Looking for Eagles in Sussex

Wednesday 21st December 2022

Rackham Woods

4 of us from the Ashdown Bird Group met up at Rackham village, hoping to see a white-tailed eagle from the raptor viewing point nearby.  

Unfortunately we were not successful.  

• With the help of a friendly local lady walker, we located the so called "favourite tree" of the eagle and, initially, we got quite excited when we realised there was a large raptor perched in it only to discover it was a red kite! 

We spotted 23 species in total, as you would expect from such a fantastic viewing point, overlooking the brooks.

• There was at least one other kite around as well as a peregrine, a couple of kestrels, a buzzard and a raven.
• On the brooks, the standout species was black-tailed godwit.  There must have been well over a hundred.  Occasionally they would take to the air after being spooked by the raptors.
• Other notable species included pintail, teal, wigeon, lapwing and shoveler.

• Pick of the passerines was probably the lovely close goldcrest we came across on our way to the viewing point.

Martin put out a message on the Sussex WhatsApp site asking for news on the white-tailed eagles.  Word came back quickly that we should head to RSPB Pulborough Brooks where the birds had been seen regularly in recent days.  Without further ado, we were off to Pulborough.

RSPB Pulborough Brooks, Sussex

The two wardens who greeted us on the reserve were very helpful and suggested our best chance of seeing the eagles was from Whinpenny Hide.  2 birds had been seen on a number of occasions in the last couple of days, although they did not know of any sightings so far today.  On the way to the hide we passed a couple of birders who had seen 2 birds earlier but the views were not clear and quite distant.

We spent about 90 minutes or so at Whinpenny but had no luck with the eagles.  

• We did get excellent views of the water birds - this time it was the pintails that stole the show with well over 25 drakes on show.
• There was also a cracking kingfisher flying around and giving us excellent views.
• Other birds catching the eye included marsh harrier and snipe. 

Our last throw of the dice was to move around to the north brooks to look for the eagles there.  

• On the way we saw a couple of fieldfare and several redwing.

We never reached our destination however as a call came through that 2 white-tailed eagles had just been seen from Whinpenny Hide so we turned round and headed back as quickly as possible.

• Thankfully the birds were still there and perched near the top of a nearby tall tree.
• Almost immediately one took flight and headed off north but giving good views as it went.

• After a while the remaining bird took to the air as well and headed off in pursuit of the other.

By now the light was fading and we were ready for home but Ian persuaded us to try the next viewing point north as he thought the eagles had landed close by.  

• He was right - there in front of us were 2 white-tailed eagles feasting on some kind of carcass on the ground.  We then spent another 20 minutes or so taking in this fabulous sight.  A good day out had just become very special.

Thank goodness for the birders who put out the call this afternoon.  Inclusive birding at its best!

All pictures courtesy of Martin Jeffree

Year total = 216

Purple Sandpipers at Newhaven, Sussex

Saturday 17th December 2022

Newhaven East Pier, Sussex

I decided to head down to the coast this afternoon, looking for purple sandpipers  at my favourite site for them - Newhaven Harbour.  High tide was due around 5 pm when it would be dark so I arrived around 3 pm hoping they would show on the rising tide.

They did of course!  

• I saw two lots of 2 as I made my way along the pier and a group of 4 on the return leg.  In each case they were walking on the concrete supports below me, just above the water line.  
• Occasionally a couple would fly away, sometimes out to sea and sometimes just to a new position further along the pier.
• The turnstones, 6 +of them, were much more gregarious and paraded around the top of the pier just a few metres away.

A much appreciated species!

Year total = 216

A couple of twitches

 

Great Northern Diver at Weir Wood Reservoir

Friday 18th November 2022

I spent the morning with Mark and Elizabeth, showing them around Weir Wood Reservoir.  We finished up at the dam end where we managed to see the long-staying great northern diver. It was quite distant, but we could clearly make the ID using our scopes.

Penduline Tit at West Rise Marsh, Eastbourne, Sussex

Monday 28th November 2022

Martin and I went down to West Rise Marsh at first light.  We made our way along the sodden path towards the pagoda where the penduline tits had been seen for the past week or so.  Even though we both wore wellies, we couldn't reach the pagoda, such was the depth of water on the marshes.  The birders who had the prime positions in the reeds either had waders on or had rolled up their trousers, took of their socks and ploughed through the water.  We took the easy option and viewed from the path, using our scope.

• After 20 minutes or so we got our reward, a brief scope view of this lovely bird as it moved around the bullrushes.  All too soon however it had moved on and we never saw it again before we left after 90 minutes or so.

Courtesy of Alastair Gray

• There were 3 penduline tits present today, but we only managed to see 1 of them.  The birds returned intermittently during the day after we left, and I believe there were up to 5 by then.  

