Sunday 25th August - Medmerry

I met Paul Bowley at the Easton Lane car park at 7am for a stroll around Medmerry on one of the very hot days this weekend. Whitethroats and Blackcaps greeted us in the field hedges and were joined by hawking Willow Warblers breakfasting on small swarms of flies above the hedgerow.

One large bramble clump had the most interesting birds of the morning with 2 Whinchat a Stonechat up to a dozen Whitethroat and a Lesser Whitethroat.

We slowly ambled down the track towards the stilt pool with half a dozen Yellowhammer, some Linnet and a small group of young House Sparrows. 3 or 4 Yellow Wagtails flew over and a steady stream of Swallows with a few House Martin and Sand Martin were heading south.

The pools had 2 Greenshank, a Common Sandpiper, an Avocet and a couple of Lapwing, some moulting Teal, Gadwall and more surprisingly 2 Wigeon... and hundreds of unwelcome Canada Geese.

A quick look over the sea yielded little other than a distant Gannet and more hirundines, we reversed our steps, commenting that it was surprising there was not a Wheatear to be seen, that was until we reached the Whinchat bush, behind which there was a significant amount of bunded earth where they appear to be building 2 reservoirs and there was no less than 8 Wheatears on the mounded earth.

We went to Church Norton in the hope of finding some passerines in the bushes around the churchyard, we could only conjure up 2 Spotted Flycatchers with a flyover Hobby, the tide was out in the harbour so a single Greenshank a Common Sandpiper and a few Sandwich Terns were slim pickings and by 11 am it was very hot so I was happy for a slow journey home in an air-conditioned car in anticipation of watching the end of the cricket.... 6 hours later what a finish !!!!

Monday 26th August - Blackdown bonanza

A settled period of hot dry weather has got the birds moving south, clear skies can result in the birds not  hanging around and moving straight through, although it does appear difficult to predict when birds might clear through. So after another clear night I wasn't hugely optimistic when arriving on Blackdown early, but soon the amount of flies that had already tried to attack my ankles suggested there was a good food source today and the first 2 Spotted Flycatchers by the entrance track were an early positive sign which started an excellent haul of migrants.

I spent nearly 2 hours slowly working through the areas of scattered pines and small bushes accumulating good totals with at least 16 Spotted Flycatcher, 8 Tree Pipit, 3 Redstart, 1 Garden Warbler, 5 Common Whitethroat, c20 Willow Warbler, 15 Chiffchaff and perhaps most unusual for Blackdown a Lesser Whitethroat, there was enough to suggest there might be something more interesting around.

Whilst scanning through a group of Spotted Flycatchers the excitement increased when I had a brief view of a Pied Flycatcher. It frustratingly disappeared and I was left for 20 minutes scanning through a mixed flock of Spotted Flycatchers, Willow Warbler, Redstart and Whitethroat, before I later found it on the southern spur, where there was at least another 8 Spotted Flycatchers. I messaged Dave Burges , who had just arrived on site and we scanned the same area for around half an hour but seemingly with no luck. Other than the many Spotted Flycatchers, a passing Hobby, a Raven and 6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls were the only offering and just as I was thinking that Dave might miss the Pied Flycatcher, it appeared again in  a birch tree and gave sufficient views before it melted back into the pine canopy. 

We walked slowly back along the reservoir track and were discussing what other migrants may appear in the next few days when we were both stunned by a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker flew into a Rowan, spending a minute working quickly through the tree before flying on, an increasingly scarce bird in this part of Sussex, we guessed this must be a dispersing bird. Then Dave found a Whinchat close to the track, which is another migrant which rarely appears here. By the time I left around 11.30 it was hot and sunny and even though no raptors were up it had been a great morning. There was hardly thought to the resident birds such as Stonechats and Dartford Warbler, Bullfinch, Linnet and Siskin and both Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, making it a 3 Woodpecker day.

Lesser Whitethroat - a Blackdown rarity

Chiffchaff

Spotted Flycatcher - one of many

Spotted Flycatcher

Spotted Flycatcher

P

Pied Flycatcher

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Wednesday 21st August - Autumn Migrants

We had a week away in southern Italy (Puglia region) , which was a great family holiday, but not much in the way of birds - Serin, Sardinian Warbler, Italian Sparrow, Zitting Cisticola were probably the highlights.

Last week was cool wet and windy, and there was very little to report in between showers and a trip to Dusseldorf.

On Tuesday 20th I visited Blackdown, it was still quite windy and there was actually very little to report other than 1 brief sighting of a Spotted Flycatcher and  2 or 3 Willow/ Chiffs.

Wednesday was completely different with a slight increase in the temperature and a slight drop in the wind firstly meant there were flies everywhere and in turn this seemed to result in birds everywhere, with fairly impressive migrant highlights below.

12+ Spotted Flycatchers,
12+ (maybe updwards of 15) Tree Pipit
Redstart 2 or 3
Chiffchaff 25+
Willow Warbler 15+
Whitethroat 5
Blackcap 2
Woodlark 1

There was also a good display from successful Stonechat families, with Siskin and Linnets also parading young birds.

Heather is blooming on Blackdown

Spotted Flycatcher

Spotted Flycatcher

Spotted Flycatcher

young Siskin

Stonechats

Stonechat

Willow Warbler

Roe Deer