Sunday 11th January - Muddy Legs

An unexpected ending to the day.

I hadn't been for a walk from the house for a long while, so decided to do just that this morning, especially as the weather looked good for the first part of the day, a slight frost was on the ground as  I climbed over the garden fence just after 8am and headed up to the lane.

A Great Spotted Woodpecker was drumming away in the Oaks as I left. A flock of around 30 Redwing were in one of the horse paddocks with a couple of Pied Wagtails. I continued on what is pretty much my normal circuit for the next 3 hours - It was exceptionally slippery in the deep mud that had formed with the heavy rain over the last few days. Typical of Winter birding in this habitat, there was little around for the most part. A flock of 30 Linnets was in the big arable field, several Siskin were in the Alders by the streams. A Kestrel and Common Buzzard were the only raptors seen. A few Bullfinches were seen although no males. The Furnace pond looked devoid of birds at first, then a Cormorant appeared followed by a Grey Heron and right at the far end under the submerged trees , 4 Mallard and 2 drake Mandarins were being elusive. A few other common species were seen such as Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Mistle Thrush and just a single Fieldfare but nothing unexpected, just a lot of mud to clean off the boots.

About midday I was returning into the house after cleaning the Hen house and saw that a Greater Yellowlegs had been reported from Titchfield Haven. I didn't really have a plan for the afternoon so decided to try for the bird. I rarely visit that part of the Hampshire coast (as anything South of the A27 between Portsmouth and the New Forest can be a traffic nightmare), but it surprisingly only took 50 minutes to reach the recommended parking, which was near the village of Titchfield, At least a couple of miles north of the main Titchfield NNR. The canal track path was again exceptionally muddy and tricky to navigate, but a few hundred yards of slipping and sliding along this I joined a group of birders overlooking the flooded marsh. The Greater Yellowlegs was showing straight away although quite distant at the back of the marsh where it was with a small flock of Black-tailed Godwits. Over the next hour the birds flew to a different part of the marsh about every 15 minutes, allowing flight views of the Yellowlegs , otherwise viewing was limited to decent views through the scope of the bird actively feeding with the Godwits, although eventually at the back of the marsh and behind too many grass tussocks. I've never been successful at digiscoping but I tried a picture with my phone through the scope, which was a complete failure (see below for comedy value only), but happy enough with the views of the Yellowlegs, I headed back home for my second spell of boot cleaning.

As I reached the lane... view to where I was walking.

The first stream

The first stream in the woods

The large arable field that held the 30 Linnets

Furnace pond - the only ducks were hiding in the far corner under the trees

The pine belt was quiet - just one Goldcrest

Titchfield Haven , view over Posbrook Flood which held the Yellowlegs

This is why I could never take a phone shot through the scope ! -a laughable picture, so bad the yellow legs look red !

Wednesday 7th January - Iping

The weather remains grey and cold and there were some damp patches in the blustery, cloudy but mainly dry morning.

I went to Iping Common to see if I could find the Great Grey Shrike that's been present most of the Winter, the same bird I had a brief view of in November. Shrikes are enigmatic birds, both visually attractive and quirky in their behaviour. The Great Grey Shrike is a winter visitor in the UK, with normally three or four birds turning  up in the south to hold a wide ranging territory on a common or heath for the Winter but can be quite tricky to find.

Walking out from the car park 4 Lesser Redpoll flew over calling and a small group of 6 Reed Bunting were disturbed. As with many heather and gorse commons at this time of year there were virtually no birds, just dogwalkers. A Green Woodpecker was seen and then a Dartford Warbler made it's buzzy call before briefly popping up on top of a gorse bush before disappearing.

I'd  completed a circuit and ended up back in the Car Park with and met up with Colin and Mich, who I walked around with again, we saw another Dartford Warbler, then a pair of Stonechat and just when I was thinking of heading back to the car the Great Grey Shrike was seen on top of a distant birch in the far corner of the common. It flew about 100 yards, but no nearer and just as the scopes were lined up it flew again and headed south over the pines. Well, it was a marginal improvement on the November sighting but nice to be out on a fresh Tuesday morning.

Tuesday 6th January - Grey, grim, damp and Dusky

On hearing of a Dusky Warbler at Chichester gravel pits yesterday afternoon, I decided to try to see the bird this morning. Sunrise was scheduled for 8.04am - I always assume that the light is sufficient to start birding 15 minutes before official sunrise, but this morning at 8.15am when I was walking down the causeway it still felt dark under leaden skies and nothing was moving in the shadows.

Chi gravel pits are a place I normally drive straight past without a look - a decent lake complex that has turned up good birds and at the very least holds an number of waterfowl, so I'm not sure what it is but I just find the place unappealing to walk around and I'm not sure that the grey damp start today endeared me to the place any more.

Duck numbers were not large, a few Tufted Duck, Pochard, Shoveler, Wigeon and Gadwall,  plenty of Coot and Little Egret well into double figures. I walked down the main footpath to East Lake,  where the last sighting of the warbler had been yesterday and a few more people started to arrive. A further hour passed and the light was still poor . A Chiffchaff and 3 Kingfishers were of interest but it wasn't until around 9.30 that the bird was heard calling in a Bramble patch on the corner of East Lake. The bird called a couple of times then shot out of the bush and out of view.

