Dust and lowering skies

Given that this is supposed to be the relatively quiet period in the birding year, the past fortnight or so has actually been one of the most enjoyable periods of 2023 so far for me, from a local birding perspective. The clear highlight, of course, was finding a Marsh Warbler just a few hundred metres from home, which was still present at the time of writing (update: it has since departed, it seems).

Otherwise it's been a fairly steady stream of waders, Cuckoos and various less common breeding species, plus some of the first high summer butterflies and odonata of the year.

Weather-wise, it's been a relief to get some much-needed rain in the past week or so, including some particularly impressive thunderstorms. I have been once again reminded how spectacular lightning is when it flashes around the South Downs, as storm fronts slowly approach Sussex from the English Channel.

12th June

A fairly brief whizz round Pulborough Brooks this morning produced a pleasing selection of species including 3 Little Ringed Plover, Cuckoo, Dunlin, 10 Avocet, my first Redshank chick of the year, a single White Stork on the North Brooks and at least three Nightingales still singing. 

13th June

I was out of the house before 05:30 this morning (not something that has happened often lately) with my plan being to head up the Arun to Waltham Brooks then back via the sewage works. In the end I never even made it as far as the river as around 500m from home my attention was drawn to an odd Acro song coming from an area of mixed rank vegetation right next to the railway line at Thorndale Bridge. I've often heard Cetti's Warbler in this spot but not Reed Warbler as far as I can remember, so it instantly stood out as rather out of context. This, combined with the fact I was hearing elements of mimicry (including Goldfinch, Swallow, Blackbird, Blue Tit and even Bee-eater) immediately rang alarm bells and my thoughts quickly turned to Marsh Warbler. I positioned myself near the railway bridge and, over the course of the next hour, hoped that the bird would show itself well enough to get some record shorts and audio recordings, which it dutifully did, and I left site at 07:00 very happy I had self-found my first Sussex Marsh Warbler and, indeed my first anywhere in the UK for around ten years!

Marsh Warbler

14th June

A decent session at Burton Mill Pond this morning produced 43 species in 100 minutes. Highlights included a female Mandarin with young on the outflow near the mill house, the Great Crested Grebe pair feeding three young on the main pond and a Little Owl hunting along the fenceline at Burton Park Farm. Two Siskins over Newpiece Moor were also noteworthy, given what a poor first half of the year it's been for the species. Apparently, they were once known as 'barley birds' owing to their tendency to reappear around the onset of high summer (i.e. the time that barley is ripening for harvest), presumably due to dispersing young birds and post-breeding adults.

15th June

Not much birding today aside from an hour or so at Thorndale Bridge in the evening, where I bumped into Michael and Dan Booker, hoping to connect with the Marsh Warbler. Sadly, we didn't have any luck this time, despite a Reed Warbler doing its best to convince us otherwise, by throwing in occasional bursts of Goldfinch mimicry into its song - strange, considering I hadn't heard Reed Warbler here before, but a quick Google search on my phone brought up a BB paper which suggested Reed Warblers which spend any length of time in the vicinity of Marsh Warblers have been known to incorporate mimicry into their songs. A Barn Owl kept us entertained, hunting around Wharf Field, while there were again plenty of Swallows flying about overhead and a Nightingale called briefly by the railway line as I was heading for home. 

16th June

An early two hour session at Pulborough this morning proved to be quite lively. Highlights included all three egrets (9 Little Egret and one each of Great Egret and Cattle Egret), two each of Ringed Plover and Little Ringed Plover together on the North Brooks (which was a bit confusing at first as it's very unusual to see these two species together here at this time of year), singles of Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit and White-tailed Eagle and three White Storks (GB0S, GB6S and GB3U from Knepp). There was still plenty of birdsong around including Yellowhammer and Stonechat near Winpenny and a few bursts of Nightingale around the main trail. There were plenty of young birds about too, especially Whitethroat, with at least three family groups seen. 

White Storks

In the afternoon, I headed down to Worthing with B for a walk around Brooklands Park where the highlights were a newly fledged Reed Warbler, a few Swifts and House Martins, two Cetti's Warblers and two Great Black-backed Gulls. On the way home we dropped in at Knepp to watch a bit of the White Stork ringing.

