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.
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| male Reed bunting |
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| Waltham Brooks |
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| Chiffchaff |
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| Firecrest |
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| A different Chiffchaff |
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| again |
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| teal |
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