2015 - a few belated bird photo's

Been completely lagging on the blogging front the past 9 months.....below is some pics which include a family holiday to Lanzarote and a few days on Scilly! Hopefully 2016 will see me keeping more up-to-date :-)

 

Great - Northern Diver - Southwick Canal - West Sussex - November 2015

 

Red-throated Diver - Old Town Bay - Isles of Scilly  - October 2015

 

 

Black Redstart - St. Marys - Isles of Scilly

 

Greenshank - St.Mary's - Isles of Scilly

 

Linnet - St.Mary's - Isles of Scilly

 

Oystercatcher - St.Mary's - Isles of Scilly

 

Turnstone - St.Mary's - Isles of Scilly

 

Rock Pipit - St.Mary's - Isles of Scilly

 

Speckled Wood - St.Mary's - Isles of Scilly

 





Little-ringed Plovers return - Pulborough Brooks

A good mixture of winter and spring birds on a cold lunchtime visit to Pulborough Brooks. A nice flock of c60 Linnet gathered in the field underneath the visitor centre and large numbers of Redwing and Fieldfare were along the trails leading down to the north brooks with the odd Chiff Chaff singing along the way. Out on the north brooks from the hangar still large number of winter duck with Teal, Wigeon, Shoveler and Pintail present still in good numbers, there was 4 plovers present very distant on the far pool and after some scrutiny 2 were Ringed whilst the other 2 were Little Ringed, slightly better views were gained from Jupps viewpoint where 9 Black-tailed Godwits and 2 Ruff were also seen. It was whilst I was here that the 'meow' call of the Mediterranean Gull was heard and looking above I was pleased to see 6 adults passing overhead quite high up with 4 Black-headed Gulls all heading north-east . 2 Ravens were also seen over the site.

Review - January 2015

Not a bad start to the year, the Greater Yellowlegs at Titchfield Haven was seen after dashing over to Hampshire as soon as the news broke, good distant scope views were had (thanks to fellow Sussex birder Simon's use of his scope), the Yellowlegs was hanging around with a fairly mobile flock of Black-tailed Godwits that were being moved around by the nearby cattle. On one occasion, the bird was feeding up on a distant grass bank, totally in the open allowing study of all the features. This species has been very difficult to connect with over the last few years especially to my knowledge and as with this bird only staying for a day before moving on.

The Kumlien's Gull returned to Littlehampton for it's second winter re-found by Bola around the 21st and managed to see the bird on the 24th, I always find either side of high tide good at the river-mouth whereas at low tide you are best searching further up-river at the Look and Sea centre...take some bread...a first winter Mediterranean Gull has been around also.

3 Purple Sandpipers were seen at Shoreham Harbour on the 19th, not sure there has been higher numbers than this around this location this winter

A nice Little Owl was seen in Arundel also on the 24th, whilst plenty of the usual species were encountered up at the Burgh the same morning. The fields below Burpham Church were full of winter thrushes including good numbers of Redwing and several Mistle Thrushes. Also saw 14 Song Thrushes together in one field with 23 Blackbirds...some sight! The Bewick's Swans numbers declined slightly as we moved through the month, the most I counted was 39 including 4 juvenilles, normally 4 Black Swan's with them but always a fair distance this year...this time last year all there feeding fields were under water!

Firecrests are still reliable in Arundel, especially around the Swanbourne Lake area.

Throughout the month, all the birding I did was within West Sussex apart from the dash west for the Greater Yellowlegs, below is some photo's I would like to share from my travels.....hoping to continue to get out more throughout February

 

Pagham Harbour view from Church Norton

 

Robin and Lapwing at Arundel WWT

 

Moorhen and Water Vole also Arundel WWT

 

