Wryneck

Given the impressive numbers of the species around in the past couple of weeks, I've been really hoping to run into a Wryneck at the Brooks recently, and have been diligently scouting out and regularly checking likely areas of the reserve - so far without any joy.

So it was a nice surprise to receive a message on Monday afternoon from friends who live a short distance from us in Pulborough saying they'd just been watching one in their garden, and would I like to pop round for a look. Of course I said yes and headed straight there after work.

The bird had apparently gone into hiding for a while but thankfully had reappeared by the time I arrived and allowed a brief glimpse of it before disappearing back into bushes. It then re-emerged a little while later and showed well on the recently cut meadow/lawn for a few minutes before flying off into bushes, from which it didn't emerge again, thanks in part to a Robin which chased it even deeper into cover. 

A welcome Pulborough tick for me, and it really does make you wonder how many of these birds must be out there in the wider countryside at the moment!

Un-Jynxed!

Wryneck is one of those species that I've never gone out of my way to look for or twitch, preferring to wait and find one myself. Somehow though, in almost ten years of serious birding I've spectacularly failed to find my own and so until yesterday it remained one of the most glaring omissions from my UK list.

As such, when Chris and Juliet Moore messaged yesterday morning to say they'd relocated the Wryneck on Chantry Hill - just down the road from Pulborough - found by Martin Peacock on the 5th, I couldn't resist dropping in after work to have a look.

The bird was typically tricky to find but after a couple of passes around the bushes near the dew pond it flew up from near one of the many large ant hills and into a nearby Hawthorn where it skulked largely out of view for a few minutes until a passing dog walker spooked it into an Elder. Here it showed briefly before dropping down into the undergrowth before finally emerging and showing much better for a few minutes before flying off and deep into another clump of bushes further away, at which point I decided to leave it in peace. Now to find one at Pulborough!