Review of 2022

I have seriously contemplated not writing this post and leaving the blog altogether untouched and consigned to sinking slowly into the ether. I haven't written a post since January, along the way I just lost motivation to write anything given it was mostly for my own benefit in the form of a birding diary and I have been getting no enjoyment from tapping away on a keyboard.

That doesn't mean that 2022 was yet another uneventful year, or that plans were scuppered due to plagues or pestilence as the previous couple of years had been.

Indeed, I started the year with hope, having 'retired' from working completely in April 2021, this was the year I would get into my birding stride with a mixture of Sussex, UK and Overseas birding trips and that was the way the first 4 months unfolded.

An excellent 3 week trip to Senegal in January, followed by a whole month in Himalayan North-East India in April. The year changed a little in May with migrants of a different sort, when we brought into our home 5 Ukrainians under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, much time was spent helping them get grounded in the UK, which thankfully to report, they have successfully achieved and are still with us as they are safer here than the relative state of things back in their home city of Mykolayiv. With a trip planned in the autumn to Angola I was set for another birding flourish to the back end of the year, which changed again when I surprisingly agreed to an approach from an over-zealous investor, to work on a project for 9/12 months. Trip cancelled, birding on the back-burner and back in the zone when work takes up most waking hours and intrudes in the night with interrupted and restless sleep.

I still had a pretty good birding year and here is the summary.

January

Although I had a local Little Bunting and made several coastal visits in the first couple of weeks of the year, the slow start in Sussex was taken over by an excellent trip to Senegal with many highlights in the 340+ species seen, the most notable species being Quail Plover, Egyptian Plover, Golden Nightjar, Little Grey Woodpecker,  Saville's Bustard, Cricket Warbler, Scissor-tailed Kite, Sennar Penduline Tit and Mali Firefinch.

Golden Nightjar

Quail Plover

Saville's Bustard

Egyptian Plover

Scissor-tailed Kite

Red-throated Bee-eater

February

Returning from Senegal in the second week the other highlight for the month was a trip to East Sussex on the 10th to see an American Robin in Eastbourne along with a Hume's Warbler and Tundra Bean Geese, White-fronted and Pink-footed Geese on the way home.

American Robin

March

Some local birding gave displaying Goshawks and Woodlarks returning to the heathland, but at the end of the month I was keen to keep low to avoid picking up any bugs before the trip to India as I went to Northamptonshire to watch Han compete in a competition, with Sal out with Covid, the local gravel pit complex near where we were staying had a trio of Garganey and Jack Snipe. The highlight of the month was definitely the Bonaparte's Gull found at Chichester Gravel pits on the 22nd.

Bonaparte's Gull

April

A month dominated by an excellent Birdquest trip with Gary Howard to North East India.

So many highlights with over 430 species seen, a great experience and one of the best trips I have done. A small selection of pictures below as I have no idea whether I will ever write up the trip on here.

Golden-breasted Fulvetta

Blood Pheasant

Fire-tailed Myzornis

Bugun Liochicla

Grandala

Long-billed Wren-Babbler

Purple Cochoa

Himalayan Monal

Indochinese Roller

Rufous-necked Hornbill

Snow Partridge

Ward's Trogon

Indian One-horned Rhinoceros

May 

Arriving back from India at the end of the first week and with Spring in full swing. I  managed to time it right this year with the Pom season at Selsey, thinking I would have missed all the action whilst away, nothing had really happened until the 9th when it was a spectacular day with a total of 39 Pomarine Skua's seen including a flock of 12. Mid-month the local local Honey Buzzards returned and some time was spent trying to understand their movements and the other main event was the arrival of our Ukrainian family on the 12th, when much time spent helping them settle in.

12 Pom Skuas

European Honey Buzzard

June

The 1st saw me head to East Kent for great views of the Eleonora's Falcon hawking with several Hobbies and a Red-footed Falcon. The rest of the month was dominated by local bird surveys and the huge surprise of a pair of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers turning up in the garden and being seen intermittently over a week when they promptly vanished.

Eleonora's Falcon

Red-footed Falcon

July and August

Although continuing to observe Sussex Honey Buzzards, July was a quiet month for birds and included me being knocked out with Covid for 2 weeks, but it did allow for an increase in mothing. Early August saw a trip to Pagham deliver a smart Squacco Heron and Black Down showed that autumn migration was in swing with a large number of Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs and Spotted Flycatchers with a single Pied Flycatcher being the highlight and a couple of Wheatear. The month ended with a family trip to South Wales and also me working full-time again.

Squacco Heron

September

The early part of the month saw limited weekend trips to the coast, with migrating Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins in good numbers with a bonus Osprey and some Whinchat, Wheatear and lots of Yellow Wagtails.

The end of the month was  a pre-planned weekend to Spurn with Paul Bowley, despite the winds not being particularly favourable we had a good list of birds that included Wryneck, Barred Warbler, Yellow-browed Warbler, Snow Bunting, Sooty Shearwater, Short-eared Owl, Jack Snipe, Osprey and Merlin.

Osprey

Snow Bunting

October

With little time to do much birding other than locally at weekends, the month saw a good movement of thrushes with Black Down hosting up to 8 Ring Ouzels with over 200 of both Redwing and Fieldfare feasting on the berry crops, a larger Brambling flock of up to 50 birds and still hirundines moving in the early part of the month and a couple of Hawfinch sightings. 

