Tuesday 21st August - Quiet in the weald

 I'm always hopeful at this time of year to go to Black Down with the expectation that there might be one of the scarcer migrants pitching in. I trudged around this morning without a sniff of anything and was returning to the car after 90 minutes when only a Chiffchaff and a Whitethroat had made it to the list. Then the last part of the reservoir track gave me a brief view of a Whinchat, which is always a good bird to see and not a common bird in this part of the county, I searched around to get better views but it had simply disappeared but it made up for what otherwise would have been a very quiet morning.

Common Whitethroat

Chiffchaff

Whinchat

Monday 19th August - Good autumn birding

 The weather for Monday was quiet calm first thing and I thought this might make a change to birding on the coast so I went early to Selsey starting birding at 6am and I was the only one there for over an hour. When I got out of the car a Yellow Wagtail was flying around calling and a few House Martins were above the field. A very large gull flock had congregated offshore in the hundreds and mostly Herring Gulls and Black-headed Gulls with around 30 Mediterranean Gulls, but at the back of the flock there were 4 Common Terns plus a single Black Tern. I heard then saw a Tree Pipit head over and a little while later 4 together calling before heading out to sea. The hirundine flock built up with mainly House Martins but also a few Sand Martin, Swallow and 2 Swift.  A Little Tern was seen offshore and other additions were Sparrowhawk, Sanderling, Fulmar, Shag and a Wheatear. It turned into a fairly productive session. Into Church Norton and a flurry of activity in the churchyard produced 5 more Tree Pipit and singles of Common Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler, Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff and a very brief Spotted Flycatcher. There was little showing behind the hide but a report of an Osprey in the harbour had us walking down the West side path, where the Osprey had taken off from its sitting position and was fishing in the channels in the harbour. I went to Sidlesham, where the small marsh in Mill Lane had just the right amount of mud for waders which included a Wood Sandpiper, 5 Green Sandpipers, Greenshank and a Black-tailed Godwit.

I finished at the Ferry Pool, where the Semipalmated Sandpiper was visible at the far end.

Wheatear

Sparrowhawk

Tree Pipit

Lesser Whitethroat

Osprey

Wood Sandpiper

distant Semipalmated Sandpiper

Sunday 18th August - August movements.

So I missed out July, nothing really happened from a birding point of view. The doldrums of birding at the end of June to at least mid-Jul, where breeding birds have gone quiet and only at the end of that period do they start to move away from their breeding areas. A time spent with a bit of mothing, a visit to the Birdfair and some local raptor watching.

It always changes for me when the calendar clicks over to August. Which is when birds start to move into flocks and head south. The last of the local Swifts was seen on the 1st and subsequent days have seen a couple of Hobbies , 10+ Swallow and House Martin but only one or two Chiffchaff. An improvement on the 4th I saw my first autumn Willow Warbler at home with brief Common Whitethroat which I rarely see here. Young Great Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Nuthatch and Treecreeper have all been present.

I went down to Pagham on the 8th and spent a couple of hours at Church Norton at a low tide looking for a Semipalmated Sandpiper. To start there was no sign from the benches, just a large number of Ringed Plover with a small number of Dunlin.  There was a report from further along the West side of the harbour so a few of us walked down the channel where we finally picked up the Semipalmated Sandpiper with a larger Dunlin flock, even though a little distant we were able to watch the bird for quite a while.

On the 10th I went up to Black Down, hoping for some migrants, but it was so quiet. I did see 2 Tree Pipits which moved South calling but 2 Crossbills were the only other birds of interest.

By the 14th at home there was a lot of activity with an early movement of 26 House Martins heading south, a large Tit flock that must have been in excess of 100 birds, mostly Blue Tits with a few Great Tits and a lingering Marsh Tit. Hanging with them were 2 Willow Warblers, a Firecrest and a Spotted Flycatcher and a flock of c40 Goldfinch were dropping into the orchard field to feed on thistle heads.

The 15th saw another visit to the coast, firstly a seawatch at a breezy Selsey, in fairly unpromising conditions had little to report with the exception of a single dark phase Arctic Skua. A visit to Church Norton again produced the Semipalmated Sandpiper with Common Sandpiper there and then at the Ferry Pool a Little Stint and a Green Sandpiper. 

I tried Black Down again on the 18th and there were more warblers present with around 10 each of Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs I did manage to see 3 Spotted Flycatchers and heard another Tree Pipit but despite these promising totals it was actually still quiet. At home I saw 2 Spotted Flycatchers together making this early autumn the most sightings I've ever had of Spotted Flycatchers at home.

Spotted Flycatcher at home

Sparrowhawk

Turnstone

Arctic Skua

Whimbrel

Spotted Flycatcher on Black Down

Spotted Flycatcher at home

Sunday 30th June - The rest of May and June

 A brief update on a period when I was away for c 4 weeks, both to Portugal and Alaska, the trips have been written up so this is the infill.

I only had 3 days between returning from Portugal before flying to Alaska and one of those was a pre-arranged 'birding' walk for the SOS on Black Down on the 26th May. Nothing unusual was seen, but despite breezy conditions that turned a little damp in the afternoon most of the regular species put in an appearance with a few Crossbills co-operating and eventually a male Redstart was glimpsed.

Once returning from Alaska on the 10th June, I was out in Sussex on the 13th, heading down to Pulborough Brooks, where a Savi's Warbler was singing out in the North Brooks. It was tricky to view and was heard more than seen but a couple of brief scope views were satisfactory enough. Sedge, Reed Warbler and Common Whitethroat were very visible and a croaking Nightingale remained hidden.

On Sunday 16th I ventured down to Shoreham, or more precisely Portslade and walked up into the Downland area where a real rarity for Sussex had been found when I was away in the form of a Cirl Bunting. Back in the 1960's and 70's it was still a breeding bird in the county, but vanished from most of southern England throughout the 80's and 90's but kept a small stronghold in the South Hams area in Devon. More recently there have been attempts to protect and increase the population there and it has more recently been seen to spread into Dorset. So a stunning male bird in full song in Sussex was a rarity and something to behold. There was no one else there when I turned up but I soon found the bird singing and actively defending its territory or more likely just desperate to find a mate. Also there was Yellowhammer, Whitethroat and a Hobby flew over.

A rare catch up with Gary Howard on the 19th June, saw us trying Pulborough Brooks again, although the Savi's Warbler had obviously departed we managed to find 6 Little-ringed Plovers along with 5 Ringed Plover and a Green Sandpiper on the North Brooks. A Cuckoo was over the far banks and 4 Cattle Egrets were in with the cows. We made our way over to Woolbeding Common where a couple of hours from the viewpoint produced 3 male Honey Buzzards and a Peregrine, whilst a walk around the common had still singing Tree Pipits and Woodlark and a Spotted Flycatcher was in the woodland edge. A further stop the other side of Fernhurst added a distant Hobby and Red Kites.

Bird Surveys on Black Down included a good Nightjar count of between 11-13 churring males and probably 6 different Woodcock. Other than that a few moth evenings were relatively productive towards the end of the month when the weather warmed a little.

Sedge Warbler

First view of a Sussex Cirl Bunting

singing male Cirl Bunting

Cirl Bunting

Tree Pipit

Tree Pipit

Tree Pipit

Spotted Flycatcher