meadow Pipits, Siskin and Swallow overhead.

Another area of scrub had a few Blackbirds and then a handful of Redwing. It was only when I reached c 9 O'clock on the circuit and the vicinity of a fruiting Yew tree that I heard the familiar 'chacking' again. I spent the next hour around this tree, where there was a least 6 Ring Ouzels, which at one point were together in flight in a loose flock, but spent most of the time frustratingly invisible inside the Yew. It was a favoured tree for thrushes, Blackbird, Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush, , Redwing and Ring Ouzel all seen together (just missing Fiedlfare). Redpoll, Bullfinch, Sparrowhawk and House Martin were also seen whilst watching the thrushes.

Back home around lunchtime for clearing up the mess I'd made with the Bamboo last week. 3 Sparrowhawks were circling at one time with 2 Buzzards, and a few Meadow Pipits were passing over with 1 Crossbill, 2 Redpoll and 29 Redwings, so a very autumnal feel.

Firstly a silhoueted Ring Ouzel

Then hiding

..and blurry in flight.

Mistle Thrush

Sparrowhawk hunting finches.

View North East from Cissbury over 'No Mans Land'

Sunday 7th October - Bamboozled.

.. Have spent the afternoon cutting into the bamboo forest in the garden. Why the previous owners planted so much of the stuff ? - Fastest growing plant on the planet, with wildlife potential virtually zero,  at least in this country where wild Panda's are something of a rarity.

A lot of rain this week and again the exciting bird news was in the far flung corners of the land (if you count Ireland as being part of the same territory). After being particular drained from work and still nursing a sore back it wasn't without a little lethargy that I surfaced on Saturday and like a trooper (or so I thought) grabbed the optics and went out of the door fairly early no doubt to mop up on the significant overnight influx of migrant birds.... mmm.  . With heavy overnight rain and a stiff northerly wind I decided to stay inland and headed to Cissbury Ring in the faint hope of an early Ring Ouzel. This ancient mound, just on the tip of the downs overlooking Worthing, is for some reason favoured by autumn migrant Ring Ouzels, though typically after a couple of days of Easterly winds and generally mid-October rather than the beginning of the month.

A good number of Blackbirds were in the bushes with a couple of Song Thrush, but no sign of any Ouzels, plenty of Chiffchaff,  Goldcrest and a constant stream of Swallows, and around 20 Meadow Pipits passed through with Siskins and 2 Redpoll and a tree full Jays, but no surprises were on offer, so I headed to Pulbrough Brooks. There had been a Pectoral Sandpiper during the week, but the rain, especially overnight had reduced anywhere with muddy margin potential to swimming only. No sign of the Pec Sand, around 10 Snipe and small groups of Lapwing were the only waders on offer. Wildfowl numbers had obviously started to increase with Wigeon  and Teal plentiful and smaller numbers of Pintail and Shoveler. c100+ Swallows and House Martins were hawking over the brooks and 2 Stonechats were visible and a single Yellow Wagtail with a group of Pied's. The local flock of Canada and Greylag Geese were harbouring a Bar-headed Goose, no doubt of more domestic origins.

After a bacon baguette in the cafe I sauntered home.

Sunday morning weather was quite pleasant - a little misty but it cleared quite well. I'd been out in my Pyjamas chasing a Fox out of the filed and before I started garden chores I had a coffee with bins in hand and saw a female Redstart ! it was near the top of a Horse Chestnut then moved to an Alder. Having watched for a couple of minutes I legged it inside for the camera but couldn't relocate the bird when I came back - Another new bird for the house list and one I hadn't seen at Greyhound. Over the course of the morning I also saw Siskin, Redpoll, Pied Wagtail, Treecreeper, Mistle Thrush, Great Spotted Wookpecker, Goldcrest, Bullfinch, 2 distant Sparrowhawks, and 2 Buzzards. A commotion at the end of the field was worth investigating and I finally found a hidden Tawny Owl in a Hazel. In total 24 Meadow Pipits flew over calling and later in the afternoon my first autumn Redwings, a group of 7. Over the course of the day I saw 35 species at home , but the Redstart was especially pleasing.





Big Mushroom - fluffy with chocolate sprinkles ? 

Area where I saw the Redstart !

Tawny Owl was hiding !

Roe Deer in the field.