Fool's Spring

Many of you reading this will have seen that great meme listing the many seasons we experience in the UK among the officially recognised four seasons - Fool's Spring, Second Winter, Spring of Deception, etc.

I think it's fair to say we're hovering somewhere between the latter two right now. When the sun is out it can feel almost spring-like, but when it's been cold in the past couple of weeks, it's felt really cold - not helped by the dominance of north and north-easterly winds. That said, the daylight hours are getting longer by the day now, with birds still singing at 6PM on sunny days, and much evidence of resident species' breeding cycles really getting into gear. As I write this, the first arriving hirundines have been reported on the south coast and we're just days away from the first Wheatears. We're nearly there!

16th February

A grey and drizzly day for the most part, with a strengthening south-westerly wind, didn't exactly fill me with enthusiasm to get out birding today. Nonetheless, I took a stroll over to Waltham Brooks at lunchtime for a brief session there. The number of wildfowl on the main lake had reduced overall since my last visit, but the diversity of species had improved with at least ten Pintail and six Shelduck among the usual Shoveler, Mallard, Wigeon and Teal. A Little Grebe called several times, out of view, while a flock of around 60 Redwings were in the bushes. 

17th February

As I was due to be away up in Yorkshire at the weekend, I headed out early to do my WeBS count at the usual private farm reservoir site. Nothing particularly unusual here although always nice to see and hear a few Yellowhammers which were in fine voice. Most unusual among the Coots and Tufted Ducks on the reservoir was a lone drake Wigeon which was, remarkably, a site tick! It's pretty crazy to think I've had Long-tailed Duck, Grey Plover and Spotted Redshank here in the past twelve months but not Wigeon!

An out of context Wigeon

Egyptian Goose

A quick check of Burton Mill Pond in passing on the way home produced the first Great Crested Grebe I've seen here this year (at last!) along with the usual scattering of Gadwall, Coots and Tufted Ducks.

18th February

The first of two days away visiting family in Yorkshire and I decided to get up early and head up to the Dales to try and find Black Grouse at what I understand to be their most southerly site in England. I got there before first light, in a howling wind (gusting force 8!), not holding out much hope. A scan of likely fields as the sun came up didn't produce much so I started walking down to a public footpath which took me out towards some fine habitat. Several Red Grouse were strutting about on and near the road, and two Dippers flew down the beck by the road. A little while later I stopped to scan some small trees further down the beck and, sure enough, picked up two female Black Grouse perched in one of them. Only my second British record of this iconic species.

Black Grouse

As I walked a bit closer, a third female flew up from the heather ahead of me and disappeared across the moor. No males seen but still a successful visit - especially as I'd never actually seen a female before! Other highlights here included two Curlew, Peregrine, at least six Ravens and at least two Golden Plover calling loudly but not seen.

Red Grouse

19th February

Day two in Yorkshire and a walk up on the fields above Burley in Wharfedale produced a singing Goldcrest, several Siskins, two Red Kites and a flyover Skylark - the latter a West Yorkshire tick for me, according to eBird!

Not much else to report here really apart from a Curlew flying up from fields by the road as we drove towards Otley on the way home.

20th February

Back in Sussex and, after dropping my daughter at nursery, I decided to drop in at Amberley Wildbrooks, entering from near the castle. A large flock of gulls were wheeling about over the castle and I was pleased to pick out at least two adult Mediterranean Gulls among them, my second local record of the year. Out on the wet grassland in front of the castle were at least 200 Lapwing and 120 Wigeon. Further along past the Swamp, a scan to the east of the path produced a female Merlin perched on a bramble clump, quite near the old building out that way. At least 30 Redwings were in the patch of woodland north of the Swamp, with one or two heard softly singing.

Merlin

Working from home later in the day was enlivened by the sight of five Golden Plover flying fast southwest over the house - my second winter record of this species from home, but my first anywhere locally so far in this calendar year.

21st February

A grey and drizzly morning. I happened to be passing Waltham Brooks so dropped in and walked from Greatham Bridge to the main lake and back. Generally pretty quiet here with even fewer ducks on the lake than my previous visit. 8 Pintail were the highlight along with a heard-only Little Grebe.

