21st September
Another early start at Petworth for a check of the reservoir there as it's been on a bit of a roll recently. This morning proved to be a bit of a quiet one though, with just a single Wigeon of note among the assembled wildfowl on the water and a couple of flyover Yellow Wagtails. A scan of the South Brooks from the tea terrace at Pulborough proved even more quiet, not helped by the thick fog which was slow to clear.
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Wigeon |
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Pulborough fog! |
A look at Southlands Farm on my way to Knepp late afternoon produced a
Green Sandpiper and eight
Shoveler on the pool there. Continuing the
Shoveler theme, eleven flew north over the Southern Block during my dusk safari at Knepp this evening.
22nd September
Not much time for birding today as I had a packed day of morning and afternoon safaris and a staff party at Knepp. A brief look at Waltham Brooks on the way to Knepp produced a light easterly movement of Swallows but little else of note.
23rd September
WeBs count a day late today, so I headed over to Petworth in the rain. A drake Pochard was on the reservoir among the usual Tufted Ducks, Mallards, Little Grebes and three Shoveler, while the lingering Common Sandpiper was still patrolling the shoreline. A first-winter Common Gull almost dropped in briefly before flying off east.
A lunchtime walk round the local farmland produced a modest 27 species but did include my first local Willow Warbler for almost two weeks plus at least one Hobby (one flew high east, then a bit later a juvenile was hawking over Lodge Hill which may have been a second bird but hard to be sure). A light south/south-westerly passage of Herring Gulls included two adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls.
24th September
After dropping B off at nursery I stopped off in Pulborough for a walk down to the North Brooks. Straight away it was clear there were a lot more ducks about than on my last visit, as a female Marsh Harrier flushed some 400 or more from the wet grassland on the north side of the North Brooks. These were mostly Mallard and Teal but with at least 10-15 Wigeon and a single Gadwall among them. Another 250 or more Teal were on the North Brooks proper along with two juvenile Ruff among ~120 Lapwing.
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Ruff and Teal |
Late afternoon I dropped in at Petworth again. The lingering
Common Sandpiper was still about - will it stay into October? A female
Pochard was sleeping among the
Tufted Ducks and three
Shoveler were still present. I haven't seen many hirundines locally for a couple of days, so it was a pleasant surprise to see some 150 or so drifting gently east during my hour here, mostly
House Martins.
25th September
I managed my first proper little vismig watch of the season this morning, albeit only 25 minutes (it was a year ago yesterday that I broke and dislocated my shoulder in a skateboarding accident and am feeling strangely nostalgic about the amount of time it afforded me to get out and enjoy the spectacle of visible migration at this time of year!) The main movers this morning were
House Martins, with some 226 south/south-west over the garden in the aforementioned half hour.
In a repeat performance of yesterday I again headed over to Petworth in the afternoon for a check of the reservoir. A
Golden Plover called overhead as I arrived (though I never did manage to see it!). Other highlights were seven
Pochard among the usual suspects on the water and a dark-masked first-winter
Herring Gull which did have me trying to turn it into a Yellow-legged.
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Herring Gull |
26th September
An early walk from home out to Waltham Brooks proved relatively quiet aside from a Marsh Harrier flying upriver, two Stonechats and a rather late Whitethroat in the meadow, and a light trickle of House Martins flying east/south-east.
Late afternoon, with some lively showers moving through, I again headed over to Petworth. A juvenile
Great Crested Grebe was back on the reservoir along with 30
Little Grebes, five
Pochards, four
Shoveler and the usual scattering of
Coots and
Tufted Ducks. A first-winter
Common Gull flew south/south-east, while a few
Swallows and a single
House Martin flew north-west.
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Egyptian Geese |
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Grey Wagtail |
27th September
A little tour of some wetland sites out to the western side of my patch area in the rain first thing today. At Petworth, some 360
Canada Geese and 150
Egyptian Geese left roost at the reservoir, leaving behind the four
Shoveler again and a couple of
Pochard. Next up, a brief scan of Burton Mill Pond from the roadside, which proved fairly lively, mostly in terms of vismig, with at least 52
Swallows through west/north-west in the 25 minutes or so I was there.
Water Rail is pretty much guaranteed here most visits but usually heard only, so I got a bit of a shock when one suddenly appeared from underneath the boat jetty where I was stood and flew into the reeds nearby!
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Mute Swans |
The scrape at Bignor Park is again holding water for the first time since May. Just eight
Mallards on it this morning but it's good to know it's worth checking again in passing.
Early afternoon I headed out for a stroll round the local fields. By now the cloud cover and breeze had increased quite a bit and it was feeling considerably more autumnal, and this was reflected in the birds. Some 80 or more hirundines (roughly 3/1
House Martin/
Swallow) were moving through or lingering to feed among the cattle, sometimes whizzing past just a few metres from me. Continuing the vismig theme, two
Marsh Harriers flew south together over Waltham Brooks, a tight flock of large gulls high south seemed to be all
Lesser Black-backed Gulls, and a heard-only
Siskin heading south-west represented my first record locally for several weeks. A little flurry of passerines in the hedgerow nearest the Waltham Brooks boundary included at least ten
Chiffchaffs and a single
Goldcrest but sadly nothing rarer.
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House Martin |
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Swallow |
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Lesser Black-backed Gulls |
28th September
Very little birding today as I was leading back-to-back beaver pen safaris at Knepp. A quick glance at the pool at Southlands Farm on the way past produced eight
Shoveler and three
Teal but little else.
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Southlands Farm |
It was an absolute beauty of a morning but really quite cold, with proper ice on the windscreen. Clearly it was lively on the vismig front judging by messages in various WhatsApp groups and this was well illustrated by a
Skylark over the beaver enclosure at Knepp - not a common bird here. A
Redstart was also a nice bonus flying in front of the off road vehicle a couple of times as I was driving the group around.
29th September
I was up Amberley Mount at first light this morning in the hope of some success from my first proper vismig session of the autumn. Two hours up here proved to be fairly lively, with waves of hirundines coming through, making up the bulk of the birds. There were little nuggets of interest from other species throughout to pique the interest though, including a
Hawfinch flying east, two
Golden Plover south-west, a juvenile
Mute Swan high south-west over Bury Hill and, most frustratingly, what I'm pretty sure were two Commic Terns high north/north-east but which I got on too late to get any salient features. The absolute worst feeling in birding: when you know you've potentially got a good bird in view but it sails away from you before you can clinch the ID!
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Dawn up Amberley Mount |
30th September
A wet start to the day. After dropping B at nursery I headed over to Pulborough for a look at the North Brooks. The water levels were quite a bit higher than my last visit, with not much in the way of muddy margins for waders. Four Snipe and around ten Lapwing were the best of the bunch on the deck, although I did also flush a Green Sandpiper from a ditch halfway along the public right of way back to the village. I also heard a Golden Plover calling but couldn't see it, presumably just a flyover. Duck numbers continue to rise, with somewhere in the region of 450 Teal this morning, with nine Shoveler and two Wigeon among them.
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