Wednesday 26th February - Another Sunny Day

This morning started well, with a singing  Firecrest outside the back door in one of the ivy-clad Ash trees in the gully. It took a little while to locate, but I wonder whether it will remain through Spring  ? After school drop- off I had a walk around various commons in West Sussex and on a bright sunny morning it was great to see 3 Dartford Warblers and a single Woodlark. The Woodlark managed a single half-hearted display flight. I think one of the most evocative songs of any bird. Also around were plenty of  Linnet, Yellowhammer and a couple of pairs of Stonechat plus a female Crossbill.

I then had another attempt at Hawfinches at West Dean, but again drew a blank - I'm sure there around somewhere.

Woodlark - In song

Woodlark - really needs to be heard, otherwise it fits in the small brown bird category.

This is actually a Dartford Warbler on top of the scrub

Saturday 22nd February - A Bright Bill

Only for the second time this year I headed to Selsey Bill. The weather was great, bright blue skies- relatively warm at 12 degrees and a moderate westerly. I think a lot of seabirds probably headed South and are still in the Bay of Biscay as no Gannets appeared all morning, and although still early for any Spring movements, normally seabirds have started to slowly move North in March - which is only a week away !.

The morning's list was fairly sparse with 1 Great Northern Diver, 2 Red-Throated Divers, 1 Fulmar, 2 Slavonian Grebes, 3 Common Scoter, 1 Razorbill, 1 Curlew, 7 Turnstone, 1 Med Gull and 2 Sandwich Terns.

I called in at Ambersham Common on the way home but saw very little - They ( the NT?) have done quite a bit of clearance work which in the long term might pay dividends - but has probably scared off a few birds in the making. Normal fayre at home, although the spring-like feel has prompted a pair of Long-tailed Tits to be active around a Mahonia bush as if nest building. A small flock of c20 Siskins and 5 Goldfinches are now raiding the Niger feeders daily (which have been untouched for 4 months). A Linnet flyover and the 'normal' raptors were visible at lunchtime with a good garden list of Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Pied Wagtail, Song Thrush, Robin, Chaffinch, 2 Greenfinch !!, a Redwing, Marsh Tit, Stock Dove, 2 House Sparrow and the corvids.

Friday 21st February - Up the Swanny

On Friday I had the unusual challenge of having to find a pair of Mute Swans. A friend of the girls' needed to take some pictures of a pair for an important school Art project, and the '... Paul will know where to find them...' obviously came into conversation. But, do I remember a location for guaranteed  close photography  ?? - it's something I've never thought about, as I nearly always see Mute Swans when I'm out birding day, but rarely focus on how well I've seen them.  So armed with a bag of bagels, Leon and I set out on Friday morning to 'get' the Swans.

We tried all of the local ponds, which were potential Swan territory but because they had recently flooded it seemed most of the wildfowl had evacuated, including any swans. We went to Burton Mill Pond,  surely they were there ! ... but it only held a couple of Pochard and Tufted Ducks. I was starting to sweat. Had I been imagining all the Mute Swans I'd ticked on my daily lists each time I went out birding in Sussex ?. We headed to Arundel, as I know if all else failed the WWT would gurantee a pair ! but relief arrived as driving along the road that leads to the WWT , at last, there was a fine pair of Mute Swans, which with the help of the Bagels, posed quite nicely - we saw another 3 on Swanbourne Lake . No much else on view although a Firecrest was calling near where I parked the car but we headed back with the task achieved and guess what  - we saw more swans on the way home !

A pair of elusive beasts

Black-headed Gull

Wednesday 19th February - Dungeness

A day out at 'Dunge' . Which has been well overdue as I shamefully haven't been there for nearly 2 years, especially as this place ( along with Sheppey, Stodmarsh and Cliffe) , used to be the most visited site of my early birding years when I lived in north Kent.

So on with the day ,and I arrived at 8.15am at the fishing boats. The tide was low so very few gulls were on the roost, offshore a few Kittiwakes, plenty of Guillemot and Great Crested Grebe being the lot, with nothing moving offshore.

