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.