Carrion Crows pampering each other at Widewater

Redwing and Goldfinch at Burpham church fields

West Sussex Birding - 31st January 2015

Had a free day today, the original planned trip to Portland for the weekend cancelled, so decided to stick local, was very tempted to head east but the over-night dusting of ice and snow made my mind up and so I headed to Selsey. The A27 was very dangerous to drive on first thing and almost lost the car at the Arundel roundabout ! Not a gritter seen this morning which was very concerning. Upon reaching the peninsula, it was soon evident the snow was not a issue here so headed straight to the bill where I found Selsey regular Sam observing the sea.
The sea was pretty choppy so was difficult to pick anything up on the sea, but with patience, Great-northern Divers were seen occasionally with at least 9 Slavonian Grebes drifted by very quickly! first picked up 2 birds, followed a little later by a group of 5 birds together, then another 2, all east to west. Good numbers of Gannets were feeding offshore, with the odd Kittiwake seen as small parties of auks, mainly Razorbills moved back and forth many too distant to confidently identify. A couple of adult winter Mediterranean Gulls fed closely on the tideline and 3 Red-throated Divers moved through west. There was enough happening to keep interest going throughout which was pleasing.
I moved onto Church Norton, very rare these days to arrive and to be the only car in the car park! Maybe I was the only nutter brave enough to head out but again, plenty of birds to go through and a delightful male Marsh Harrier was picked up looking towards the North wall, putting up hundreds of birds including a nice flock of Golden Plover. This bird has been seen on and off in the harbour the last few days and here's hoping he hangs around. A Peregrine was seen on it's usual island, Red-breasted Merganser's and a single drake Goldeneye were seen out in the channel. Plenty of the usual waders were present, about 20 Black-tailed Godwits were hunkered on one of the islands, shame there was not many gulls to sort through.
Next stop was Fishbourne creek, parking at Dell Quay and followed the footpath towards Fishbourne. Again, plenty of birds to sort through, very bitter and exposed here but was rewarded with the wintering Whimbrel which showed well, a distant Spotted Redshank was roosting with Common Redshanks and at least 7 Goldeneyes were in the channel. At least 12 Yellowhammer and 2 Rock Pipits added to the variety and had a good look through the c200 Brent Geese failed to produce a Black Brant (there has been one in the area).
Moving in-land and a drive and opportunity to warm up before exploring West Dean woods. I was very surprised to find very few people around here probably resulting in the 2 Little Owls sitting out in the open and seen as soon as I pulled up in the car. A rather large finch flock was sorted through and soon found Brambling in amongst the Chaffinch here, very difficult to count as the finch's were constantly moving down to feed in the next field but included a stunning male bird. I also managed to find Hawfinch pretty easily, with at least 3 seen and probably more birds picked up by their call and generally being very vocal. Marsh Tit seemed to be everywhere here today and a visit here would not be complete without a good view of Red Kite. Heading back to Worthing, I decided to have another look at the returning Kumlien's Gull at Littlehampton, being low tide the bird was easily picked up on the west side of the river opposite the entrance to the golf club. By now the light had gone but still managed a couple of record shots, pretty much the first time the camera came out of the bag today! Good day all round without racking up too many miles.

Kumlien's Gull - Littlehampton/River Arun (N.Bond)



New year - new blog post!

Managed to visit a few sites today and good to get in the field again, was out at first light and having put screen wash in the car, the bonnet would not lock shut properly so decided against going with my inititial plan and stayed local until I managed to fix the bonnet properly. I started with a sea-watch off Worthing that was very quiet, several Gannets and Kittiwakes offshore and 7 Wigeon moved west, Red-breasted Mergansers moved back and forth but the sea was too choppy to see anything on the sea. Home to fix the car then after a few hours delay I felt safe enough to hit other sites

Onto Arundel and covered Swanbourne Lake and the entrance to the WWT where it was nice to find a Chiff Chaff and Mandarin Duck amongst all the usual and expected species.

Siddlesham ferry pool was covered in birds, huge number of Lapwing and the splendid Tundra Bean Goose was in with the Brent and Canada Geese.

At Church Norton on the falling tide, the Ruddy Shelduck were visible distantly towards the North Wall, 2 Peregrines hunted over the harbour, a drake Goldeneye and several Red-breasted Mergansers were in the habour channel and the leucistic Curlew stood out in the winter sunshine.

I decided to head to Barnham Brooks on my way home and managed to eventually see the Whooper Swans in with the Mute Swans, they were tucked down low and out of view in the kale field, with patience they gave themselves up. Well worth the visit here as 2 Short-eared Owls put on a great show as they battled in mid-air and a pair of Stonechats wire fly-catching from the nearby reed bed. A good day out with 77 species seen with ease and would have surely been more without car trouble!

We have also had a male Blackcap in our garden (1st Jan) and a female has been seen today(3rd) in Durrington (Worthing)