 

I bumped into Paul James and Bob Hastings and we set off for the trapping area in search of the long-staying Hume's Leaf Warbler. The trapping area was flooded. The area south of the bushes is the dry arid area known as the desert - it was a lake !. We split up and spent nearly an hour wading around the passable and not so passable paths through the bushes (not a great time to find my wellies had a leak !). Paul and Bob had the bird calling but no sighting. With the morning running ahead we agreed to try for the Penduline Tits, so I headed to the hide at ARC and Paul and Bob went to the reserve to head out to Hookers Pits and we would exchange messages if we were successful. The Tree Sparrows were as usual at the farmhouse, but the water on ARC was very high and the wildfowl was limited, with 2 redhead Smew and plenty of Goldeneye being the best on offer . After an hour in the Hanson Hide with nothing more seen and Paul and Bob drawing a blank on the reserve, I headed to the reserve to walk around the trails. There were large numbers of the common duck species on  Burrowes pit and a Great White Egret and a Chiffchaff  showed on the walk  but very little on Denge Marsh. I got to the ramp at Hookers Pit and there had been no sighting of the Pendulines today, although 2 Bearded Tits showed at intervals and the Marsh Harriers were very active and another Great White Egret was at the back of the marsh. I walked back to the car and decided to give the Hume's Warbler another go finding  the 2 Black-throated Divers at new diggings on the way.

After another half an hour wading in the trapping area with no sign, I had a message from Paul that he'd found 2 Snow Buntings at Camber and at the same time that the Penduline Tits had been seen from Hookers Pit (about 15 minutes after I'd left !). I was just thinking that this was turning into one of those days when suddenly the Hume's Warbler appeared just in front of me ! - It spent a couple of minutes giving intermittent views and then called a couple of times and then vanished - I managed one picture -  testament to it's elusiveness. Buoyed by success I then decided to go back to try for the Penduline Tits. It was after 3.30 by the time I arrived at the ramp, no surprise on arrival that the birds hadn't been seen for an hour. After 20 minutes of scanning through the scope and the sun heading in the wrong direction, suddenly I saw a reedmace being attacked and on it was a male Penduline Tit,. After another couple of minutes it was spooked by a Marsh Harrier and disappeared into scrub. I briefly heard the slightly mournful high pitched calls of 2 birds but they didn't reappear.

I drove to Scotney as the light faded , but very little was seen on the pit , so I headed home with ultimately a successful day.

'The Desert'

at least half of a Hume's Warbler

Monday 17th February - Beeding muddy

Grey , overcast and bit of rain this morning. So for a couple of hours this afternoon I went to Upper Beeding to have a walk around the partly flooded fields either side of the Adur, known as Beeding Brooks. My first difficulty was finding somewhere to access the various footpaths as the Pound Lane access was under water and the road bridge across the Adur was closed for repairs, so I eventually drove through Steyning and parked off Kings Barn Lane. The footpath to the pedestrian bridge across the river was fairly wet which you could walk around, but the mud was the problem. It wasn't over boot-high thick, but it didn't need to be for the mud Urchins which sit beneath the mud to grab hold of the wellies in a sucking manoeuvre, which results in a toppling motion. I briefly lost a Welly but avoided ending face-down in the mud and luckily had a fence post nearby to rescue myself on. - Drama over, I crossed the footbridge and walked up the river bank footpath. A couple of fields down and I found 3 Short-Eared Owls in the boundary hedge, all preening ( a bit too distant and too grey for pictures but very nice in the scope) and was the main reason why I came here. The floods also held a good number of wildfowl, Pintail, Shoveler, Wigeon and Teal all in good numbers. a  flock of Redwing and Fieldfare were fairly active  and several Little Egrets were in the distance. I didn't linger for a Barn Owl to appear as the weather again was closing in... again.

Sunday 16th February - This is what it should be like

After the third and most potent storm of the week lashed at us yesterday, today's contrast was waking up to a Spring morning. An overnight frost lead to clear blue skies and only a slight breeze. A large Silver Birch in the garden (which was probably on it's last innings anyway) is now uprooted and at a 45 degree angle supported only by the boundary hedge and will need attending to.

