PB re-visited

Been a while since I have been to Pulborough Brooks, but decided to give this a bash this morning especially as the sun was trying to make an appearance for the first time in which felt a very long time! Such has been my elusiveness from this site I was asked for my RSPB membership upon arrival and was greeted by Russ who joined us along the trail to the north brooks, proved to be a good choice as between us, we managed to see the Spoonbill depart southwards distantly, as we approached the hangar, well spotted Russ!, the north brooks held good numbers of wildfowl including Pintail, whilst moving around to Winpenny a single Chiff Chaff was feeding on the deck in the cattle field. Good number of Ruff were seen at Winpenny aswell as Snipe, a couple of Dunlin and Black-tailed Godwit. We saw 2 Little-ringed Plovers from Westmead and good number of Fieldfare and Redwing were still around. Good company around the reserve, I have missed this place!

One of the good number of Ruff

Fieldfare still around in good numbers

Distant record shots of Little-ringed Plovers



Goring Delight!

The bitter easterlies enabled me to bird from the comfort of my car today, and made a good choice with a good hour plus lost at Goring gap, where birds dropped into roost throughout my stay, Sandwich Terns were roosting with the regular gull flock, initially counting 26, they were gradually joined by more with the most I counted was 48. 3 Wheatears were found nearby sheltering out of the wind, 2 males and a female, whilst the gull flock contained at least 6 Med Gulls including a smart looking 1st winter bird. I had to leave for work as more birds were arriving so I would think that the Sandwich Tern roost would increase in number, according to Clive Hope , this could be a site record for roosting Sandwich Terns especially in spring!

Here you can see 2 adult Med Gulls along with a 1st winter with the Sandwich Terns

First Wheatears of the year

Sandwich Terns coming into roost



A Moth in March

Whilst cooking dinner, Jo noticed a moth doing it's best to scramble up our window...I potted it and this is the result........

 

 

 

Lesser Yellow Underwing

 

Thanks to all on the Widerscope facebook page for your comments, also to Glen, as you mentioned a moth id book really would be a welcome wedding present! This moth really shouldn't be on the wing at this time of year so perhaps it fell out of my wallet or something!! Either way a stunning moth and kinda feel guilty for releasing it into the cold..maybe it will make a hearty meal for a migrating Wheatear!





Patching Pond

The pair of Great-crested Grebes have started building their nest..hopefully the cold weather doesn't hamper their breeding attempt, 3 chicks were raised last year here. 3 Tufted Duck emerged but the 2 drake Pochard seem to have departed!



Local stuff!

Spent the last few mornings strolling a few local sites, very little to suggest that spring was on it's way, on Monday (18th March) gave Climping a good search and produced very little, normally a good spot for Wheatear but none found today, several Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipit's in off and Skylark's singing gave some hope of something to be found, 12 Sanderling were probably the pick of the bunch. A quick check at Goring produced a female Stonechat, not seen one here all winter so maybe a migrant? 6 Siskin's were also found in a housing estate in Angmering whilst dropping Jo off to work, not sure what it is called but it's the new estate near Worthing Rugby club?

 

The following day at Shoreham and Widewater was equally disappointing, small numbers of Meadow Pipit's arriving again raised hopes of finding some grounded passerines, not helped with the gravel extraction work taking place at Shoreham Fort at the moment.

 



A better mornings birding was had at Brooklands Park on the 20th, the weather had a wintry feel about it and so did the birding! A large gathering of Black-headed Gulls amounted to 104 birds roosting on the green, 3 Redwings and a Brambling at the north end of the park were un-expected but welcome finds, 2 Little Grebes were extremley tame in the sluice channel, some good habitat here, just wonder how often it is watched especially early morning? Moving onto Widewater, 5 Teal were on the east lagoon aswell as 2 Redshank and a Little Egret, offshore a hours sea-watch produced my first Sandwich Tern's of the year, both singles heading east as were Brent Geese, 104 counted in 4 seperate flocks, also noted was a small passage east of Common and Black-headed Gulls whilst at least 3 Great-crested Grebes were offshore..alas..no Wheatears

 

 

 

 

 

 



Ringed Black-headed Gull R3

Danny 'the Pirate' was visiting from Cornwall (17th) as our respective partners were on a Hen weekend in Brighton! We headed out with Shoreham being the first destination, but the strong southerlies and heavy showers were too much for our little girls so retreated to Widewater where we fared better, feeding the gulls with yesterdays left overs! Amongst the gulls, I noticed the chap below fly in, I am sure I have recorded this gull before here before xmas and also on the Adur, but never got a conclusive reading of the birds rings...any info on this bird would be greatly appreciated! I am sure Mr Fairbank will have seen this bird locally!

 

Black-headed Gull R3 at Widewater

 





2013 - Week 11 - Round-up

Birding time was very limited this week due to the dusting of snow which grinded Sussex to a halt in the early part of the week and my children and I fakking victim to one of the many bugs that are doing the rounds at the moment! Despite this, a large cold weather movement on the 11th, resulted in many Redwing and Fieldfare observed moving purposely west, a quick visit to Goring seafront (13th)recorded my first butterfly of 2013 in the form of a Small Tortoiseshell but although the sun was out, felt far too cold for butterflies! 6 adult Mediterranean Gull's were roosting in a nearby field. Hopefully some kind of normality will restore itself in week 12!

I also received an e-mail this week about the colour-ringed Waxwing I reported at Lewes on Boxing Day. Tony Cross from the mid-wales ringing group explained that the same bird had been photographed a lot further south on the 9th March...In Geneva, Switzerland...check out his blog to see his account of this bird...needless to say they are very pleased with the recovery!

http://midwalesringers.blogspot.com



2013 - Week 10 - Round Up

The dull cold weather finally gave way to some spring-like conditions with settled milder weather earlier in the week,  to dull, damp but still mild conditions towards the end of the week. Not a lot of birding done this week to be honest, the 5th saw us heading out and about around Shoreham and Widewater but very little seen here although a Peregrine was displaying around the Southwich power station, at Arundel, small signs of spring arriving with a pair of Peregrines displaying over the reserve and the Mute Swans prospecting nest sites..lots of gulls around at the moment and many Black-headed Gulls already in full summer plumage! A fantastic pair of Bullfinch's were showing well in the car park at Arundel WWT, on the 8th March, 3 Slavonian Grebes were seen from the shelter at Shoreham...in the murk but sea conditions were favourable, several Red-breasted Mergansers and a pair of Common Scoter offshore here aswell

 

 



 



2013 - Week 9 - Round Up

This week continued with pretty bleak conditions, with mainly low cloud and dull conditions with a biting north-east wind! This did not help the photography but with some hard work, some good birds were seen this week especially in West Sussex.

As previously reported, 2 Tundra Bean Geese were to be found in the Arun Valley, mainly viewed from the Black Rabbit pub (last seen on Saturday 2nd March) hanging out with Greylag Geese, good numbers of Red Kite seem to be moving around at the moment with 2 different birds seen at Bury Hill on the 27th Feb and a single over Graffham on the 28th

 

Red Kite - Graffham - 28th February

 

A visit to a couple of sites inland produced a Lesser-spotted Woodpecker which was pretty vocal but did not show well for the camera and finally managed to track down a Dartford Warbler and some Sussex Stonechat's this week and was nice to hear the Woodlark's defying the cold conditions and singing well

 

As I said, not a week for photography..hopefully it will brighten up next week!!