Paul Matson's Birding Blog: Saturday 24th January

Sunday, 1 February 2015

Saturday 24th January - Winter in West Sussex

With a cold bright day on the cards, Gary and I decided that we would visit a variety of sites in West Sussex with little to tempt us further afield.

We started the day at East Head, West Wittering (twinned with Battersea Dogs Home) seeing an early Red Kite on the drive over the downs near Cocking. On arrival we walked to view Snowhill Marsh in bright winter sunshine, with Brent Geese continually arriving from their overnight mudflat roost to feed on the fields near the car park. A Spotted Redshank was the first bird seen on the marsh which quickly departed calling. We then found the 3 Spoonbill at roost looking particularly cold, probably wondering how long it would take to get to the South of France. A couple of Greenshank were also in the small creek before moving to the marsh as did a Kingfisher. Other waders on the mud flats included Black-tailed Godwit, Grey Plover, Golden Plover, Dunlin, Redshank and Curlew. A Stonechat was moving along the fence line so after a promising start to the day we decided to walk around East Head accompanied by various hounds, only adding Skylark and Meadow Pipit with 2 Red-breasted Mergansers being all on offer on the water. I still think East Head and Snowhill Marsh is such a promising site for birds if it weren't for the dogs, which inevitably scare off much of the birdlife and birders.

We then drove to Church Norton, stopping briefly at the Ferry Pool en-route, where a number of Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwit, Shelduck, Wigeon and a few Snipe were feeding mainly in the fields. The tide was well out at Church Norton although a good gathering of common waders were on the exposed mud occasionally being shifted by a pair of marauding Peregrine. We walked to the beach and scanned the see at first struggling to find anything at all but eventually picking up a Great Northern Diver in flight then distantly 2 Slavonian Grebes.

Our next stop was back inland to West Dean Woods and a sandwich, we saw another 2 Red Kites as we approached the area. Hawfinches in winter are more traditionally found in late afternoon at pre-roost gathering sites, so it always feels a little odd looking for them just after midday, but the birds in this area seem to frequent a particular paddock surrounded by a mixture of tall trees, which conveniently is on a bend in the narrow road with enough verge to stand with scopes, and can be seen at any time of day. It obviously has the potential to be a long wait and I've called in here many times and blanked but we were only there 5 minutes when a group of 6 Hawfinches flew into the top of an Oak, 3 were seen well in the scope before they disappeared. We waited a while longer and had a short walk around adding Marsh Tit but then with the afternoon progressing we decided to move on, firstly finding the Little Owl in it's favoured tree on the way out.

Next to Littlehampton to see the Kumlien's Gull (returning bird from last winter) as soon as we got out of the car the Kumlien's Gull flew over and went the other side of the harbour mouth, we couldn't find it for the next 30 minutes so walked to the sea where a group of Turnstones and Sanderling were feeding on the shore with another 2 Stonechat nearby. The Gull had obviously doubled-back and was re-found perched up river on the harbour wall, we then had 20 minutes very satisfactory views in good light, before deciding to leave in order to visit another site before we lost the light for the day.

We finished the day at Burpham, where we scanned over the downs from the viewpoint at the Triangle, seeing 3 Short-Eared Owls, plenty of Common Buzzards, Kestrel, 2 Ravens, Grey Partridge and Red Legged Partridge before the light went. So a really good list of birds for the day and notably we didn't see any Winter Thrushes.