Reed Warbler

White Stork ringing

17th June

Not much birding today other than a short local walk in the morning which was uneventful. While I was at Knepp in the afternoon and evening, news emerged that the Marsh Warbler had been rediscovered along the riverbank at Waltham Brooks so I swung by on my way home in the hope it might still be singing well after sunset. Sadly no luck, just the odd burst of song from Sedge and Reed Warblers. It was quite impressive and more than a little unnerving to be out on the riverbank as lightning flickered distantly all around, but I was glad to get home before the big storm hit in the small hours!

18th June

WeBS day today so I headed over to the private reservoir near Petworth, which produced the usual fare on the water - Coots, Tufted Ducks, Mallards and singles of Mute Swan and Great Crested Grebe - plus two Little Ringed Plovers on the shore. The best in this area though was discovering an active Barn Owl nest in a farm building, with an adult seen leaving a box which I was able to see contained three small chicks.

The owl theme continued later in the day, as a dusk safari at Knepp produced heard-only Barn Owl and at least two squeaking juvenile Tawny Owls near the campsite. Anecdotally, it seems to have been an excellent year for breeding Tawny Owls, as I've been seeing and hearing them all over the place, especially at Knepp, where at least three pairs have bred in the Southern Block. Also of note this evening was a Peregrine over the Southern Block, not a raptor I see here all that often. 

19th June

Not a great amount of birding today due to other life stuff.

20th June

The first butterfly safari of the season at Knepp this morning produced my first White-letter Hairstreaks of the year, but otherwise not a massive amount of lepidopteran interest, as it was decidedly cool and grey, with even a bit of light rain in the air at times.

21st June

An hour early afternoon checking out the local fields near home for the first time in a while didn't produce much in the way of birds, but it was great to discover a colony of White-letter Hairstreaks in some hedgerow Elms just a couple of hundred metres from the house - in an area I had actually earmarked for the species a few weeks back. It's always nice when that happens! Typically they were either whizzing about at high speed above the trees or hidden up in the foliage, so no useable photos really...

An evening session at Thorndale Bridge and the very south-western corner of Waltham Brooks produced a great selection of species, most notably the Marsh Warbler singing in reeds/willow on the south side of the river. This is the first time I've managed to catch up with this elusive bird since finding it last week. It does seem to be splitting its time between the original location and this spot along the river. It was really belting out its song this evening, until just before 22:00 when it went quiet. Mimicry included Goldfinch, Swallow, Wren, Bee-eater, Blue Tit and Nightingale. 

22nd June

Proving the old adage that it's better to get in the field for a few minutes than not at all, this morning I dropped in at Waltham Brooks for all of 15 minutes on my way to Knepp, but it turned into a surprisingly great little session. The Cuckoo was still singing away along the river, my first 1k Little Grebe for a while was on the main lake but, best of all, a Common Sandpiper was perched up on the post in the middle of the lake before taking flight and disappearing out of view towards the western end. A 1k year tick for me, taking the local total to 116 (146 for the wider 10k). Also my first locally for four weeks - too early to call it the first returning bird of autumn?

Song Thrush

After a great butterfly safari at Knepp which yielded my first Purple Emperors of the year, an evening session in the Beaver enclosure produced some equally breathtaking encounters with the resident pair, including a spectacular tail slap just as we were about to leave! It really is astonishing what a great job they have done of engineering the wetland habitat in this part of the estate in the past 18 months or so. Avian highlights here included multiple singing Chiffchaffs, a couple of croaking and whistling Nightingales and what sounded like at least two fledgling Bullfinches calling in the scrub.

Purple Emperor

 

The Beaver enclosure at Knepp

23rd June

The planned early start didn't happen this morning but, after dropping B at nursery, I headed over to Amberley for an hour walk from the castle entrance up to the river bank and back. A pleasing selection of 40 species were recorded including Cuckoo, Hobby (putting the wind up around 40 Swifts gathered over the castle) and a Mute Swan pair with seven cygnets.

