At last - wheatears!

A few days ago we decided to go to Pagham again - still hoping to find a wheatear. With more and more sightings all over the country (and indeed at the exact places we have been visiting) it was actually hard to believe we still hadn't seen our first Oenanthe oenanthe of the year!

We first stopped off at Pagham Spit - there were a few lovely linnets and the pair of ringed plovers was still in front of the hide, along with a few turnstones but nothing much else around. Any wheatears anywhere? Nope.

Ringed plovers (female left/male right)

So on to Church Norton! On the way up to the beach, we had a chat with a nice couple who had also spent the morning birding. Had they seen anything good? Not really, just the usual waders and a few warblers (sounds good to me though!). Any wheatears? Oh, yes, they saw quite a few a couple of hours earlier, around the visitor centre at Sidlesham. Right...ok then, maybe pop over there later (but what were the chances of the wheatears still being there...whenever we arrive somewhere, they've moved on!). So we decided to check out Church Norton first, as planned.

Male linnet

Lots of linnets around again, singing from the gorse bushes and also quite a few greenfinches. There appear to be more in West Sussex this year than ever before which is great! I'm actually just looking at one on one of my bird feeders as I type this, happily munching away on sunflower seeds! A male in breeding plumage...stunning! So we walked up to the beach, scanning the shingle and shoreline for birds but the tide wasn't out yet so not many waders around.

Back on the path, I all of a sudden noticed movement on the ground, between two gorse bushes. I really had to stop myself from shouting out loud: a wheatear!! And: a MALE wheatear at that, exactly what I had wanted to see the most (the wheatears we saw last autumn were all females so I really wanted to see a male as well)! The bird was on the shingle, busily feeding on insects. It wouldn't let us come close so we just took some record shots and watched it for a while. We soon realised that there were at least one other male and a female, also busy feeding. Fantastic! Finally. :)

Male wheatear We soon left them to feed in peace. Walking towards the severals, we heard a Cetti's warbler singing and willow warblers & chiffchaffs were busy hunting insects.

Willow warbler Chiffchaff While taking photos of these beautiful little warblers, we heard the Cetti's again and were amazed to actually see it flying into a tree right in front of us! Not a bird you get to see very often! I managed to get a couple of shots - not perfect ones, as the warbler was trying to hide behind a twig but I'm still chuffed to bits that we saw it and got a photo or two to prove it - definitely better than my previous record shot. :)

Male Cetti's warbler Two mute swans were flying over only to return a few minutes later and eventually landing on the beach. I have to say that it was a rather unusual sight! A swan on the beach!

Other birds of note were five sand martins in off the sea, redshanks and oystercatchers. I was actually sure that the first hirundine I saw flying above us was a swallow (or possibly a house martin) but it disappeared too quickly; the distant shot I did get of another bird following the first one shows a sand martin.

Do swallows ever travel together with sand martins? Or would house martin be more likely? Anyway, lovely to see any hirundines!

When we arrived at Sidlesham later, there were no wheatears there at all - so just as well we'd spotted our own on the beach! :) Two beautiful male linnets posed for us - quite unusual really, they tend to be so shy.

Male linnets (if you look closely you can see they are two different individuals!)

A smart looking blackbird

A wonderful day's birding indeed! :)

An afternoon visit to Pulborough Brooks a couple of days later produced our first (definite!) house martin of the year, a swallow, a wren collecting nesting material and lots of singing chiffchaff, willow warbler and blackcap. Swallow House martin One of a pair of robins catching flies - there are probably some chicks waiting for dinner somewhere! Busy wren

Male blackcap singing

I was hoping to see my favourite migrant warbler, the whitethroat - two were reported a few days ago and also the first nightingale. Very early! We didn't see (or hear) either so I shall look forward to our next visit there! :)

Brambling!

Just being treated to fantastic views of a female bramling...in my garden! Only the second time ever I've seen one here (first time was a male in the snow before Christmas). She seems to like my bird seed. :) Birding from the comfort of my desk...just need to turn my head. Brilliant. :D Also got my bins for some really good views!

There's also a greenfinch - a fairly rare visitor - and all the regulars, including blue tits, great tits, dunnock, chaffinches, blackbirds, goldfinches, collared doves and starlings. Need to top up the seed feders later!

New Forest

On Wednesday, we decided to spend the day birding in the New Forest. Quite a drive but we were hoping to finally connect with a Dartford warbler - the last one we saw was at Pagham Harbour last October. None on Ashdown Forest so far this year, which is a bit worrying - I hope they all survived the winter!

Our first stop was at Blashford Lakes. We saw a lovely female lapwing from Tern Hide and a wonderful, fluffy little grebe in breeding plumage, goldeneye and gadwall (no water pipit, snipe, sandmartin or ringed plover though!).

Female lapwing

Little grebe

We then moved on to the Woodland Hide where I was hoping to get a few more shots of brambling before they all fly off to their breeding grounds. After about 10 minutes a beautiful female appeared and I got some nice shots of her (much better than the poor record shot I got before!), followed by at least 4 lovely males, all coming into breeding plumage (one looked particularly smart).

Female brambling

Male brambling

We also had lovely views of a nuthatch, a coal tit collecting nesting material, a siskin, a lesser redpoll, a greenfinch, a wren and some blue tits.

We then tried 'Picket Post' heath but could not find any Dartford warblers. There were loads of meadow pipits, a raven and a fantastic buzzard circling right above us.

Buzzard

I also saw a common lizard enjoying the sunshine.

And of course there were some beautiful ponies! Being a horse person, I always love seeing them.


Young New Forest pony

So we drove around for another 20 minutes trying to find a certain site that we know is supposed to be good for Dartfords. Again we walked around for what felt like 50 miles but no Darties. More ponies of course, a mistle thrush, meadow pipits, skylarks and stonechats. Time to give up?

All of a sudden, on the way back to the car we thought we could hear the song we had been hoping for all day...and scanning the gorse nearby we saw him: a fantastic male Dartford warbler! Brilliant!

Male Dartford warbler

We also saw the female perched on top of the gorse behind the male.

Female Dartford warbler

Looking up, I noticed a bird of prey flying low over the heath. Wow, a beautiful male hen harrier - a lifer!

What a great day!