I'm fairly lucky to leave in a part of the world where there are small patches of Wealden Heath. With Black Down the closest, also being the highest point in Sussex at 280m. Not a huge area, but typically with a mixture of Gorse, Heather and Bilberry groundcover and mostly Scots Pine with Birch encroachment, surrounded by deciduous woods.
On Tuesday I went there for my first evening / dusk visit of the year and managed to see at least 3 different roding Woodcock and heard up to 5 churring Nightjar with one individual perched in the crepuscular light. This was only in the Northern half and so would expect higher numbers are on the whole site.
Unusually on Thursday, I left the comfort zone of West Sussex and headed to the Ashdown Forest to meet Gary and Barry. The habitat is very similar, although Ashdown is in the High Weald (rather than the North West Weald) and is largely Sandstone based.
The specialist species also are very similar and we found good numbers of the main species. We started at Old Lodeg, then spent some time watching from Hindleap, with a final session from the habitat at the Long Car Park. We saw several Woodlark and Redstart were in good numbers. We had at least 2 Tree Pipit at old Lodge, which are now absent from Black Down. We also saw Stonechat, Dartford Warbler, Crossbill, Siskin, Willow Warbler and several Linnet. A Cuckoo was only heard and despite an extensive search our watch of the skies only produced a few Common Buzzard, Red Kite and a Sparrowhawk.
An enjoyable day nonetheless.
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| Roding Woodcock |
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| Common Redstart |
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| Dartford Warbler |
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| Dartford Warbler |
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