Mute Swans

An evening session up the river from home to Waltham Brooks sadly didn't produce the Marsh Warbler, but three singing male Cuckoos were pretty remarkable to hear so late in June (as reported by Pete Hughes the previous evening too), and a female Mandarin with eight ducklings on the main lake represented my first confirmed breeding for the site.

It begins...

After a dribs and drabs sort of affair for much of March (quite apt after my last blog post), migration has at last stepped up a gear in the past week with some real goodies turning up at Pulborough in recent days.

The undoubted star of the show was the stunning male Pied Flycatcher which has been present since Saturday morning until the time of writing. It was performing particularly well this morning along the fence line in the northeast corner of Brook Field, and this evening was flicking around one of the large Oaks up Green Lane. Although we've had a couple of good autumns for this species on the reserve, this certainly wasn't one on my radar to add to the year list so soon. Indeed, it's the first one I've seen in the spring here, and the first adult male I've seen anywhere for years.

Pied Flycatcher

One of the true harbingers of spring at Pulborough, the first Nightingale of the year rather hesitantly announced its arrival along Adder Alley on Easter Day, followed by another singing very briefly at the Hanger this evening; three days earlier than my previous earliest record here. 

There's a nice selection of waders to be seen on the North Brooks now, with up to three pairs of Avocet looking very settled, plus up to three Little Ringed Plovers, several pairs of Redshank and Lapwing and five Ruff. 24 Black-tailed Godwit stayed for a few days last week, many resplendent in breeding plumage, but these have since moved on. A Grey Plover on the North Brooks this morning was the first I've seen on the reserve since 2019. Sadly, its stay was short-lived as it met its end at the talons of a Peregrine this afternoon. 

Wildfowl numbers have really dropped now. There were a couple of drake Pintails lingering into this weekend and a dozen or so Wigeon and Shoveler as of yesterday but otherwise it's only really the Teal hanging on in reasonable numbers. The first Garganey of the year, a splendid drake, showed well on the North Brooks on Wednesday and Thursday but hasn't been seen since.

Garganey. Photo: Dave Carlsson

Warbler numbers continue to increase, with dozens of Chiffchaffs around now, many paired up and already nest building, and Blackcap numbers are steadily building too. The first Willow Warbler turned up on 31st March, followed by at least two more this past weekend. Strangely no Sedge Warbler or Whitethroat yet, although it's still early days, but the Cetti's Warbler persists below the Hanger.

Chiffchaff

It took until the last weekend of March for me to see my first Sand Martins, and Swallows only began trickling through last week, but this past weekend has seen good numbers of both, plus the first House Martin of the year on Easter Day.

Other highlights from this weekend included a year first Great Crested Grebe on the Arun on Saturday and Sunday, a fly-through male Hen Harrier on Saturday and a sloughing male Adder enjoying the sun (out of the wind!) most days.

Great Crested Grebe

Adder

After such a great ten days or so, my patch year list now stands on 119, out of a total of 121 for the reserve so far. Hopefully once this icy spell has passed the flood gates will really open!

Pulborough, 7th-14th May. Waders get moving

It's been a bit more lively on the patch in the past week thanks to some more favourable conditions, and new species for the year have started coming at a rather more seasonal rate once again.

Aside from up to three Little Ringed Plovers on the North Brooks and a lingering trio of Whimbrel near West Mead, the bulk of the wader action has been on just about the most distant area of wet mud imaginable, on the area of the Mid Brooks nearest the Arun (see map below). It's here that highlights of the past week have been up to a dozen Dunlin (on the 10th and 12th) and six Ringed Plover (on the 10th). At least one Greenshank has been doing the rounds too and there was one in this area on the 12th, while the same or another was at West Mead on the 13th. The first Wood Sandpiper of the year was a good find by Paul Davy on the 7th, first in the Hog Brook area, then later refound by Gary Trew on the North Brooks.

A single Avocet was at West Mead on the 9th and was joined by a second on the 10th. The pair have been touring the reserve since then and today were largely on the North Brooks. A Snipe flew up from the South Brooks on the morning of the 11th which is encouraging as drumming has been heard on at least a couple of occasions recently. Rather unexpected on the 12th were two Barnacle Geese on the South Brooks.

