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!!



Distant Bean Geese at Arundel

After seeing reports of 2 Bean Geese seen this weekend at Arundel WWT, I thought there would be a good chance of seeing them in the Arun Valley today, a good vantage point is up at Burpham Church and as the birds have been observed associating with Greylag Geese and roosting in the WWT itself. In murky conditions, I found the geese flock miles off but just making out the 2 Bean Geese! Not the views you want, but confirmation that they are still here and at least viewable from here if nowhere else! I drove around to the Black Rabbit pub and was going to attempt to try and see them from here but plenty of roadworks etc going on so decided to move inland where a singing Woodlark showed well with another bird further in the distance! The paths have really dried out here since my last visit, although my daughter Robyn found one of the few puddles to fall in which meant a hasty retreat and not much else was seen or heard!!
There has been some debate about the Bean Geese at Arundel, with the general concensus that they are the 'Tundra' race by observers who had better views than I had!

A quick check at Patching Pond produced a second returning Great-crested Grebe so the pair is again re-united, and a drake Pochard, a bird I have not seen yet on this pond in my short time in checking it out...I'm hoping for something good here one day, looks good for Little Bittern or Night Heron!!

Red-necked Grebe - Worthing

I received a txt from Dave Smith informing me that he had just seen a Red-necked Grebe offshore at Marine Gardens, I arrived within half an hour and checked out the sea's further west as the bird had drifted this way..conditions for sea-watching were good with relatively flat sea and good light, although it was biting cold. I soon found large parties of Red-breasted Mergansers offshore and several loose flocks of Great-crested Grebes, all drifting west pretty quick. I phoned Garry who was on his way down and told him to look off Goring as I presumed the bird had probably drifted that far. Upon further scanning, there was good parties of auks moving through, mainly Razorbills, several Kittiwakes and Red-throated Diver. I noticed that the Great-crested Grebes had started to drift slowly east and I then picked out a single bird half-way out..a Red-necked Grebe offering good scope views and was quite happy fishing on the sea in front of me. I phoned Garry and he joined me to also get onto the bird..a good bird to get locally! there was upto 3 birds offshore here last year for a while so hopefully this one will hang around too..thanks goes out to Dave for the info

2013 - Week 8 - Round Up

I last saw the Durrington Waxwings on the evening of the 17th February with all 26 feeding nicely and sitting up on the telegraph just across the road from where we originally found them 2 weeks before. A lunch time visit to Burpham the same day had produced excellent views of 3 Red Kites in the winter sunshine whilst the Skylarks have started to sing! We visited some West Sussex heathland but this proved to be very quiet although Robyn enjoyed getting stuck in the mud along the water-logged paths. Covered the Shoreham area on the 18th which was very quiet, a summer plumaged adult Mediterranean Gull on Widewater was a nice find, roosting with 30+Black-headed Gulls. A quick sea-watch here, there was just 3 Common Scoter, 2 Great-crested Grebes and a Razorbill.

2013 - Week 7 Round up

The Waxwings were a permanent feature this week, locating occassionally away from the school in Clevedon Road here in Durrington. The birds were also observed fly-catching with some milder conditions and finally some sunshine..the birds were feeding on 2 small cottoneaster bushes in a front garden, I explained to the owners how lucky they were to have such visitors, they were only partially interested which I always find a shame! The birds became noticeably mobile towards the end of the week and even managed to see them down my road on the Saturday(16th), so was pleased to get them on the house list!
The Goring Gap Snow Bunting was also very confiding and was seen most of the week from the 13th, 2 Ruff on Shoreham Airfield were a site tick for me, with Bearded Tits and Avocets seen at Pagham, week 7 proved to be a very productive week with not only some good birds seen locally but good photo's obtained too which the brighter conditions helped...a lot!
At Patching Pond, I noticed that one of the Great-crested Grebes had returned in it's full summer plumage..bring on spring!!



 

 





Great Crested Grebe - in summer plumage and a return to Patching Pond this week