Sunday 28th January - Winter Continues

The weather is typical of this time of year, grey, often wet and not very warm, and therefore dark, the camera has remained mostly under wraps.

A couple of trips out in the last week or so, firstly to Pulborough Brooks, where a Hawfinch was scoped sitting at the top of an Ash tree slightly distant on the trail to the hides, but  all the action was on the North Brooks, where c 700 Black-tailed Godwits roosting in a tight flock created quite a spectacle when they were sent up and wheeling by something unseen that spooked them. A similar number of Lapwings were scattered across the brooks continuously calling, with 5 Dunlin, 1 Snipe, 1 Golden Plover and the long-staying Temmincks Stint, visible at a fair distance from the Hangar. Plenty of wildfowl, Pintail, Wigeon, Teal, Shelduck  and Shoveler. On moving to the South Brooks and the Winpenny hide there were much fewer birds and then the rain started, I headed back to the visitor centre and after a quick coffee and bacon sandwich I went to Rackham viewpoint looking at the Wildbrooks from a different angle, thousands of duck, all the same species as previously, and more Lapwing filled the area and hundreds of Canada Geese. Common Buzzard, 2 Red Kite and a single Marsh Harrier were keeping the birds occupied. My last stop was at Coldwatham sewage works, it was fairly gloomy but, 10+ Chiffchaff were around the Sallows, all seemingly standard drab Colybita , Long-tailed Tit, Goldcrest and Pied Wagtail were the only other birds here.

Saturday morning found me at Selsey, it looked dry until mid morning when a weather front was due to move through. There were 13 Slavonian Grebes on the sea early and a couple of hours of fairly standard fair but not bad Winter  birds, 2 Great Northern Divers , 6 Red-Throated Diver, 2 Fulmar, 16 Common Scoter, 2 Shag,  several Kittiwake, Gannet , 1 Razorbil, 1 Guillemot and more distant Auks , and 4 Sandwich Tern, which now seem to be fairly regular Winter stayers. It briefly brightened when I called in to Church Norton, the tide was falling. The long-staying Whimbrel was in the normal spot and the harbour held good numbers of Dunlin, Grey Plover and a few Knot, with lower numbers of Curlew, Bar-tailed Godwit, Ringed Plover and Turnstone. Distantly, a large Lapwing flock took to the air with around 200 Golden Plover. One of the local Peregrines being responsible, flew back from a kill and  joined its mate on the island. I walked along the spit to the end, where several Skylarks were moving around, where the harbour had 4 Goldeneye, a single Eider and a few Red-breasted Merganser  and 2 Common Seals, but no sign of the Red-necked Grebe or Goosander. The wind and rain started on the return walk and heading home was the best option.

Garden Birdwatch was this weekend so I did my hour today, 29 Species recorded, seemed quieter than of late but surprisingly a higher total than last year, although it did include a flyover Cormorant. Otherwise, more Goldfinches and Redpoll, less Chaffinch and Siskin, and the Redwing flock was in the field. Last weekend one the of the Redpolls on the feeder looked suspiciously like a Mealy Redpoll, but it stayed on the furthest feeder from the house and the weather was foul, so looking through the scope through wet glass and trying to take a picture with my phone was only going to yield poor results as shown below, the individual was larger and greyer than the Lessers with a bull-neck type appearance. However, it wasn't around this weekend and I definitely needed a cleaner look before clinching it.

Birdwatch Results

                       2018              2017                  2016

Buzzard               1                   -                         1

Pheasant               7                  9                        1

Jackdaw                2                  5                       12

Magpie                 2                  1                         1

Raven                   -                   -                         1

Woodpigeon         6                  3                        3

Stock Dove           2                  3                        3

Blackbird             5                 10                       8

Song Thrush         -                   2                        2

Robin                    2                  3                        1

Dunnock               4                  1                        1

Wren                     -                   -                        1

Blue Tit                 2                  3                       5

Great Tit                4                  2                       2

Coal Tit                 2                  1                       2

Marsh Tit              1                  1                       1

Long-tailed Tit      5                  1                       2

Chaffinch              6                14                   16

Goldfinch              18                6                       8

Siskin                    2                  5                     20

Greenfinch            3                  1                       5

Brambling             3                  1                       3

Bullfinch               1                  1                       1

Redpoll                  6                  -                       4

Nuthatch                2                  2                      2

Starling                  5                  4                      1

GS Woodpecker     1                 1                     -

Carrion Crow         4                  2                      -

Goldcrest               -                   1                      -

Pied Wagtail          -                   1                      -

House Sparrow      -                   1                      -

Green Woodpecker 1                 -                      -

Jay                           1                 -                      -

Redwing                 37                -                      -

Cormorant               1                 -                      -

Species Total       29               27                   26

wintering Chiffchaff at Coldwatham

lone Whimbrel spending its winter at Church Norton

Pied Wagtail at home

Redpolls and Goldfinch

Another Brambling picture

A happy sign.. Snowdrops by the Chicken pen

A phone-scoped shot through wet glass of an interesting Redpoll on the left (normal Lesser Redpoll on right).