In the afternoon I took a short walk up to some local high ground I was hoping might be a good spot for future skywatching, and I wasn't disappointed! Although it's only around 50m above sea level, that's quite high enough in this low-lying area to provide a great vantage point over the trees and houses. I could see as far as The Mens to the north, the South Downs to the south and RSPB Pulborough visitor centre to the north-east. I'm excited to head back there when the weather improves!

The view from the new skywatching spot near home

22nd February

Another grey morning with rain at times. I almost didn't go out first thing but decided to head over to Burton Mill Pond for my first proper walk round there for a couple of weeks. In the end, the rain didn't come to much and it was a largely dry session. It was good to see Great Crested Grebes back on both the ponds along with still quite a few Pochard (~15) on Chingford Pond. Wildfowl numbers are steadily ebbing away locally though, with noticeably fewer Gadwall and Tufted Duck here today. The now usual Woodlark was singing over the vineyard on the western side, moving closer to the main Mill Pond as I was leaving, while three Grey Wagtails were chasing each other about near the boat launch jetty. No Great White Egret today although a Little Egret did fly into the trees at the southern end of Chingford Pond. 

Pochards

I didn't manage to get out again later in the day but did note ~180 Lapwings flying southeast towards Amberley Wildbrooks late afternoon, viewed from home.

23rd February

An early morning walk round Pulborough Brooks proved to be quite lively, with a decent selection of waders on the North Brooks (15 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Dunlin and 3 Ruff), a Water Pipit in flight near the dipping area (behind Adder Alley) and a Peregrine and one of the White-tailed Eagles on the South Brooks.

Mid-morning I headed over to Knepp for a bit of work. In addition to the lively activity of the resident White Storks scrapping over their various nests I also noted nine Teal flying up from the ditches and the pond in the stork enclosure, as well as a Knepp tick Lapwing flying over heading east.

24th February

After dropping B off at nursery I dropped in at Waltham Brooks. Again, reduced numbers of wildfowl on the main lake but still ~30 each of Shoveler and Teal, 4 Shelduck and 10 Pintail. Round at the sewage works at least 3 Chiffchaffs were singing, though workmen in the compoud likely disturbed more birds from congregating here. As I was leaving, two Mute Swans flew north. 

Mute Swans

A lunchtime walk around the local farmland was largely quiet except for a lone Snipe flying around over the open fields south of River Lane and Rooks nest building.

25th February

The weather forecast promised a bright but cold start to the day so I headed out for some more local woodland birding. In the event, there wasn't much sunshine at all, so birdsong and woodpecker activity was a little muted. I did find a flock of at least 30 Siskin though and two Woodcock flushed from bracken cover in an area of woodland near Fittleworth.

Later on, Kate, B and I headed to Pulborough for lunch and a walk around. A bit of sunshine early afternoon sadly didn't last and by the time we headed out on the trail, some really menacing dark clouds had rolled in on the baltic northerly wind and delivered some unwelcome sleety rain. The best I could find here in less-than-ideal conditions were 17 Black-tailed Godwits, 2 Dunlin and a single Ruff on the North Brooks. 

Today was also notable for being the day I hit 1,000 days on my eBird unbroken checklist streak. Quite a milestone!

26th February

A rather late start this morning saw me heading over to Waltham Brooks in glorious sunshine to meet Ed for some local birding ahead of a few hours working on the book.

We had a decent haul of 50 species in the hour and a half or so we were here, including at least 20 Chiffchaffs at the sewage works, a female Marsh Harrier in flight to the north, and 8 Pintail, 3 Shelduck and a single Little Grebe on the main lake.

Shovelers

The best was saved until last though as, just shy of the gate exiting the reserve on the river bank, Ed picked up a Water Pipit on call, taking flight from the north-western side of Amberley Wildbrooks. In fact, there were three birds together which may have all been Water Pipits, but we unfortunately didn't get enough plumage detail to confirm this. Certainly, the lead bird seemed a little larger, so perhaps just the one with two Meadow Pipits? This was swiftly followed by a male Marsh Harrier quartering in the same airspace as the two immature White-tailed Eagles. As Ed said: 'incredible 1km scenes!' Incidentally, Water Pipit was my 90th species within my 1km from home area so far this year.

On the walk back to mine we tried a likely looking bit of wet woodland for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker but no joy. Perhaps another day!