My first Yellow Wagtail of the year was a welcome sight and sound flying over West Mead on the morning of the 11th, especially as it took me until the autumn to get one here last year. Equally welcome was a very vocal Spotted Flycatcher in Black Wood this morning - my first of the year - following on from two together near Little Hanger on the 10th, found by John Russell. Anna Allum found a further two singing males/pairs on her breeding bird survey in the wooded heath area this morning. Is it me or does this species seem to have had a littlee 'comeback' in the past couple of years?

Last year the last couple of weeks of May really produced the fireworks on the wader front; here's hoping for a repeat performance this year!

26th and 27th January: Pulborough and Coldwaltham

I didn't get in a huge amount of time on the patch this weekend owing to being in Hampshire from Saturday lunchtime to Sunday lunchtime for the wedding of two very good friends. Despite that, I still managed to sneak a couple of patch year ticks.

Two hours at Pulborough first thing on Saturday before the wedding and the rain was a fairly lively session with my first Barn Owl of 2019 quartering over the South Brooks followed by an immature male Marsh Harrier causing havoc over the North Brooks. A decent selection of waders too with the highlights being at least five Ruff (Ads Bowley had ten later in the day), 36 Black-tailed Godwits and a single Golden Plover in with the Lapwings. Shelduck numbers are starting to increase now with at least 17 yesterday and 16 today.

Sadly I couldn't find the two White-fronted Geese that have been around on and off a few times this month, most recently on Friday, so it was a bit galling to see Sean Moore and Ads Bowley reporting them as present again on the North Brooks from late morning yesterday. Clearly these birds don't get up as early as I do!

With that in mind, when we got home just after noon today I quickly set up my scope in the attic and set about scanning what was clearly a good size flock of geese just south of the Stor. It took a while thanks to unfavourable sunlight and the distance but I eventually picked up the White-fronts among the Canadas and Greylags. Later on I dropped in to the reserve and had much better views of them from the Hanger - they were still in much the same spot when I headed home a little after 16:00.

With no news on the Glaucous Gull at Holmethorpe SP in Surrey since yesterday morning - which I was tempted to go and see - I decided instead to stay much closer to home and dropped in to Coldwaltham Sewage Works early afternoon in the hope of finding the two Siberian Chiffchaffs which have been around for a week or so at least.

Having not visited since the autumn I was pleased to find the place absolutely heaving with Chiffchaffs - certainly at least fifteen but likely many more. Some clumps of Willow had four or five in at a time and there were often as many as that flycatching out over the filter beds. I quickly found a Firecrest flicking around the brambles near the main gate but after an hour of sifting through the Chiffs still hadn't seen one I felt happy calling a tristis. Another look through the gate just as I was about to call it a day revealed a very cold two-tone looking Chiff on the edge of one of the filter beds - this looked the part. It flew off into the brambles and a short while later I heard a couple of clear tristis-type calls close by and the two Siberian Chiffchaffs revealed themselves together. As reported by Alan Kitson last week, these two do seem to associate with one another rather more exclusively instead of just tagging along with the other Common Chiffs. Nice birds to see so close to home.

Siberian Chiffchaff, Coldwaltham Sewage Works

Pulborough, mid-August: getting busy!

Return migration has really stepped up a gear in the past few days it seems - particularly on the passerine front - and this morning at Pulborough was without doubt the best visit of the autumn so far. After the disappointment of missing Clive Hope's Pied Flycatcher a couple of weeks ago and then yet another Osprey last weekend which, from Gary Trew's description probably flew right over my house (!), one of my patch bogey birds fell at last today with a male Redstart working its way along the hedge just north of Redstart Corner.

Redstart

While I was watching it I heard a Yellow Wagtail fly over, my first of the year and later followed by another heard only at the Hanger and a third being chased around the North Brooks by the Pied Wagtails. This species came tantalisingly close to being added to the patch year list a few days earlier with several calls recorded during my first nocmig session of the season on Monday night, but more on that later. The hedgerows were teeming with warblers today, largely Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Whitethroat and a few Willow Warblers, but also a Garden Warbler near West Mead, a Reed Warbler near Winpenny and at least five Lesser Whitethroats dotted about. Best of all though was the Tree Pipit kicking about in the Blackthorns near West Mead. Only my second record of this species here.