...and again top right

Saturday 13th January - Birdrace

Each year the Sussex Ornitholigical Society invites teams to enter a Birdrace and to raise funds which go towards conservation projects. The idea being to record as many species as possible in a 24 hour period in the first 2 weeks of January.

I had not taken part before, but suggested to Dave Burges that we give it a go, so we entered a team and and added Craig Welsby as our third member. Our team name, the West Weald Wanderers, arrived at after little thought on the basis that this was the area we intended to cover. Many teams go all out to see as many species in the county as possible taking in as many sites both coastal and inland and get reasonably high totals in excess of 100 birds. That was never going to be us. We restricted our viewing area to the West Weald in the North West of Sussex, which limited our area to just West of Milland near the Hampshire border to Blackdown further East near the Surrey border and only South as far as Woolbeeding Common. The only water in the area is restricted to a couple of small  ponds so there were entire families of birds which would be out of our reach, The 'wandering' therefore would be restricted to the West Weald or over it, on it and what felt like under it in the muddier parts. We were not going to win any prizes for species totals, although somehow we hoped to avoid the wooden spoon, but the area can have some more specialised birds (Woodlark, Dartford Warbler, Crossbill, Goshawk etc) which were going to be a challenge to find as they were not necessarily holding territories yet.

The weather would be an important part, over the last week it has been unpredictable and at times windy, occasionally wet and often with poor visibility, As it turned out the weather was ok. It was at least dry, but did not brighten at all during the day with mostly leaden skies and the visibility was only moderate, the wind was not too strong but did have a bite with temperatures probably around 3c.

We met up in the car park in Fernhurst around 7.10 with a Robin singing away. we drove in the dark down Vann Road an pulled in before Elmers Marsh and added both Tawny Owl and Song Thrush both in full voice. We continued towards Milland and the first bit of real luck, a Barn Owl sitting on top of a road sign. This was only an outside chance as neither Dave or I knew of local site for them. We stopped on the road around Trotton Marsh and picked up Blackbird, Carrion Crow and Buzzard, just as a hint of daylight was appearing. Next stop was Coombe Pond, where Mallard, Mandarin, Moorhen, Grey Heron and Cormorant were the new birds on the pond and walking through the woods there until we could view the fields at the back also gave us Redpoll, Siskin, Redwing and Marsh Tit, so a satisfying start given it was only 8.30.

We returned to view the fields over Trotton Marsh and struck lucky with a pair of Raven, singing Mistle Thrush and a couple of Meadow Pipit, although I spotted a distant Skylark songflighting but it had plummeted to the ground before the others could get onto it and we had already decided we probably needed to do a long walk circuit of these fields.

A very quick look over Cook's Pond held absolutely nothing before we parked up and headed out over Trotton Marsh. A House Sparrow by the start of the footpath and then a flyover Yellowhammer, with Rooks and Jackdaws soon followed by Kestrel, Linnet and Goldfinch. We then heard a brief but distant Woodlark, but couldn't get Craig onto the call so we continued to the highest point overlooking the fields and failed to find a Skylark which was a little irritating only adding Coal Tit and Long-tailed Tit. Our return route passed the farm buildings and then we found a flock of Fieldfare with some Redwing more Yellowhammer and thankfully 2 Skylark and in the fields beyond not only calling but a full singing Woodlark , so we left the area with complete list of what we'd hoped to see and were now up to 45 approaching 11.30.

We drove back through Milland picking up Feral Pigeon and Collared Dove and banked the field full of Little Egrets which were duly in place (all 19 of them) along with 2 Black-headed Gulls and a Pied Wagtail, we were up to 50, so steady and muddy.

The next stop was Woolbeeding Common with the hope of maybe picking up a Reed Bunting on the common and maybe a raptor or 2 from the ridge,(Sparrowhawk and Red Kite were the main possibilities)  but the tramp round the common didn't yield a single bird of any description and the 30 minutes watching the ridge was equally disappointing with no new species, just a Buzzard and a Mistle Thrush, the weather hadn't really brightened up and the cloud was still thick and low.
We parked up near the candle factory and walked towards the Furnace Pond, with an immediate improvement as we bagged a Dunnock, which incredibly until now had avoided us, Treecreeper, Teal, Coot and Goldcrest. We walked to the place I'd seen Hawfinch the previous week but there was no sign, however at the edge of the field an explosion of Woodpigeons and a couple of Crows going mad alerted us and as male Goshawk flew through being chased by the crows at the level of the tree line., definitely the best bird of the day.

