The end of March

Two things you can say about March are it's never predictable and it's never dull. After several springs in a row of largely fine, north-easterly airflow dominated weather conditions, we have been overdue a proper wet, squally, Atlantic-driven start to the season - and that is sure what we have been getting plenty of this second half of March!

In terms of birds, it's fair to say that, unless you spend the entirety of March indoors, you cannot fail to see at least one migrant species by the end of the month and this year has been no exception. That said, while hirundine numbers have been extraordinary (I reckon I've already seen well over 200 Sand Martins and at least 10 Swallows locally in the last two weeks - more hirundines than I can ever recall seeing so early) passerine migrants have been relatively thin on the ground, with just a good scattering of Chiffchaffs, a single (admittedly rather early) Sedge Warbler and one or two Blackcaps noted so far.

20th March

A drizzly, murky start to the day with a return to south-westerly airflow. I dropped in at Waltham Brooks as I was passing and was immediately greeted by the sight of two Sand Martins hawking over the main lake - my first of the year here. The Tufted Duck flock had now increased to 29, which seems a pretty amazing number for the relatively small amount of water here. Later on in the session a Great White Egret flew in from Amberley and dropped into the main lake and the visit was topped off nicely by a singing Blackcap along Brook Lane as I was about to leave. My first record locally this year.

Great Egret

21st March

A little tour of local sites this morning produced good numbers of Sand Martins, including at least 18 at Waltham Brooks, but not a huge amount else. ~40 Fieldfare near Swan Bridge in Pulborough will surely be one of the last large local counts of this first winter period.

While working from home during the day I noted two lots of two Sand Martins flying past the window, the first pair going north and the second two going west. Clearly a good day for movement of this species. I'm not sure I've ever had so many records of Sand Martin by such an early date in March. Sadly no local Alpine Swift yet though...

A little lunchtime walk round the local farmland didn't produce too much although there were quite a few raptors up and about, including at least four each of Red Kite and Buzzard and one of the White-tailed Eagles drifting lazily south over Amberley.

White-tailed Eagle - so massive you can't miss it, even from a kilometre away!

22nd March

Not a huge amount of birding today as I was mostly up in Godalming with Ed working on the book. Passing through Fittleworth first thing though I briefly stopped by the river to scan the water meadows here, as I noticed quite a few Little Egrets from the car. Sure enough, I counted an impressive 21 feeding here - my highest count here by some margin and, indeed, the largest congregation of the species I've ever seen anywhere locally, I think!

Fittleworth water meadows (and some of the 21 Little Egrets)

After a long session of book work, Ed and I headed out for a short session at Eashing Fields late afternoon. We joked that we were going to try and find me five ticks for my eBird hotspot list. In the end we managed eight in a little over half an hour! This included both mine and Ed's first Swallow of the year which I picked up first, dashing south over the fields to the east of the site; evidently only the second anywhere in Surrey this year after one at Holmethorpe a couple of hours before. Other highlights from what turned out to be a pretty lively session included a Peregrine heading west and two Greylag Geese flying north-west, which Ed tells me was only the seventh site record!

23rd March

This morning I headed over to Waltham Brooks at first light in the hope of relocating the Garganey reported yesterday by Graeme Charles. In the end it wasn't to be but it was still an enjoyable, if rather blustery, session here; 49 species in total including Water Pipit, 5 Sand Martins, Marsh Harrier at least 3 Shelduck and 8 singing Chiffchaffs. Oh and a drake Mandarin flying about at breakneck speed when I arrived - don't see too many of those here!

Later in the day I headed out for another short walk round the local farmland which was again pretty windy and quiet, bird-wise, save for half a dozen Sand Martins powering into the wind over towards Amberley.

24th March

Another blustery and showery day. I popped my head in at Waltham Brooks again briefly as I was passing in the morning. Not a huge amount doing here aside from the usual wildfowl on the lake and singing Chiffchaff, Cetti's Warbler, etc. One of the introduced White-tailed Eagles got up over the treeline east of the river and drifted south over Amberley.

White-tailed Eagle

In the afternoon I was on my way back home from my mum's house in Hampshire so had a quick look at some farmland near Petworth. It was very windy indeed by this point, so again not a huge amount to write home about, but a flock of ~100 Linnet whizzing around over the fields was nice to see.

Linnets

25th March

An early morning stroll out to the river didn't go quite as planned, mainly because in my bleary-eyed state I strayed too deep into a large puddle under Thorndale Bridge and my wellies filled with water! Lesson learned, I headed home without much reward, aside from a Blackcap singing briefly on River Lane in Watersfield.

Mid-morning I headed over to Pulborough Brooks which again felt largely quiet, although it was great to see my first local Swallow of the year flying over Fattengates. Duck numbers have really dropped away now, and there were three Avocets on the North Brooks. It was pleasant enough in the sunshine to persuade a Brimstone butterfly to emerge and give a flypast near the visitor centre, otherwise it still felt quite wintry in the blustery south-westerly wind.

