Ashdown Forest - Old Lodge NR

The weather is not exactly brilliant at the moment, especially if you're a bird photographer. In fact it's been a pretty rubbish 'winter' for photography!
The only sunny afternoon last week was spent at Old Lodge Nature Reserve. Quite a bit of bird activity although I didn't manage to spot woodlark, the great grey shrike (which remains a species I have yet to see for the first time) nor the Dartford warbler that a lucky birder had watched the previous day.

But as you know, I don't desperately "need" a new or rare species to enjoy my day out birding. I'm happy to watch any bird.


There was a lovely fieldfare (or probably more but I only spotted the one) and I managed a shot that is much better than my previous 'record' shot of this beautiful winter thrush.

There were three bullfinches - two males and a female - in the same bush but they weren't willing to pose for a photo.


We saw robin, blackbird, chaffinch, great spotted woodpecker, siskin, crow and - to my suprise - a flock of at least 10 reed buntings.

I watched plenty of goldcrests feeding, along with coal tit, blue tit and great tit.
20+ redpolls (mostly lessers but I am fairly certain I spotted a couple of mealies) were very active flying from tree to tree, feeding and taking off again. Lovely!

On the way back to the car, I spotted two or three crossbill with a beautiful male on the look-out.

What I enjoyed the most was listening to numerous coal tits and great tits singing their little hearts out. Spring has officially arrived!

Crested Tits

I haven't manged to get out and see whinchat, wheatear or any other migrants since I saw the hoopoe, mainly due to the fact that I was away visiting family in Germany for 10 days (and now that I'm back the weather is rubbish of course!).
I didn't take my camera or bins or anything but that didn't stop me looking out for any feathered creatures that might fly my way when we went for a walk in the very very green and beautiful "Sauerland" woodland. I heard and saw some goldcrests, chiffchaffs, treecreepers, great and blue tits, robins, a buzzard, 5 woodpeckers (I'm still not sure which - it just didn't sound like GSWs so could have been families of either middle spotted or lesser spotted, all of which can be found there).
When I was pointing out a goldcrest to my family, I all of sudden noticed a bird that I had been wanting to see again for ages: a crested tit! I only got a very brief view so returned to the same spot the following day (just can't help being a birder!). :) I was lucky, I found at least 4 crested tits feeding in the tree tops. At one point, one was feeding right above my head and then landed on the ground about 2 metres away from my feet. So even without bins, camera (or my glasses!!) I had fantastic views of this beautiful little bird and was a very happy bunny indeed! :)
Unfortunately my mobile was useless....these are the record shots I got - probably the worst record shots in the history of birding!

Not great...nevermind. I did do a quick sketch for you!

Arundel

We had a great day out birding at Arundel (West Sussex) yesterday. Finally some sunshine! It really felt like spring. I saw a butterfly (brimstone, see above), a bumblebee and some snowdrops (first ones I've seen this year!).

We first went to Swanbourne Lake to look for the two firecrests that were reported last week. I saw my first ever firecrest at Arundel WWT last year - so I guess they're wintering birds from the continent that really like the area and return every year.

As we'd dipped on waxwings several times in the last two weeks (every time when we got to a place where they'd been seen, they were gone or, at Epsom, ONE was there as we drove past but had disappeared when we got there with our cameras), I was not really too hopeful.

But we were lucky this time! We soon heard the call we were hoping for. At least two firecrests (at one point I'm fairly certain I saw three) were flitting around ivy, looking for insects. Fantastic little birds! One male was calling and flashing his bright orange crest. Brilliant.
Firecrests are very active little birds so it is extremely hard to get a decent photo of them. I'm really pleased I did get a few shots. This is one of my favourite pix:

We also saw a couple of goldcrests, chasing each other. One was also displaying, showing his yellow/orange crest:

We then had lunch at Arundel WWT and had a walk around the centre but didn't see much. From the car park later, we saw two distant peregrines in a tree and up to four buzzards circling above us. A majestic sight! Here's one of the photos I took:


A lovely day! :)