Lightning strikes twice

With the autumnal equinox now just around the corner and the days growing considerably shorter, my pre-work patch visits are sadly almost over for this year.

After yesterday morning's total fog-off, my initial thoughts at 5.45 this morning were that it would be too dark to get in any useful birding time at the Brooks, so I almost didn't bother. I'm glad I did...

Arriving at the North Brooks at around 6.20 I set up my scope and almost immediately found myself looking at a Phalarope! The light and distance initially hampered definite ID but, moving round to Jupp's View, I was able to confirm it as a juvenile Red-necked Phalarope - only the second Pulborough record of this species and, remarkably, just three months after the first back in June!

Red-necked Phalarope - photo by George Kinnard

I hastily put the news out and was pleased to see regulars Alan Baker and Chris & Juliet Moore arrive swiftly, who I gladly put on to the bird. Thankfully it hung around all day for plenty of other birders to connect with too.

Otherwise it's been a relatively quiet few weeks since my previous post on here, although a patch tick Pied Flycatcher on 29th August and a Marsh Tit on the 2nd of this month helped nudge the year list up to 140. Not sure this year will be the one where I reach 150 (149 last year...) but if birding teaches us anything it's to expect the unexpected. One thing's for certain, I won't let a bit of a gloomy morning put me off getting down the patch again!

Pied Flycatcher

  

13th June 2019

What a strange year it's been. Several new additions to my Pulborough list (which now stands at 165) and yet I'm languishing a clear ten species behind on the year list compared to this time in 2018.

With a relatively quiet spring seemingly coming to an unexpectedly grand finale with the two Black-winged Stilts the other week I'd naturally assumed we were now well into the doldrum days of summer and that there wouldn't be much in the way of surprises for a few weeks yet. I was a little taken aback, therefore, to see various notifications pop up on my phone on Thursday morning alerting me to a Phalarope 'spinning around' on the North Brooks. Alan Kitson got there impressively quickly and confirmed the ID - a Red-necked, a first for Pulborough!

Photo: Dave Carlsson

Photo: Dave Carlsson

There then commenced a rather nerve-wracking few hours as I had to leave work in Guildford early anyway for an appointment in Bognor before I could get back to Pulborough late afternoon. Thankfully the bird stuck around long enough and, indeed, stayed overnight and for the duration of Friday, enabling many birders to connect with it - a great bird for the Brooks and Sussex in general.

In a pretty extraordinary twist of fate, Alan K had posted a tweet just the day before reminiscing about a RN Phalarope at Amberley Wildbrooks on 12th June 1965 (plus 33 pairs of Yellow Wagtail and 15 pairs of Tree Sparrow at Pulborough!!). His notebook sketches (below) are a wonderful slice of birding nostalgia.