Tree Pipit (and Song Thrush)

There were potentially as many as ten Whinchats about with 4-5 seen on the North Brooks and the same amount on the South Brooks. Reported by others but not seen by me were two Spotted Flycatchers on the far eastern side of the reserve and three near Winpenny later in the day, and a Wheatear on the North Brooks. Good numbers of House Martins and Sand Martins, with the latter mostly streaming straight through while the former were lingering and feeding over the site. These inevitably attracted the attentions of a Hobby which plunged straight through the middle of a flock above the path down to Nettleys. A juvenile Marsh Harrier was again doing the rounds - I saw it from Redstart Corner and later from the visitor centre but others also saw it quartering over the North Brooks. Other than sixty-odd Lapwing there wasn't too much of note on the wader front today, with just two Dunlin and three Green Sandpipers on the North Brooks. Indeed it's been a little quiet on that side of things lately with nothing majorly noteworthy since my Wood Sand a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully September will bring a few more goodies.

View from 'the Obs' (attic) during one of the recent storms

Interestingly my first nocmigging attempts of the autumn this week have provided a bit more wader variety, in particular my first recorded Whimbrel(s) over the house, with six calls from an indeterminable number of birds recorded very early Tuesday morning. Other bits of note include the aforementioned Yellow Wags, a Common Sandpiper, a Little Ringed Plover and a Snipe. Quite a few strange tics and whistles too, particularly on Monday night - most of them as yet unidentified. Ortolan Bunting next?...

Pulborough, late July

An encouraging last few days of July with some signs of migration stepping up a gear and the unusually prolonged hot and dry spell breaking at last with some much needed rain arriving over the weekend.

The rain didn't do a great deal to raise the water levels on the patch, mind, with the North Brooks still the only area offering anything for waders and waterfowl - so it's here I've been largely focussing my early morning efforts recently.

An hour before work on Friday (27th) produced my only year tick of the month with a Grasshopper Warbler (142 on the patch year list) reeling briefly along the footpath on the east side of the North Brooks. It was still present in the same area on Sunday morning but again keeping well hidden.

Waders have been in surprisingly short supply, relatively speaking, despite my best efforts in the foul weather on Sunday morning which I had high hopes would deliver something tasty, especially given the numbers of Whimbrels and Curlew Sandpipers moving elsewhere the previous day. Indeed it's been business as usual for a while now with a fairly standard selection of varying numbers of Green Sandpipers, Common Sandpipers, half a dozen or so Black-tailed Godwits and ones or twos of Dunlin and Little Ringed Plover. It's good to see Snipe numbers gradually increasing though with at least ten dotted around the North Brooks on Saturday morning.

On the wildfowl front there are a few Shoveler and Teal to be picked out among the Mallards, but an eclipse drake Wigeon on Saturday morning was a little more unexpected. This is presumably either or failed breeder or perhaps one that has summered somewhere fairly locally.

Talking of species I haven't seen a great deal of locally since the spring, on Saturday morning there was a decent trickle of Sand Martins moving through and an immature Marsh Harrier dropped in and quartered for a while, putting the wind up all the other birds on the North Brooks.

After the previous weekend's single juvenile Mediterranean Gull, two more dropped in during the rain on Sunday morning just gone. It seems to have been a good summer for this species generally with some amazing counts along the south coast and juveniles popping up all over the place inland. I've not had much experience with young ones in the past so it's been good to get my eye in on them and I now find they stand out like a sore thumb among the more frequently seen Black-headeds.

Mediterranean Gulls

As I mentioned in my previous patch round-up the single Whinchat on the 21st was unexpectedly early, and Saturday just gone there were at least two kicking around: an adult male still in near breeding finery and one very young-looking juvenile. Gary Trew reported one in the same area on Tuesday this week. This all seems rather early for a string of migrants to be moving through already so I'm actually beginning to wonder if they haven't in fact bred somewhere fairly nearby -  especially as it appears the species has bred up on Cissbury Ring this summer which is not very far away.