26th March

A switch to north-easterly winds and rain before dawn sounded like a good recipe for producing some migrants, so I headed out to check a couple of water bodies at first light. First up I checked the private reservoir over near Petworth which was productive - in 90 minutes here I had a dozen Sand Martins through, with one Swallow among them, while on the shoreline of the res were four Little Ringed Plovers and a single Dunlin. In the fields nearby the Linnet flock was somewhere in the region of 120 birds, all whirling about over the fields and hedges.

Dunlin and Little Ringed Plovers

After this I went over to Waltham Brooks for a bit of a stakeout. Sadly no sign of the Garganey in an hour here but I did have at least 80 Sand Martins through in waves, each group dropping in to feed over the lake for a short while before continuing north.

A late afternoon walk round the local farmland didn't produce much aside from the resident Rooks noisily flying to and from their nests. It's pretty mad that we've almost reached the end of March and I still haven't found a local Wheatear...

27th March

A change of scene this morning as I decided to head up Amberley Mount for the first time in quite a while, partly driven by the desire to find a Wheatear, but also just as a break from hammering the local wetland sites. As I ascended the slope on the western side one of the very first birds I saw was a Barn Owl, still out hunting at around 08:30. It perched up on a fencepost for a while but was getting a lot of grief from a Kestrel so didn't rest for long.

Barn Owl

Two Peregrines flew over and there were several Meadow Pipits singing and engaging in territorial squabbles. Yellowhammers and Skylarks were in fine voice too and both Grey and Red-legged Partridges were heard, but sadly no migrants were to be found. 

At the furthest point around the loop from where I'd parked the car, a text from Juliet Moore alerted me to the presence of two Great Crested Grebes at Waltham Brooks, which is a bit of a local mega, so I dropped in there on the way home and connected with the birds on the main lake. Sadly the Garganey was again nowhere to be seen, but I'm pleased for Juliet and Chris that it showed again a few hours later.

Great Crested Grebe

28th March

Back to Waltham Brooks this morning for another attempt at the Garganey... An hour and a half here sadly wasn't long enough to coax it out of hiding, despite a Marsh Harrier scaring seemingly all the ducks out into open water - including 50+ Teal, 40 Wigeon, 20 Shoveler and half a dozen Gadwall. Nonetheless, it was a rewarding session that yielded three 1km area ticks. First, two Swallows in among the 50 or so Sand Martins feeding over the lake, then two fly-through waders - a Little Ringed Plover (which wasn't seen but was clearly flying north, given by the doplar effect of its calls) and a Redshank (heard to call only once, but again not seen).

29th March

It was another drizzly, murky start to the day today (I seem to have been saying that quite a bit lately!) with a brisk southerly breeze. It was so misty and murky that when I eventually got out of bed and lifted the blinds I saw that visibility was down to about 50m. This felt like it might be conducive to dropping in some waterbirds so, after dropping B off at nursery, I headed over to the private site near Petworth for a check of the reservoir there, in the hope that the drizzle had pushed something down. In the event, it wasn't to be, with an hour here producing just a single Swallow and Little Ringed Plover of note. On the way home, a scan of Fittleworth water meadows produced 13 Little Egrets.

Working from home during the day was tricky with the distraction of Sand Martins and the odd Swallow streaming past the window every few minutes, not helped when Juliet Moore text news of an Osprey heading south from the North Brooks at Pulborough. A bit of a stakeout at the window sadly didn't yield any unusual raptors, just the local Red Kite, Buzzards and Kestrel.

30th March

A bit of a change of scene today, as I was on the road early with the rest of the Knepp safari team, heading to Salisbury Plain to visit the Great Bustard Group and see some of the birds. I absolutely love Salisbury Plain and it's become a bit of an annual pilgrimage most summers now with Ed and others to go and soak in the ambience of Yellow Wagtails, Whinchats, Stone-curlews, etc, usually in June. While I had seen a few distant Great Bustards during my visits over the years I had never actually been to see the work that the project group have been doing. Today we were treated to a talk by one of the group at Enford Village Hall before being taken out in Land Rovers to try and see some of the birds in the field. In classic Salisbury Plain fashion, pretty much the first two birds we saw out of the gate were a Corn Bunting and a ringtail Hen Harrier, the latter quartering over the fields south of Enford Hill.

Hen Harrier

A short distance further we saw our first Great Bustards of the trip: a group of six just on the crest of a rise ahead of us. We moved round to get a better angle and saw that there were in fact quite a good number together in this field: we reckoned at least 27, although it can be surprisingly tricky to count them accurately when they keep popping their heads up and down! Nonetheless, another excellent visit to one of my favourite birding locations in England.

Great Bustards

31st March

In a fortnight packed with damp and windy days, it's hard to pick out the worst of the bunch, but today was certainly a contender! Showery or sometimes more persistent periods of rain, heavy at times, blowing through on a howling force 7 west/south-westerly wind. In other words, pretty horrific for birding, so unsurprisingly I didn't get out much. A short session at Waltham Brooks first thing was quite lively though, with around 120 Sand Martins feeding low over the main lake, with a couple of Swallows in among them. A singing Sedge Warbler in the reeds was my first of the year (and I think my first ever March record!) and was presumably the same bird reported by Tim Morgan yesterday (you can just about hear it over the wind noise and the Greenfinch towards the end of the video below).