Despite the hangover ! I went for a walk this morning from the house thinking that we may not get many mornings like this. It was beautiful and the air was filled with birdsong, mainly Song Thrushes with backup in the  Robins. Dunnocks and Wrens, as the Blackbirds haven't started yet, but he Song Thrush population here seems to be doing well. The expected species appeared slowly, Nuthatch, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Siskin, Bullfinch, Long-tailed Tit and Marsh Tit with the commoner birds.

2 Years ago I had a pair of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers in a copse on this walk throughout the Spring, and it is exactly a morning like today and the time of year when you would expect the male to be drumming. Sadly, I had no joy again at this site, I will keep trying around here but I do wonder what's happening to this species obvious decline.

I approached the Furnace Pond thinking that Mandarins may have returned but only found 14 Mallards with the Grey Wagtail being near the outfall as usual. I saw 4 Linnets in the big arable field where a week ago there must have been 20 birds and a single Mistle Thrush in song.

It was very muddy in parts and several trees had come down particularly the shallow routed pines in the plantations.

Back at home I viewed the horizon for an hour around midday a calling just when the raptors were active. Firstly a Yellowhammer flew over (which is only the second time I've seen this here). Then an impressive tower of 11 Common Buzzards making the most of the early thermals, then a Red Kite drifted north, a Peregrine passed high overhead and a male Sparrowhawk visited the garden. Siskin number have built up again to over 20 birds with 7 Goldfinches but I haven't seen the Redpolls for 2 weeks now.

Stunning view down the lane before 8am

The Furnace pond held 14 Mallards but was otherwise rather duckless.

The streams were brimming, but flowing well.

The pine plantations had suffered badly in the winds

Some record shots of distant birds from the garden..

Red Kite

Peregrine

One of a pair of Ravens

Friday 14th February - ... and More rain

... As I sit here looking at the increasing puddles outside, I did get out for a while yesterday and had very good scope views of Northern Goshawk somewhere in Sussex - Presumed the same bird on 3 occasions, which was great. But all this rain is rather hampering my enthusiasm to go birding and get soaked - looking at my list for 2014, I'm on 508 - But probably should be more and I've now got 3 weeks before the next trip which, with everything else in the diary, gives me 4 or 5 attempts to see more UK birds pending the weather.

Wednesday 12th February .... and then it rained

again, and again..... looking back this cycle of non-stop cyclonic weather seems to have started the day I finished planting my bulbs in Mid-November. Every third day there is a brief respite - sometimes only hours - before another drenching and high winds . Some of the bulbs have now shown their heads (I'm sure some have drowned).

So yesterday (Tuesday) after a bucketful in the morning it cleared around 2.30pm and for an hour the sun came out ! - The response of the birds in the garden was a bit of a frenzy, added to that it was obviously good weather for raptors to stretch their wings - In half an hour from 3pm I stood in the 'middle' field and saw 7 Common Buzzards, a Red Kite, 2 Ravens and a male Sparrowhawk.

Today was back to the new normal - winds recorded in the west country exceeded 100mph, here it was just very windy and very wet, but no complaining as the poor folk in the west country and the Thames Valley who have flooded houses must be longing for this to end.

... wet or not I will try and venture out tomorrow !

Monday 10th February - Chasing Gulls

The weekend was a bit of a wash-out - Saturday was more torrential rain and strong winds and I picked up a heavy cold (Man-Flu) which wiped me out on Sunday. Today looked as if we would get a few hours of dry weather so I dosed up with cold remedies and belligerently headed out.

Species of Gulls have never been my favourite birds, but the white winged gulls which originate from North of Iceland, Greenland and beyond are always worth a look when they appear in Winter. Sussex normally has a very occasional one, so when 2 different species (Glaucous and the Kumliens race of Iceland Gull) were reported over the weekend in one location at Littlehampton, it was definitely worth a visit.