Lesser Celandine

A sunny day at the end of every freezing night

The changeable winter continues, despite us being into the dwindling weeks of the meteorological season. Temperatures took a tumble again early in February with some very icy starts to the days in this two week period, and also some pesky foggy mornings which took until lunchtime to lift. Still, in the days of sunshine there has been a noticeable increase in birdsong and early breeding activity like raptors soaring and resident passerines carrying nest material and inspecting likely nesting spots. February can be a tough slog sometimes but on the best days it can also be full of hope.

5th February

An early morning walk round the local farmland didn't produce too much of note but there was some notably spring-like behaviour from some of the local resident species, including a Starling singing its quirky song from our rooftop and various House Sparrows flying to and from the neighbours' eaves.

A dusk walk over to the riverbank near Thorndale Bridge produced a Barn Owl hunting over Waltham Brooks and four Egyptian Geese quarreling over Amberley Wildbrooks. Mainly though, it was just a welcome novelty to be heading out for a birding session at 5pm and still managing to get in 40 minutes or so.

Song Thrush

6th February

The first frosty morning in a couple of weeks and I decided to drop in for a look at Amberley Wildbrooks as I was passing. Scanning from Cross Gate on the southern side, I was amazed at how much the water levels had dropped since my first proper visit here for a fortnight or more. There were still 80 or so Lapwing dotted about the place but otherwise no water birds at all really aside from a Little Egret, a few Grey Herons and a couple of Mute Swans. Just as I was thinking about leaving after about 45 minutes or so, my attention was drawn by a group of corvids mobbing another bird quite high over towards the western side. Getting the scope on the melee, I realised the bird causing the consternation was a ringtail Hen Harrier, which gained height for a while before dropping down onto the western side where it started hunting up and down before powering over the eastern side. My second in the 10k this year, and in fact it could be The Burgh bird relocating, as I don't think there have been any records of that bird for a while now.

Very distant Hen Harrier, with escort

Herring Gulls

7th February

Thick fog this morning precluded my planned visit to Burton Mill Pond so I instead dropped in the check the lake at Waltham Brooks, with a view to the birds being closer. The fog still made it difficult to pick out much on the water, although a calling Little Grebe was my first in the 1k area this year. Also on the lake were a drake Pintail and two Shelduck, while a lone Snipe flushed up from the shore as I passed. At least two Cetti's Warblers were calling in the bushes, one of which obligingly popped up and showed quite well briefly (for a Cetti's Warbler anyway...).

Cetti's Warbler

An early afternoon skywatch from local farmland produced three Ravens heading east but not much in the way of raptor action despite the sun breaking through.

8th February

Another very foggy start wasn't conducive to birding first thing so I cracked on with work and headed out for a lunchtime stroll. I walked over to the bank of the Arun at Thorndale Bridge to scan the sky and Amberley Wildbrooks, but it had turned into such a beautiful day I decided to carry on up to Waltham Brooks and walk home from there. Not a huge amount to report here really, although at least three Red Kites and two Buzzards were up and enjoying the sunshine and two Ravens flew east. At least three Water Rails were squeaking away, including one in the reedbed on the Amberley side of the river. At the sewage works I found at least 25-30 Chiffchaffs flitting about and flycatching from the bushes around the fence line and up the concrete track. Not quite as impressive as Bernie Forbes' report of 56 yesterday but still lovely to see.

Buzzard

9th February

Mercifully no fog this morning but still very cold. I got out early (light enough for birding by 7am  now!) and headed over to Pulborough for a quick circuit of the reserve. Highlights here from an hour and a half included singing Woodlark over the heath, at least five Ravens raucously flying over, Marsh Harrier, Peregrine, 1200 Lapwing and at least 90 Pintail among ~1000 Wigeon and Teal, mostly on the North Brooks. No eagles or other wader species for me (Avocet, Black-tailed Godwit and Dunlin were reported earlier in the week) but still an enjoyable session. Most noticeable, both at Pulborough and at home were the Dunnocks, which seemed to have universally decided that today was the day to ramp up their singing and courtship behaviour. They seemed to be everywhere around the trail at Pulborough!

Teal

10th February

Another foggy morning so I decided to head up the Downs - Kithurst Hill, specifically, which I haven't visited for a while. Corn Buntings and Yellowhammers were in fine voice, particularly around the dew pond just west of the Chantry Hill car park. There were plenty of singing Chaffinches about too and a lone Marsh Tit. A single Grey Partridge was with a little covey of Red-legged Partridge south of the dew pond, while the usual Ravens and Red Kites were patrolling around the hillside. A nice bonus local year tick on the way back to the car park in the form of an adult winter Mediterranean Gull among 200+ Black-headed Gulls and Common Gulls swirling around over a ploughed field.

