2024 Summary

 A year that began with Waxwings in the trees behind my house and was followed later in the year by sightings of 2 Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers and a Slavonian Grebe at Weir Wood Reservoir has to be one of the best ever!

All in all I managed to see a magnificent 206 species.

A good trip to Rodmell.

 

Friday 13th December 2024

Rodmell nr Lewes (p.m.)

Ashdown Bird Group

(5 members present)

 

 

Our target species today was short-eared owl.  The best time to see this bird is just before sunset, hence today’s p.m. schedule.  Rodmell had previously proved very rewarding so it was a “no-brainer” as our preferred choice of venue. 

The weather was dry but the thick cloud completely blocked out the sun and the temperature was only 5C-6C.  It was very wet underfoot and wellies were the order of the day.

 

 

Our route today started at the National Trust car park near Monk’s House and took us out on the Sussex Ouse Valley Way to the River Ouse where we turned south and followed the river bank towards Southease Station.

We had to wait almost 2 hours before we saw our target species.  In the meantime there were several sightings of interest:-

• 4 gull species were seen today – a couple of common gulls, several black-headed gulls and lots of herring gulls on the ground and a great black-backed gull in flight.
• There was a small gathering of winter thrushes on the ground by the hedge running north of the Sussex Ouse Valley Way including a few redwings, a song thrush and several blackbirds   to add to a single flying fieldfare seen earlier.
• We had a couple of good sightings of a marsh harrier, flying over the reeds, one early on and another near the end of our visit. 
• There were at least 3 kestrels around the site and we had flight views as well as views of them perched in trees.
• Equally prevalent were the buzzards that we saw.
• A sparrowhawk flew over us as we headed back to the car park.
• 2 stonechats were seen but there was no sign of the usual corn buntings. 
• Lots of greylag geese flew by us on at least 2 occasions.
• Starlings were the most numerous species seen today as they flew around in large flocks.

 

The long wait to see the short-eared owl was well worth it as what followed was a rich birding experience that lasted for well over 30 minutes.

• At 3.17 pm we were looking at a kestrel sitting at the top of a nearby tree when we noticed another larger raptor perched some 25 metres further away at the top of another tree.  Initially we thought it was a buzzard but when Ian got the scope view he realised it was a short-eared owl, much to the delight of all present.  Soon afterwards the owl took flight and went in search of food, swooping low over the reeds,  occasionally dropping down to grab some prey before resuming its flight.  After several minutes it returned to the same tree.   The owl then repeated the routine many times before we left.  What a treat! 
• On the way back to the car park, things got even better when a barn owl appeared and flew around us on the Ouse Valley Way for several minutes.  What a bonus!

 

Unfortunately no-one had brought a camera today because of the very poor light.

 

Wanting to share our experience with the birding community, we posted our sightings on the Sussex Bird Alerts site (SBA).  Unbeknown to us, the Sussex Ornithological Society (SOS) had previously advised its members against reporting owl sightings at Rodmell publically.  Some prior, poor behaviour by photographers had caused them to take this drastic step.  Our post thus caused a bit of a furore and was soon deleted by SBA along with the accompanying unsavoury comments that it generated.  The post subsequently reopened the whole debate around the SOS’s original decision.

 

 

Thanks for choosing another fantastic venue John.

Thanks Martin for organising the day – what a pity it generated such controversy!

 

 2024 species count=206

Slavonian Grebe

Monday 9th December 2024

Weir Wood Reservoir, Sussex

• It's always good to find a new bird on your local patch.  At Weir Wood Reservoir, this afternoon, I saw a lovely Slavonian Grebe in the water opposite the hide.

• Also seen were 2 Goosanders.

2024 species count=206

Purple Sandpipers at Tidemills near Newhaven in Sussex

 

Friday 6th December 2024

Tide Mills, Newhaven (a.m.)

Ashdown Bird Group

(4 members present)

 

 

Our target species today was purple sandpiper.  This bird is a regular winter visitor to our shores where it frequents seaweed-covered rocks, piers and jetties, often associating with turnstones.  Newhaven Harbour has long been the best local site to look for them, where they are normally found on the harbour arms of the east pier.

 

Today’s weather was dry and mild – the lull before Storm Darragh which we knew was heading our way.    

 

We first saw the purple sandpipers as we approached the East Pier from the beach.  They were feeding on the barnacles on the concrete supports just above the waterline.  As expected, they were associating with the turnstones.  The best views were obtained when we walked along the top of the pier and looked down on the birds.

·   Here is a selection of Ian’s photographs

 

 

                                     This lovely turnstone was photographed from the beach

 

·         Martin also took some photographs and his selection is shown blow.

 

 

This lovely turnstone was photographed from the top of the pier when the bird decided to join us.

