Bird Sightings

Angela T and I had a great walk through the patch on the 15th – including 10 minutes at the overflow pit west of the Adur, listing to Skylarks singing, Ravens croaking, and watching a pair of super Garganey in the water – then a Green Sandpiper rose from the pit too!  Many thanks to Paul C for making us aware the Garganey might be there)

Gorgeous sunset on Sunday afternoon, and after a long period when there was a lot of shooting and very little wildfowl on the brooks to the south of the village,  there were lots of Lapwing (maybe 400 or so), c 30 Teal and Shoveler, and c10 Pintail.  There were some Greylag and Canada Geese, a Grey Heron and 5 Cormorants in the tree near the heronry, but no signs of activity on the nests.  Plenty of Black-headed Gulls too, some Coots and Moorhens.  Nice to see a few birds around for a change!

This afternoon two Barn Owls were hunting in the fields by the confluence to the north.

In a field on their own, but not far from lots of other geese were 4 of these on Sunday 2nd.

Was quite upset on Sunday when there was shooting down on the levels and no birds, but happier to report 5 Curlews were south of Rye Farm Friday morning (30/11). I’m sure I’ve only personally seen one in the area previously (in 26 years) and it was on the Steyning side of the river! Distant pic attached, visible on the “island” to the right of the gull. Lovely to hear them “curlewing” as they flew.

Also 20 Lapwing, 40 or so Common Gulls and a few Black-headed. About 10 Teal, lots of corvids, some of which were chased off a Sparrowhawk. A lot of noisy Geese, both Greylag and Canada. And a couple of decoy ducks from Sunday were still bobbing around!

This afternoon 2 Barn Owls hunting over the fields west of Chates, a Stonechat was flitting about near the bank and Snipe called from the field too.

… but none of us saw it!  Nigel P’s neighbour phoned him to say there was a Great Grey Shrike on his TV aerial.  But by the time Nigel had rushed back it had flown west – only a fuzzy photo to record the event!

There were half a dozen Spotted Flycatchers, and a Redstart., north of Swains this morning.  Paula got some brilliant photos of the former.

One seen near Stretham on the 26th by Melissa Mercer, and presumably the same bird seen by Ted Keen and David Moors on the 29th.  Great sighting!  Most likely an escapee from the Knepp Stork project  see https://knepp.co.uk/white-storks/

On the 3rd Sept it was just north of the village by the Chess Brook – many thanks to Paula for the photo

 

It’s been a good day for migrants.  This morning Will found large numbers of small birds going through the trees catching the early morning sun.  There was a family of dramatic Spotted Flycatchers with Willow Warblers.  Les noticed 2 Redstarts near Great Betley, one probably a male.  At the bottom of Spring Hills this afternoon lots of birds were moving along a berry laden hedgerow.  Mainly Long-tailed and Blue Tits, but several Willow Warblers and I noticed at least one Lesser Whitethroat.

…. was how Mike described the Perseid walk last night!

A few drops of rain made us wonder how accurate the “clear skies” forecast had been, but apart from viewing some rather spectacular lighting to the north, we were under a cloudless sky once we reached the Adur. Fantastic views of Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars – ID all confirmed by Steve’s Skymap app – followed by several sightings of Barn Owls. A “lump” sitting on a post on a distant bridge turned out to be a Little Owl. The third owl was a Tawny, having a screech from trees at Betley Bridge.