The river Adur exits to the sea at Littlehampton in a very narrow channel, I arrived on the East side where there is a promenade and found a group of birders in the shelter looking out to a large group of Gulls on the shore, none of the white-winged gulls had been seen yet, although the tide was just reaching a high point and about to turn. After about half-an-hour of browsing through the Gull flock I caught sight of an adult Glaucous Gull on the wing, which unfortunately drifted further East and eventually out of sight but at least all present had seen the bird.

After a further hour things were looking slightly less hopeful, a Guillemot just offshore was becoming the most interesting bird on view, the Gull flock in front of us at the River entrance had dispersed . Another small group of birders were on the West side of the channel and eventually with a bit of gesticulating we worked out they had seen the juvenile Kumliens Gull on the River groyne but it had disappeared, presumably on the Beach out of view on the West side. I decided to drive around to the West side of the River (about a 10 minute drive) and again no sign of the bird. A further half an hour passed then a small number of Gulls started to move into the River entrance, shortly after the juvenile Kumlien's Gull appeared and loafed around for the next 30 minutes. This bird was quite mottled, had darkish primary wash, with similar darkish wash on the inner-part of the secondary feathers and a distinct brownish tail band and black bill tip, which are presumed to distinguish this from a standard Iceland Gull. (Neither species breed in Iceland - The Iceland Gull in Greenland Canada and the Kumliens from Arctic NE Canada).

Headed back fairly content with the gulls, a brief stop at Coldwatham didn't show any Shrikes, although the water levels here worryingly continue to rise leaving little territory left for any shrike.

This is my Whelk.... and I'm not sharing

juvenile Kumliens Gull

The wing and feather markings can be crucial in ID'ing large gulls

Kumliens un the middle with Adult, 1st and 2nd winter Herring Gulls
 



A few final shots

 

Tuesday 4th February - West Dean

The forecast was for about 3 hours of dry weather before the next weather system would stream in. I opted for a quick visit to West Dean woods, which is a well know Winter site for Hawfinches, although my luck with these birds has been fairly intermittent here, as unless there is a general finch flock around the farms then they can be anywhere in the vast area of woodland and I would say in most Winters I need a few visits before striking lucky.

I parked up and walked towards Stapleash Farm, seeing Firecrest, Bullfinch, Yellowhammer and Treecreeper on the way. The favoured tree for the  local Little Owl looked vacant and even though cloudy but dry, it was cold with a very strong wind which kept any birds out of sight. A Red Kite passed over the fields then a cronking Raven. I headed into the woods by the estate gates and a small bird flock held Great-Spotted Woodpecker, Marsh Tit and Goldcrest. The further into the woods the quieter it became, with the only surprise when I flushed 2 Woodcocks. Retracing my steps back towards the car I re-checked the Little Owl tree and found him hunkered down around the back of the tree. Another Firecrest gave me the run around as I tried to take a picture, as they normally do. Acknowledging that the Hawfinches would wait for another day, I was glad to head home as the weather closed in.....again.

Little Owl in favoured tree

Firecrest hiding from the camera

always a tough bird to capture with the camera




Monday 3rd February - Another grey and windy day

On Saturday I had a couple of hours between Hannah's school sports and decided to make a visit to Blackdown for the first time this year. Leaving home the skies were blue, on arrival in the car park at Blackdown I thought I'd put my raincoat on as well as fleeces just in case and as soon as I'd walked through the trees a small storm hit, with driving freezing rain,. Luckily it was short-lived, but the wind continued and in the first 45 minutes I'd only seen a Robin and a Blue Tit. I persevered and eventually on the East side a small finch flock were moving around the tree tops and contained at least 40 Brambling with a couple of very smart males, this made the trip worthwhile.

Gary and Jenny and their boys joined us on Saturday night so Sunday morning, Gary and I with Edward and Alexander were dropped off at Woolbeding common and we found a route back to the house on foot taking a couple of hours - The mud was excessive and the number of fallen trees (mainly pines) was quite a sight but the boys seem to enjoy the splashing - As expected at this time of year the birds were a little limited with Marsh Tit, Bullfinch several Common Buzzards and a small flock of Linnets being the best on offer but the walk was enjoyable and dry !