New year, new list

Yes, I'm back blogging! After a very hectic but thoroughly enjoyable year in 2022 where blogging pretty much went out of the window, I've decided to try and ease back into it with semi-regular diary-type updates on my day-to-day birding. (Thanks to Ed for the inspiration and encouragement!)

1st January

A leisurely start to the new year campaign saw me strolling over to Waltham Brooks for a couple of hours. Water levels were the highest I've seen them so far this winter, which produced good numbers of ducks, including five Pintail. Passing Peregrine and Marsh Harrier flushed all the ducks as they headed over towards Amberley. A check of the sewage works produced the usual scattering of Chiffchaffs and a Grey Wagtail, while a Marsh Tit was calling in the woodland just to the south as I departed.

2nd January

In keeping with seemingly most of West Sussex I headed over to Pulborough Brooks mid-morning. The regular White-tailed Eagles put on a great show, tucking into a carp brunch on the North Brooks. Just as I arrived Steve B and former Pulborough stalwart Jon W had just found a Water Pipit from the Hanger which was still present and showed well (for Pulborough) during our stay at the viewpoint here. Also on show on the North Brooks were a Kingfisher and various other year ticks including Common Gull and three flyover Skylarks. Round on the south side I also caught up with the adult Great Black-backed Gull found by Paul Davy the previous day - almost as rare here as Water Pipit! At West Mead four Snipe showed nicely on one of the islands; another year tick.

White-tailed Eagle

Kestrel

Snipe

3rd January

I'd resigned myself to a non-birding day today after a couple of hours working at Knepp early morning followed by a dentist appointment. Just as I was leaving the dentist though, my phone pinged with a message from Pulborough RSPB volunteer Gary T, saying he'd just found two Bewick's Swans on the South Brooks. I dashed round (it was on the way home, after all!) and enjoyed distant views of them from behind the visitor centre. I tried to get a closer look from the Black Wood side a bit further down the road towards home but, evidently, by the time I got there, the birds had departed.

Bewick's Swans

4th January

A brief check of Burton Mill Pond first thing yielded a lone drake Pochard, four Little Grebes, a squealing Water Rail and two Ravens tumbling overhead. This was planned to be my only birding of the day but, just as I was about to head home, news broke via Chris and Juliet Moore of a Little Gull over at Pulborough, so I dashed over there for the second time in two days. A 15-minute scan from Hail's View sadly didn't produce any gulls at all, with just the standard wildfowl and four Red Kites on show. I decided to head home via a short stop at Greatham Bridge, in the hope that the Little Gull had relocated to Waltham or Widney Brooks, given the amount of flood water in the valley at the moment. It hadn't, but a Cattle Egret hunched on the riverbank was a nice consolatory year tick, as was a Nuthatch calling in the trees just to the east of the bridge.

5th January

Another early morning stroll over to Waltham Brooks from home produced two new species for the local year list. The first came just as I had crossed the railway line into the main reserve when I picked up three Little Egrets flying north together just beyond the Arun. The second only made its presence known as I was heading home past the same area about 40 minutes later and heard the distinctive chur call of a Dartford Warbler. After a little while it appeared, typically with a pair of Stonechats in tow. This was in the exact same spot I had a Dartford on 17th October, so it seems likely it's the same bird that's been wintering in the area. Other highlights from this morning included two Snipe flushed from the marshy ground a little way east of the railway crossing, at least three squealing Water Rail and nine Tufted Ducks on the main lake.

Dartford Warbler

Stonechat

6th January

Only the second sunny start to a day so far this week/year saw me exploring a stretch of local woodland which produced my first Firecrest of the year as well as a few early hints of spring, including drumming and squabbling Great Spotted Woodpeckers and a vocal pair of Mistle Thrushes.

Back home for work, I watched the weather gradually deteriorate through the window, but it didn't dissuade two young Red Kites from putting on a great show low over the rooftops of our neighbourhood, one even swooping down into a nearby garden before lifting back up clutching a wad of grass.

Firecrest

Red Kite

7th January

A wet and windy morning which didn't encourage me to get out early. Eventually I dashed over to Pulborough Brooks for the fourth time this week, mid-morning, to see the three Brent Geese found by RSPB volunteer, Rob King. Viewing from the edge of Black Wood, it didn't take long to pick them out among the grazing Canada Geese. After a blank year in 2022, these were my first local Brents since May 2021.

There didn't seem to be much else going on here so I headed down to Amberley to have a scan of the flood water there, hoping for a Little Gull or even a Kittiwake which had been turning up at a few inland sites in recent days. Scanning from near Rackham Mill I found a drake Goosander, Marsh Harrier and at least 2000 Lapwing. A message from Paul Davy alerted me to the presence of the two adult Bewick's Swans, which I wasn't able to see from my angle. I got him on the Goosander before heading up the hill to meet him at Cross Gate. Luckily I stopped a little way further up to have another scan and picked up the Bewick's, as by the time I got to Paul they had departed south-west (later seen by others at their popular haunt of Burpham Water Meadows near Arundel). It was still good to catch up with Paul though and from the higher viewpoint we also had the two White-tailed Eagles drifting over the reserve.

Brent Geese

8th January

Not loads of birding today but a walk down the lane this morning produced a Grey Heron rather incongruously feeding among the Rooks and Jackdaws in a horse paddock, followed by a flyover year tick Sparrowhawk. Late morning we headed over to Waltham Brooks which was relatively quiet aside from at least 20 Tufted Ducks on the main lake and a flyover Red Kite. The local year list now stands on 86, with 73 of those species recorded in the 1km from home recording area.

Grey Heron

9th January

A walk around local farmland up to Thorndale Bridge this morning didn't produce anything particularly out of the ordinary but a Marsh Harrier was flushing Teal from the marshland near the bridge.

Bird of the day was the Marsh Tit which visited our garden very briefly mid-morning, attracting my attention with its sneezing call while I was working in the house. It stayed a matter of seconds before flying off west. 

10th January

Another squally morning, and a check of some local water bodies first thing didn't produce much other than some very wet optics and the need for a full change of clothes when I got home. 

A stroll round the local farmland mid-afternoon in a break in the rain was similarly uneventful, although it was good to see several hundred Lapwing wheeling about over Amberley Wildbrooks. Otherwise, today definitely felt like a 'roll on Spring' kind of birding day!

Roe Deer