We did note at that point that the Goshawk was great but we still hadn't seen a Sparrowhawk yet and it eluded us all day. I knew that at home I could hopefully get a Brambling although we weren't going to give it more than 15 minutes, and surely enough there were a couple on the feeders along with Greenfinch. Dave also picked up 2 distant Herring Gulls which I managed to see but Craig didn't before they disappeared behind the trees.
Approaching 1.45pm we decided to chance a look at the tiny treatment plant just on the main road in Fernhurst, not really knowing if we could get a view, but we needed somewhere to try for Grey Wagtail. Sure enough through the fence, a Grey Wagtail was perched on top of one of the 2 settling beds. There was also a decent flock of Crests and immediately I saw a Firecrest, but it melted away before I could get the others onto it, we searched in the vain hope of finding a wintering Chiffchaff but were out of luck.

Then onto Blackdown, which was our last destination but with some important targets being mainly Dartford Warbler and Stonechat, which we knew were on the site but maybe a chance of Crossbill and maybe a late Woodcock. It turned out that the Crossbills were the easiest as Matt was already there and had 4 in a pine when we found him. The Stonechats eventually gave themselves  up then at last we heard the brief sound of a Dartford Warbler, but it turned out that Dave was tying his shoelace when it called, it was a further 30 minutes before we found another one as the light was fading, we hung around for a further 20 minutes until dusk with only a few Meadow Pipits seemingly going to roost but no woodcock to finish the day. 

We finished with a team total of 63, there were 2 more species Firecrest and Herring Gull seen but not by all which didn't make the list. Given the restricted locality and time of year the list was respectable enough, maybe we will try again in Spring to see the difference !

Tuesday 2nd Jan - New Year starts

A standing start rather than out of the blocks on the 1st, mainly due to a 2am finish on Sunday. The first hour of the day I watched garden birds, although there was a 15 minute spell where they all vanished when a Sparrowhawk marauded through the feeders, with feathers flying it was ultimately unsuccessful but sat grumpily in a nearby tree which meant all the birds kept away. However, a normal crowd were still present with 3 Brambling, 2 Redpoll, 8 Greenfinch, 5 Siskin and around 20 each of Goldfinch and Chaffinch, kept the activity levels high, the only bird I hadn't seen in a while was a Goldcrest that passed quietly through the hedge. About 9.30 the rain set in and it was heavy until around 2pm when it brightened up, at that point I went for a walk, down the lane and into the woods, although thigh-length waders and a small canoe would have been an advantage as the tracks are now so muddy that keeping upright on any small incline is a challenge. The Redwing flock of c100 birds was still in the fields and I found a couple of Mandarin at the back of the Furnace pond with some Mallard but the highlight of the walk was a single Hawfinch that sat high in an Oak in the same place as I'd seen a bird a few weeks ago. I finished the day with 40 species, which is pretty good for Winter in this area.

Today was an extra days holiday from work, so I had already decided to have the day birding. The weather was awful. From around 9am through to 3pm it was wet, windy with poor visibility.

I did start early at Selsey, just before 8am, and even though there was less moving than a week ago the list was ok, with Red-throated Diver, Great Northen Diver and Slavonian Grebe all recorded, a few Common Scoter a couple of Kittiwake and one each of Razorbill and Guillemot, a Rock Pipit also landed on the beach. After the rain had started I relocated to Church Norton, the tide was almost high when I was there and the rain got heavier so I sat in the hide for an hour before the waders had moved off completely to roost. The long-staying Whimbrel was outside the hide and reasonable numbers of common waders were moving with the tide, 300 Dunlin, 150 Knot, 50 Grey Plover and a dozen each of Turnstone, Bar-tailed Godwit, Ringed Plover, Curlew and Redshank. A few Little Grebes were in the harbour with some Wigeon  and Teal and around 350 Brent Geese gradually moved out of the harbour, presumably to feed in nearby fields. 2 Peregrine were hunting at one point before relocating to their island. A brief stop at the Ferry produced very little and I also stopped briefly at Ivy lake, where a few Tufted Duck, Shoveler, Pochard and Gadwall were seen, but all common fayre. I went to Pulborough in deteriorating weather, which ultimately wasn't great as the rain was persistent with very poor visibility. The brooks were pretty full of water and there were a good number of Lapwing , around 100 Black-tailed Godwits and a few Snipe amongst the wintering waterfowl, but it was all a little hard work so I left around 3.30, when it seemed almost too dark anyway.