01/06/2016 Knepp Visit with the East Grinstead RSPB Local Group

Wednesday 1 June 2016
Knepp Castle Estate
East Grinstead RSPB Local Group

Our second mid-week outing of 2016 took us to the Knepp Castle Estate, a 3,500 acre site just off the A24 south of Horsham.   As this was a new venue nobody really knew what to expect and excitement levels were high among the 9 members who turned up. The weather was not ideal, with a niggling northerly wind and overcast conditions. Nevertheless it was dry and provided us with the chance of a couple of hours birding before the expected rain. 

Knepp has a growing reputation for its rewilding project which has turned a loss making, post WW2, intensively farmed land into a profitable and diverse landscape comprising a mosaic of habitats from grassland and scrub to open-grown trees and wood pasture. 

Nightingales returned to Knepp in 2010 – the first time they’d been heard here for 50 years.  2% of the UK’s population is now found on the estate. It’s also a breeding hotspot for turtle doves – the bird species most likely to go extinct in Britain in the next few years.

• Unfortunately the turtle doves did not show, despite the fact that 4 males were known to be present with more expected soon.  In the windy conditions, it was nigh on impossible to pick up their characteristic song. 

• We had similar bad luck with the nightingales although there was one occasion when we thought we heard one.  To be fair we did not really expect to hear them as, by now, they should have stopped singing and be well into the process of producing offspring.

• On the plus side we had a species count in excess of 40, 10 more than the arbitrary target I set for the group. 

• Bird of the day was a close run thing between red kite and cuckoo.  We had good views of 2 red kites on the return leg of our journey.  The cuckoo was singing regularly as we moved around the site but it was quite some time before it was seen flying and even then only 2 or 3 of us who were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

• Of the other species seen blackcap, grey wagtail, buzzard and a bullfinch were perhaps the pick of the bunch.

• Nice to see roe deer, fallow deer and longhorn cattle roaming around the estate.

Despite the star species staying out of sight this was a worthwhile visit – surely the first of many.