Kestrel

Corn Bunting

Back home it was nice to see a resplendent breeding plumage Starling singing on our chimney. The resident species are definitely full of the joys of spring now!

11th February

A bit of a tour of a few North East Sussex sites today, starting with Ashdown Forest, where I met a couple at Old Lodge for a South Downs Wildlife walk. It was a decent little walk here, given the time of year, with flyovers of Woodlark and two Ravens, a Dartford Warbler and a singing Mistle Thrush. Most numerous though were the Coal Tits which seemed to be in almost every tree!

Raven

After saying goodbye to the guys here I decided to stop at Weir Wood Reservoir in passing, which produced nine Pochard, 23 Tufted Duck, Marsh Tit and lots of activity from the nesting Grey Herons and Cormorants in the trees at the western end.

Final stop on the way home was Red House Common, part of the the Chailey Commons complex. This was a new site to me and one I've literally just written about for the 'Where to Watch Birds...' book. I was impressed with it, especially the great views of the sky and the wider Wealden landscape. Not a huge bird list here today but I hope to return when the heathland migrants are back in. 

12th February

Another gloomy morning. Kate, B and I headed over to Pulborough Brooks mid-morning, having just heard news from former RSPB warden Pete that the regular young pair of White-tailed Eagles had been chasing and trying to catch an unfortunate Grey Heron. The show was still going on as we arrived and we bumped into Pete, Alice Parfitt and Gary Trew by the visitor centre. One of the eagles was perched up in a tree by the river but the other took off again chasing a Grey Heron which was flying over towards Hardham. I've seen WTE do this kind of hot pursuit before and am still amazed at their capability for speed when required. The eagle was clearly gaining height to get up to where the heron was flying, when suddenly the heron whiffled and dived, so the eagle did the same, straight after it. We couldn't see the outcome as they disappeared behind trees, but it was amazing to watch! 

Later on, we saw one of the eagles in the 'owl tree' on the North Brooks, viewed from the Hanger viewpoint. From here we also found singles of Dunlin (102 for the Local Big Year list) and Ruff with the many hundreds of Lapwing and at least 8 Shelduck - my highest count of the species locally so far this year (plus at least 3 on the South Brooks).

White-tailed Eagle

13th February

The first day of the year when a coat almost felt like an optional extra with the temperature well into double figures by lunchtime. In the morning I was at Knepp for my first safari of the year. There was plenty of birdsong around the place including lots of Song Thrushes and Dunnocks, and several of the resident White Stork pairs were busy feathering their nests and generally looking very cosy and loved up.

The Hammer Pond held the usual Great Crested Grebe and a few each of Teal, Shoveler and Gadwall, while a check of the Mill Pond on the way home produced a couple of Great Crested Grebe, a single Little Grebe, three each of Shoveler and Teal, six Pochard, five Tufted Duck and 15 Wigeon.

14th February

Another foggy morning with the murk very slow to clear. Eventually, by early afternoon the sun had started to break through though so I took a lunchtime walk up to some local woodland which produced plenty of singing resident species including Coal Tit, airborne Buzzard and Red Kite and a vocal flyover Raven. I also inadvertently flushed a Woodcock from an area of low bramble and bracken which gave possibly the best ever flight views I've had of this species to date, lit up beautifully in the sunshine though, of course, too brief an encounter to get a photo.

15th February

A misty start to the day but not too cold and with the promise of warm sunshine burning through relatively early on. That sounded like ideal conditions to find Lesser Spotted Woodpecker so I headed out to a likely area of woodland (location withheld) and was delighted to hear one calling in an area of birch not long after I arrived. This one did a disappearing act pretty quickly but an hour or so later I found the same bird or another one (this one definitely a male - the previous one unsexed due to being backlit) drumming enthusiastically a couple of hundred metres away. Wonderful!

Marsh Tits were in fine voice too as were several Song Thrushes, Great Spotted Woodpeckers and all the common tits. As I was about to head home I flushed my second Woodcock in two days. All in all a pretty great morning!