After another 5 minutes waiting ,we walked further along the footpath at the south of the lake to the next bramble patch, where it called it's familiar loud 'chak' again. Over the next 45 minutes, views of the Dusky Warbler started as bits of the bird, (beak view, then supercilium view, then legs and tail,.. etc)  moving through the bramble undergrowth, eventually progressing to the whole bird as it popped out of cover momentarily on at least 3 occasions and then eventually moved to an open tree then some shrubs in the garden of a bungalow before disappearing again. It was active but very skulky - just as it should be. I didn't even manage to press the shutter down on the camera let alone have a number of pictures to filter out for a good one.

However, a nice bird to have on the list in the first week of the year.

Friday 2nd January - Selsey, Pagham and some woods.

Despite a warning that  I wasn't well enough to be going out - I did. Arriving at Selsey just before 8am . It was cloudy and a brisk W wind but dry and not as cold as previous days. The tide was high and the swell made for brief looks at the birds on the sea, but notched up 3 Great Northern Divers, 8 Red-throated Divers, several Gannet and Kittiwake, a Guillimot and a Razorbill, 3 Med Gulls, several Red-Breasted Merganser and 4 Wigeon.

News came through that the Tundra Bean Goose had just flown into the Ferry pool, so that was next on the agenda. The less common 'Grey' Geese are scarce in Sussex and Tundra Bean Geese are rarely recorded West of the Adur. There  was a very large number of birds on the Ferry fields at high tide with Lapwing , Black-tailed Godwit, Shoveler, Common Shelduck and a party of Canada Geese a couple of Greylag Geese , one of the two Ruddy Shelduck and in with the Brent Goose flock was the Tundra Bean Goose.

Church Norton was next. The sun had come through and the tide was at it's highest with all the birds at roost in the harbour. As I walked to the harbour from the Car Park a flock of 30 Barnacle Geese landed well to the west in the harbour. They had been first reported yesterday. Feral Barnacle Geese are far more common in the south than genuine wild birds, often in singles mixed with Canada or Greylags, the exception being a well established flock of c50 which has been present for a few years at Scotney on the Kent border, but it's unusual to have such a large feral flock. These birds were particularly skittish and an hour later after they had done a couple of laps of the harbour they flew out to sea and headed South along the coast quite noisily, so potentially wild candidates, but a delightful sight nonetheless.

I walked along the spit where the waders were roosting on the groynes in the harbour, plenty of Grey Plover , Knot and Dunlin with one or two Turnstone.  The sea was fairly quiet but a single Slavonian Grebe was there, a couple of Great Crested Grebes and another Great Northern Diver. As the tide turned, the waders started to leave their roosts and feed on the exposed mud, Curlew and Ringed Plover joined the other waders and Little Egret, Grey Heron around the channel edges, with Little Grebes, Pintail and a couple of Red-breasted Mergansers in the channels all overlooked by a Peregrine sitting on one of the islands, although there was no sign of the Spoonbill that had recently been present.

With the sun out it was nice being out, I was well wrapped up but still full of cold,  I had to be home by 2.30 to take Hannah out, but decided to call in at West Dean on the way.
There were a lot of birders around, first with the Little Owl who was posing out in the sun and more past Staple-Ash Farm looking for Hawfinches ( a bird that eluded me here on the last 3 visits) and as soon as I walked up to the bend 2 Hawfinches were feeding in the Hedgerow although they soon vanished, a Firecrest and Marsh Tit were also seen here and a little while later another Hawfinch was seen in the scope across the field feeding in  a Maple.

So a satisfying start birding to the New Year.

Wader roost at high tide

Redshank

Barnacle Geese

The flock of 30 Barnacle Geese heading out to sea.

1st January 2015 - Happy New Year !

With the nasty cold bug I'd had for a few days not relenting, I'd already decided that it would be impossible to venture outside today, which was helped by the weather being grim, grey, windy and damp - at least here in Fernhurst. So I was quite happy in the morning  sitting in my pyjamas looking out of the window and started the year with 21 garden species with some of the usual culprits making up the list.

A few Blackbirds, lots of Woodpigeon and our resident 2 Stock Doves - Already guarding their hole outside the kitchen in one of the big Oaks. Dunnock, Robin, Chaffinch, Blue Tit and Great Tit were the early arrivals around the feeders with the Pheasant and Jackdaws. A male Sparrowhawk shot through as it does daily and a Great Spotted Woodpecker was onto the nuts. A flock of Long-tailed Tits moved through stopping briefly to feed and the single Greenfinch also appeared. Nuthatch, Coal Tit, Song Thrush and Siskin were all singles and a few Redwings were still in the Ivy and the Goldfinch flock numbering about 20 made the odd visit from the Alders. The weather deteriorate, so the wet window made way for the TV.

Bed early as even though I haven't thrown the bug completely I'm sure I'll be OK to be out tomorrow !