Ring Ouzel

Brambling

November

The early part of November had a Great Grey Shrike on Black Down on the 12th, the first in about 5 years. A week later I saw 6 Hawfinches near the Furnace Pond and then on the 26th a trip to Selsey produced a Little Auk and 8 Little Gulls. The thrushes had started to disperse as the berry crops had been emptied.

Great Grey Shrike

December

And so to a very quiet last month of the year a spell of freezing weather mid-month did lead to 65 Lapwing resting down Vann Road and a post xmas walk had a flock of c20 Brambling and c200 Linnet near Lower House Farm.

Happy New Year and roll on 2023, hoping at least the second half of the year can be more bird-focused.

Wednesday 5th January - Local Bunting

With the first day of still bright cold skies for a couple of weeks, I started the morning at Black Down, for the first visit this year, it was really quiet, the total sum of birds was one Dartford Warbler and 2 Stonechat, not that unusual for this high Wealden heath in the midst of Winter, but I was hoping for a few Crossbills.

I then went to Iping to try and see the Little Bunting again. The view before Christmas was a little distant and on a grim day so I was hoping to catch it in a better light.

Like the last visit it took a while for any success, the small flock of Reed Buntings it has been associating with were not visible at all for 45 minutes, but eventually a few were seen alighting from the long grass they seem to favour. I positioned myself with the light behind me as the buntings entered a small birch copse. I then heard the Little Bunting call behind me, it flew into a nearby shrub for a minute or two before moving on with the other Reed Buntings and yes it was a better view than previously which I was happy about.

Stonechat

Little Bunting

Little Bunting

Little Bunting

Monday 3rd January - Windy Downs

Continuing my measured, steady start to the year, this morning I went to Burpham, arriving around 9.30am. The weather was grey and windy and even though not yet cold, there was a bite to the wind that wasn't there before today, signalling a cold change is on the way.

Parking by the pub in Burpham village, I walked across the field to view the valley towards Arundel and 6 adult Bewick Swans were visible. The Bewick herd has gradually diminished in recent years with not sufficient numbers of young birds to grow the population that frequents the Arun valley. There seem to be 11 birds in total this Winter that have been around the valley, the other group of 5 does have 2 juveniles, but had flown further East towards Steyning. Also visible in the distance were 5 Cattle Egrets near the mill pond stream in Arundel.

I walked up towards the Burgh, stopping briefly at the water treatment plant, where a Sparrowhawk shot through and 6 Chiffchaffs were in the bushes, all colybita.

I'd only seen a couple of Red Kite and Common Buzzard by the time I'd reached Peppering High Barn then I saw a ringtail Hen Harrier hunting a little further up the track in the game strip n the edge of the field, it stayed in the same area for a couple of minutes before drifting off out of view, a great sighting and I was pleased as I didn't see one in Sussex last winter. It wasn't until I reached the track to the dew pond until I saw the first Grey Partridge and a few Red-legged Partridge. A decent number of passerines were in the fields and hedges with c50 Skylark, a similar number of Chaffinch with Linnet, Yellowhammer, Goldfinch and a single Brambling. I was surprised that I only saw one Redwing and no other thrushes. A Firecrest was in the churchyard on the way back.

I called in briefly at Rackham overlooking the wildbrooks but viewing was difficult under darkening skies and directly into a  strengthening wind. Large numbers of Canada and Greylag Goose were on the marsh but I couldn't find any other Geese. 4 Marsh Harriers were hunting including a smart male. Wildfowl numbers looked good with a particularly large number of Pintail with the Wigeon, Shoveler and Teal and a good sized flock of Lapwing were present.

6 adult Bewicks (with a juv Mute Swan)

Ringtail Hen Harrier

Rintail Hen Harrier

Ringtail Hen Harrier

Ringtail Hen Harrier

female Yellowhammer

Saturday January 1st 2022 !! - A new start

Everything is reset, the slate is wiped clean and we go again. At least when your a birder that's exactly what you do and a New Year means a new list. I've not been driven by trying to achieve any particular total but just like to go out birding and see what birds I can. The weather is still set in a very mild, strong SSW airflow which has dispersed many birds and not displaced or brought in anything of particular note.

Today was a fairly leisurely pace. I started at Selsey Bill with a number of others, ticking off plenty of Red-throated Divers, Gannets, Kittiwakes, Red-breasted Mergansers, Common Scoter and both Razorbill and Guillemot, but the choppy waters made finding anything on the sea difficult and I failed to see a Great Northern Diver or Slavonian Grebe, but had the unexpected bonus of a close fly-by Red-necked Grebe, a bird I did not see at all last year.

The tide was at it's highest point around 10am and rather than go to Church Norton I went to Fishbourne Creek, and met up with Ian, who was doing a Peninsula New Years Day challenge trying to get 100 species. The high tide made for slightly more difficult viewing but a number of birds were added with highlights being a Sandwich Tern, 4 Goldeneye, Spotted Redshank and 5 Greenshank, Rock Pipit and Cetti's Warbler.

The last stop for me was at the North Wall of Pagham Harbour, although the strong breeze made viewing a bit more challenging. A large flock of Golden Plover was the stand out of the common waders, a Marsh Harrier over the reeds the large flocks of Brent Geese, a Chiffchaff and Stonechat were the other limited highlights, returning home there was enough light to add both Green and Great Spotted Woodpecker. A slow-paced 70 Species for me on the day, but it was good to be out.

Red-breasted Merganser

Turnstone

Sandwich Tern

Brent Geese