Whinchats (honest!)

Mind you, with the days now getting perceptibly shorter as we head into August and an autumnal freshness just starting to creep into the mornings and evenings, it hopefully won't be long before return passage really kicks off!

Bank Holiday birding

I made two visits to the Brooks on Friday to see if the ongoing waderfest had any more surprises in store. At Winpenny in the morning there were five Greenshank and sixteen Ringed Plover while in the evening I bumped into Anna Allum and Graham Jenner and we all enjoyed good views of a spangly Wood Sandpiper. A Water Vole swam across the pool in front of the hide which was a nice bonus. I ended the day with a watch across the Mid Brooks from behind the visitor centre which produced an impressive 75+ Rooks flying west to roost, then wandered over to the heath where a single male Nightjar churred near Black Pond and a couple of Stag Beetles flew around. Thankfully I remembered my insect repellent this time - the Pulborough midges are ruthless!

On Saturday morning I spent a couple of hours at Winpenny with Alan Baker where I finally caught up with the very smart summer plumage male Grey Plover reported the previous couple of days along with the first summer bird, now present for its sixth day. It's good to see several Redshank and Lapwing chicks around now - apparently seven pairs of the former and twenty pairs of the latter have bred onsite this year, which is great news.

Grey Plover

Also here were four Greenshank and three Ringed Plover. The North Brooks held a single Black-tailed Godwit and a couple of Shoveler and Teal, while at Hail's View I found a hawking Hobby, and the regular Great Spotted Woodpecker pair still busy feeding young. By the time I headed home it was getting very warm so I stopped at Black Pond for a bit to take in the impressive numbers of dragonflies here, mostly Four-spotted Chasers but also the odd Hairy Dragonfly and others too quick for me to identify! (Odonatology is not my strongest subject but I'm determined this year to try and learn more as Pulborough is a perfect place to do so).

Four-spotted Chaser

Just a couple of fairly brief visits on Sunday and Monday morning were enough to show the wader extravaganza was coming to an end with 'just' four Greenshank, eight Black-tailed Godwits and two Ringed Plover on Sunday and just the Godwits again on Monday. Still, it was exhilarating while it lasted, and perhaps there's still one more gem to come before things really quieten down into the summer months? But then, if birding teaches us anything, it's to expect the unexpected!

Greenshank

I spent most of Monday exploring some famous but hitherto unknown to me sites in East Sussex, trying to help Charlie Peverett with his attempt to record 110 species in the Newhaven/Hailsham area in a single day. I joined Charlie a few hours into his marathon at Splash Point where the sea proved to be very quiet but we still managed to add Sandwich Tern, Gannet, Rock Pipit and Kittiwake to the day list, along with a few other common bits. I'd never been here before so the Kittiwake colony on the cliffs was quite a sight to behold.

Kittiwakes

Our travels later took us to Charlie's patch of Pevensey Levels, a remarkable East Anglian-style landscape, where fellow patch watcher Chris Ball had earlier found a Rose-coloured Starling, which we soon caught up with, along with Yellow Wagtail and Hobby for the day list. We then headed to Arlington Reservoir, hoping the gathering storm clouds would drop a Black Tern or something special, but in the end the best birds here were Little Egret, Common Sand and Nightingale, plus a singing Yellowhammer which was another day tick. Charlie and I parted ways early evening and he went on to notch up 87 species in total; really not too bad for the time of year and the limited area in which he was recording. Perhaps we can try again next year with a bit more success!

Rosy Starling, Horse-eye Level - the fourth time I've seen this species but the first time in near full adult plumage

Bramblings for tea!

Nice to catch up with the Bramblings still frequenting the tea room feeding station at Pulborough this evening after work. Only my second record of the species on the patch after a single flyover last autumn, and my 115th species here this year. Thanks to Gary Trew for the Twitter heads-up!

The Spoonbill was still present on the North Brooks today

- photo by Gary Trew