Marsh Tit

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

By lunchtime it had really turned into an absolutely stunning day so Kate and I headed out for lunch and a brief walk at Fittleworth Common. This was a really unexpected gem, with Marsh Tit again, several Red Admirals on the wing and also a completely unexpected arboretum hidden away among the Sweet Chestnut coppice.

The home straight of winter...

A change in the weather in the two weeks since my last blog post, with the ice having all melted and relatively little rain having fallen the ground conditions in the Arun Valley are remarkably not too muddy now and have allowed for some exploration of areas that have been impassable for weeks thanks to the flooding and the big freeze. We've been treated to some glorious days of spring-like sunshine too which have really helped lift the spirits as we finally reach the end of the hard slog of January and head into February - the home straight of winter!

24th January

Feeling strangely mild (although still barely above freezing), on the first frost-free morning in over a week. In that time the water levels locally have mercifully receded enough to allow me to access the southern entrance to Waltham Brooks, via Thorndale Bridge and the bank of the River Arun. This is where I headed this morning for a little scan of the river and the north-western corner of Amberley Wildbrooks beyond. As I passed under the bridge I noticed an adult Great Black-backed Gull powering north up the river - my second locally in two days! Across the river, a Kingfisher flew away from me up the drainage ditch flowing out of Amberley Wildbrooks. For a second I thought I heard a Water Pipit call but just the one squeak and I didn't see it or hear it again, so wrote it off. Otherwise, it was usual fare here, with a Water Rail squealing somewhere unseen and a few Wigeon, Teal and Shoveler flying up from the river and the wildbrooks. 

Shoveler

25th January

The day began with a Peregrine low over Watersfield first thing, followed by a walk from home to Waltham Brooks. Grey and misty, still very cold but ice gradually thawing. There had been a noticeable increase in ducks on the main lake but still not exactly spectacular for the time of year. Two Red Kites and a Raven were airborne over Amberley Wildbrooks, while at least three Cetti's Warblers were making themselves heard and a Chiffchaff was singing half-heartedly along the river just south of the reserve. 

26th January

Another grey and frost-free morning, after some overnight rain. A check of farmland over near Petworth finally produced my first Yellowhammer of the year (in an area that's normally very good for them and I've already visited twice in January), along with a flock of ~80 Goldfinches and a Grey Wagtail.

27th January

No birding today.

28th January

A half-hour check of Waltham Brooks at lunchtime proved quite lively, with my first Shelduck here this year on the main lake, along with a female Pintail and 300+ dabbling ducks, mostly Teal but also at least 80 each of Shoveler and Wigeon. Overhead, a Raven cronked its way west while two Marsh Harriers flew north.

Early afternoon we found ourselves in the Arundel area so spent a little while up at the Offham viewpoint which produced distant views of the six adult Bewick's Swans feeding down in the water meadows below.

Gadwall

Shelduck and Wigeon

Raven

29th January

A couple of hours at Burton Mill Pond from first light produced quite a lively session. Following on from Mike Dale's report on Twitter of 13 Little Egrets there on the 25th today I found at least 22, all gathered around Chingford Pond along with the now regular Great White Egret (more on that later). The reason for this gathering of egrets (along with several Grey Herons) is evidently due to the water level at Chingford having dropped dramatically since my last visit, exposing lots of lovely mud around the edges, especially at the southern end. It's such a drastic drop in level that it must have been done deliberately and, indeed, there was a guy fiddling with one of the outflows today, and the main outflow out of the dam was dry.

Back to the Great Egret, which I noticed was bearing a red darvic ring on its left leg. I couldn't see any digits on the ring but a bit of online detective work led to the discovery that this bird had probably been ringed on the Avalon Marshes in Somerset. 

Also of note on Chingford Pond were at least 40 Pochard; by far my highest count of the species here, or anywhere locally, so far this winter.

Little Egrets, Great Egret and Grey Heron

Great Egret (with red leg ring)

Extra excitement in the afternoon as I was doing the obligatory Big Garden Birdwatch from our bedroom window and not recording a huge amount when a small flock of Starlings swirling around a little way down the road caught my attention. Just as I thought to myself 'it's a shame I can't count those' they suddenly all jinked sharply in one direction as a fast pointed shape appeared out of the sky from the west and lunged directly at them, missing completely, before continuing off to the east. The compact size, sharply pointed, rapidly flickering wings could only belong to one species: Merlin! An amazing garden and 1k tick that I certainly was not expecting when I sat down to count the Blue Tits. Amazingly, it returned about 15 minutes later, powering back west, quite high, but as I reached for my camera I lost it, unfortunately. 