We contented ourselves with our brief, but excellent, scope view hoping we might get a second chance later on in the week when the water levels might be lower.

 Year total = 215

With the East Grinstead RSPB Group near Chichester - Little Gulls and Hawfinches.

 

Saturday 26^th November 2022

Fishbourne Creek (a.m.) and West Dean Woods (p.m.), West Sussex

East Grinstead RSPB Local Group

(9 members present)

Trip Report

It was with a sense of apprehension that we travelled down to Chichester for our latest birding trip.  Little, if any, information had been reported about bird sightings at both our chosen sites in the previous few weeks.  Any fears of a dearth of birds were soon allayed however and most of the expected species were present.  We had a very good outing, clocking up a very respectable 50+ species for the day. 

The “weather gods” were on our side this time.  After the recent wet spell, the rain held off and we enjoyed some very mild conditions.

 

Fishbourne Creek

 The highlights are listed below:

• We parked in Dell Quay Road and in the adjacent field we were greeted by 100-200 Brent geese.  By the time we returned, almost 3 hours later, that number had swollen to almost 1000.
• We assembled by the Crown and Anchor pub.  The tide was out so there was a good variety of waders on show on the shoreline, including greenshank, grey plover, oystercatcher, redshank, lapwing, little egret and wigeon.
•  As we moved along the creek, a black swan was swimming downstream on the far side of the water.

Courtesy of Paul Stillman

•               More waders were seen as we moved along the east shores – the wigeon looked immaculate, the dunlin were busy and there was a lovely ringed plover.

Wigeon – courtesy of Ian Hodgson

• Someone had placed a bird feeder on the trees arching over our path. This attracted the passerines of which the greenfinch was perhaps the most interesting.
• The most unexpected sighting was in the area close to the sewerage outlet where we came across 5 little gulls which were associating with the black-headed gulls.  The           behaviour of the two species couldn’t have been more contrasting – the little gulls were flying a few feet above the black-headed gulls, which were on the water, only coming down to “kiss the water” momentarily before ascending again.  This was the closest most of us had ever been to this species and their movement was truly majestic to watch.

 

courtesy of Ian Hodgson

 

 courtesy of Martin Jeffree

• Other species of note were yellowhammer, grey wagtail, skylark,  meadow pipit and rock pipit

 

Yellowhammer - courtesy of Paul Stillman

 

 

Species List:  Fishbourne Creek

Name:			Name
Blackbird	1		Little Gull	22
Black-headed Gull	2		Long-tailed Tit	23
Black-tailed Godwit	3		Magpie	24
Black Swan	4		Meadow Pipit	25
Blue Tit	5		Mute Swan	26
Brent Goose	6		Oystercatcher	27
Carrion Crow	7		Pied Wagtail	28
Chaffinch	8		Redshank	29
Common Gull	9		Redwing	30
Cormorant	10		Ringed Plover	31
Curlew	11		Robin	32
Dunlin	12		Rock Dove / Feral Pigeon	33
Great Crested Grebe	13		Rock Pipit	34
Great Tit	14		Skylark	35
Greenfinch	15		Song Thrush	36
Greenshank	16		Starling	37
Grey Heron	17		Turnstone	38
Grey Plover	18		Wigeon	39
Grey Wagtail	19		Woodpigeon	40
Lapwing	20		Yellowhammer	41
Little Egret	21

Species count = 41

 

 

West Dean Woods

After lunch 6 of us transferred to West Dean Woods, hoping to see our target species - Hawfinch.  

• In fact we finished up seeing at least 5 from the Monkton track.

Courtesy of Martin Jeffree

Other highlights included:

•   All of us saw a couple of red kites.  Martin and I came across another 6 as we drove out of the woods at the end of the day
•  Another intriguing event was the sight of 20-30 ravens in the air at the same time.  Some of them were attacking at least 2 nearby buzzards.  We normally expect to see lone ravens or maybe a pair but none of us had ever seen such a gathering as this.  Awesome!
•   Martin and I also came across a covey of red partridge and a green woodpecker as we drove away from the woods

 

 

Species List:  West Dean Woods

Name:
Blackbird	1
Blue Tit	2
Buzzard	3
Carrion Crow	4
Chaffinch	5
Fieldfare	6
Great Spotted Woodpecker	7
Green Woodpecker	8
Hawfinch	9
Jay	10
Long-tailed Tit	11
Pheasant	12
Raven	13
Red Kite	14
Red-legged Partridge	15
Wren	16

                                                           Species count = 16       

 

 

Well done Kevin for organising this event and thanks to our members for their support. 

Special thanks to all three of our photographers for the lovely images.

 

Another memorable trip!

Bob Hastings

 Year total = 214