There were other highlights.

• There was a rock pipit in the area by the pier.
• Newhaven Harbour is a “hot spot” for fulmar.  They breed on the cliffs on the west side of the harbour and some were still hanging around this morning.  Although they were out of range of our cameras they still produced good images in the telescope, making the ID a formality.
• We also saw at least 2 ravens on the cliffs on the west side of the harbour.
• As well as fulmar we saw great black-backed gulls, black-headed gulls, herring gulls and common gulls.
• On Mill Creek we saw several redshanks, a little egret and a dunlin.
• In the scrubs between the coastal path and the creek there were a number of passerines such as stonechats, meadow pipits, greenfinch, goldfinch, dunnock, linnet, Cetti’s warbler, chaffinch and wren.
• The only raptors seen were a buzzard and a kestrel.

 

This was another successful Friday morning outing, allowing us to have a detailed look at the behaviour and habit of the purple sandpiper.  Martin counted as many as 9 today – still a healthy sign for this endangered species.

Thanks John for facilitating this visit. Thanks also to Ian and Martin for some great photographs.

 

  2024 species count=205

 

 

Fishbourne Creek and West Dean Woods with the Ashdown Bird Group on Sunday

 

Sunday 1^st December 2024

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

Ashdown Bird Group

(8 members present)

What a contrast to last year's corresponding outing when we enjoyed glorious weather!  Today it was awful with rain from the start, which persisted until midday.  It was also surprisingly colder than we expected.  Some of us, myself included, had really misjudged the forecast and were not best prepared.  

Nevertheless, we made the most of it and enjoyed some excellent birding. We spent the morning at Fishbourne Creek.  After lunch, we drove 10 miles inland to West Dean Woods just north of Chichester, for a totally different habitat and a different set of birds.  Thankfully, by then it had stopped raining.

At least 64 species were identified - 42 in the morning and a further 22 (of 29) in the afternoon.

 

The highlight of the morning occurred in the area of the creek adjacent to the sewage works:-

·         In among the large flock of coots was a lone drake red–breasted merganser moving majestically through the water.

 The flight view was equally impressive.

Both images courtesy of Phil Aylen

West Dean Woods

The weather was much better now.  Thankfully the rain had stopped but we were still wet and cold from this morning’s efforts.

We managed to find at least 29 species, including 22 new ones to add to our day list.

 

Raptors were everywhere

·         As usual we were greeted by a red kite soon after we arrived.  Several more were seen later on.

 

·         We also saw a kestrel, a peregrine, a sparrowhawk and lots of buzzards.

·          John and Martin were lucky enough to see a goshawk.

There were an amazing number of finches on show this afternoon.  They were obviously enjoying the improving weather conditions.  Unfortunately they were, in the main, rather distant.–

Mixed finches

·         We had greenfinches, chaffinches and goldfinches ….

 

Greenfinches

·         ….but best of all, bramblings ….

Brambling

·         …. and hawfinches.

Hawfinches

Such was the richness of birding that we were literally stopped in our tracks to take it all in.

·         Martin and Bob R had gone ahead and continued up to Monkton Farm to complete the walk, adding bullfinch and fieldfare to our species list before returning to join us.

 

What an incredible session - dominated by the sightings of hawfinch and brambling!

  2024 species count=205

RSPB Rainham Marshes with the East Grinstead RSPB Group

 Sunday 24th November 2024

We haven’t had much luck with the weather on our visits to this site in recent years.  In March 2022 we faced the aftermath of Storm Eunice, the next visit, in December 2022, was severely affected by rain and fog and rain stopped play in December 2023.  Alas, we ran into Storm Bert today and continued the sequence.  Thankfully it was day two of the storm and yesterday’s rain had moved north leaving us with just the strong winds to contend with

The main highlights are recorded below:-

• Without doubt, our bird of the day was the peregrine which we saw having an altercation with a black-headed gull at the far side of the reserve, directly opposite our viewing point at Purfleet hide.  The peregrine wasn’t having it all its own way and the gull was giving as good as it got and, as far as we could see, it all ended well – an honourable draw!  Despite the distance, Patrick managed to get these two images of the bird in flight – no mean feat!

 

Courtesy of Patrick Sullivan

Courtesy of Patrick Sullivan

This is normally a good site for waders but we struggled to find many today – probably due to the high water levels. 

• The most interesting one was snipe.  Two were spotted in the vegetation beside Purfleet scrape.  After a while, another two joined them and by the time we left the hide there were six on show.  More were seen on the Butts scrape.

 

Courtesy of Ian Hodgson

 

Despite the difficult conditions we managed to find at least 48 bird species today – a very creditable total.

 2024 species count=205