30th January

Not a huge amount of birding today although I did manage a couple of short walks at Ashdown Forest as I was over there for work purposes. Very quiet here though, despite the pleasantly warm spring-like sunshine, with just the odd Siskin of note among the many Coal Tits and Wrens.

On the way home I popped in at Weir Wood Reservoir where I bumped into local patch watcher Alastair Gray. I didn't have my scope unfortunately but Alastair let me use his to see the lingering two female Wood Ducks and the 51-strong flock of Barnacle Geese. It was also nice to see Grey Herons carrying nest material up to the heronry. Spring is getting closer by the day.

31st January

A pleasantly mild morning. I dropped in to Waltham Brooks again for half an hour as I was passing. The lake again yielded lots of wildfowl including three Shelducks (two of which flew off towards Pulborough) and a pair of Pintail.

Best of all though was a male Yellowhammer which flew in from the south and briefly dropped into the scrub and allows near the lake. My first record here and only the second within my 1k area since moving to Watersfield in September last year.

Yellowhammer

Late morning I headed up to Surrey to meet Ed, mostly to work on the book, but we managed to squeeze in a bit of birding in his 1k area. A Peregrine over Eashing Fields was the highlight, although I actually had seven hotspot ticks here including singing Coal Tit. A walk along the river a bit later in distinctly spring-like conditions produced Grey Wagtail, Sparrowhawk, Red Kite and a flycatching Goldcrest.

On the way home I decided to stop at Burton Mill Pond for a little dusk session which actually turned out to be a very sensible decision. As has become a bit of a thing here lately, the first bird I saw was a Great White Egret flushed from the reeds near the road, although I think a different bird to the one on Sunday, as I couldn't see a red ring on this bird. Little Egrets were trickling over in ones and small groups, heading south to roost, with a single Cattle Egret among them. A Kingfisher darted low over the water towards the outflow channel. Just as the light was fading to its last I had two unexpected Burton Mill Pond ticks in close succession. First, a Goshawk which I picked up late flying lower over the pond before disappearing into the trees on the west side - the whole experience lasting a matter of seconds, but no doubt about the ID. The second was another 'flying away from me by the time I got on it' moment, as I noticed a lone duck flying southwest, the long neck and whirring wingbeats so diagnostic of a Goosander.

Cattle Egret

1st February

I didn't have time for lots of birding today but managed a late morning walk around local farmland and woodland. Lots of singing Song Thrushes, Mistle Thrushes and others, but the highlight was a Peregrine over Lodge Hill and Coldwaltham Farm, presumably the same bird that I've seen a few times since Christmas, so is presumably wintering in the area.

Peregrine

2nd February

I headed over to Pulbrough Brooks this morning for the first time in a couple of weeks (I'm ashamed to say!). There was no sign of the Avocet found by Chris and Juliet Moore yesterday but two Ruff among the many hundreds of Lapwing were a year tick. Also among the Lapwing was a striking leucistic Lapwing which really caught the eye. Otherwise highlights from an hour here were two Snipe, Peregrine, Marsh Harrier and the highest count of ducks I've seen here this winter, including at the very least 80 Pintail.

Leucistic Lapwing

Ruff with Lapwings

3rd February

Not a lot of birding today but anecdotal highlights included five Little Egrets in the wet meadow next to the River Rother in Fittleworth, seen from the car, and the two local White-tailed Eagles (still sounds weird to think of them like that) soaring over the Downs, viewed from my office/bedroom window in the afternoon. Also seen from home was the now daily Raven flying low over the hamlet. I'm sure there must be a pair nesting somewhere in my 1k area but haven't worked out where yet.

4th February

This morning I joined members of Shoreham and District Ornithological Society for a walk round Henfield Levels, led by local birder Val Bentley. This was primarily for the purposes of researching the book, as it's not an area I know well and, last time I visited, most of it was underwater and many of the paths impassable!

Henfield Levels

We had a productive morning with highlights including a Water Rail and several Chiffchaffs at the little pond north of Rye Farm and good numbers of Lapwing (~500) and Teal (400+) along with smaller numbers of Wigeon, Pintail and Shoveler.