Wood Warbler, Redstart and...Ashdown Forest Fire!

After reading about the sighting of a rare wood warbler on Ashdown Forest yesterday (and a kind fellow birder who shared its location, thank you, if you're reading this, you know who you are :) ), we decided to try and see it before heading over to Old Lodge Nature Reserve.
When we got there, we couldn't hear the warbler singing but after a while I did hear its call and finally spotted the bird high up in an oak tree. I got a very poor record shot before it flew off after only a few seconds. But hey, we saw it! We did hear it singing briefly a couple of times but weren't able to relocate this little beauty. A lifer! Such a shame they don't breed on Ashdown Forest anymore.


Wood Warbler on Ashdown Forest

We then headed to Old Lodge NR but there wasn't much about apart from a fantastic male redstart, the first we've seen this year.



Male Redstart

We then noticed smoke rising above the trees and thought it might be a fire in someone's garden. Wrong!! The fire seemed to be spreading rapidly... my partner phoned the fire brigade immediately. Luckily, they were already aware of the problem and a few minutes later we heard the sirens approaching. The fire was right next to a car park up the road from Old Lodge and most likely caused by arson or carelessness (barbecue, cigarette...). Very sad...birds are nesting on the Forest, so many small animals live in heather and gorse...I really hope the fire is under control now and no animals were killed in the flames. Apparently 8 fire engines were sent out to put out the fire.

Ashdown Forest Fire

Whitethroats!

Couldn't wait so popped down to Pulborough Brooks yesterday afternoon. Sunshine, bird song and the bluebells are out...beautiful!
The first bird that greeted us when we stepped out of the visitor centre was a swallow (I did get a  fantastic shot of one of its wings *lol*) and lots of chirpy house sparrows.

I really couldn't wait to finally see my first whitethroat 2011 (they are my favourite migrant warblers after all!) and I didn't have to wait much longer.
So this pretty little guy is officially my first whitethroat of the year! :)
 

Common Whitethroat (male)

Many more whitethroats were singing cheerfully around the trail - and how I had missed their grumpy-sounding alarm call! Just love it! :)

I then heard a bird singing in a clump of bramble but couldn't identify it at first. It was a repetitive warbling sound, a bit like a football rattle and I remembered a fellow birder mentioning exactly this to me last year - could it be a lesser whitethroat?? Sure enough, I soon spotted the bird - and indeed it was a lesser - but it flew off before I could take a photo. I'd only ever seen one lesser whitethroat before so this was a lovely surprise!

We'd only been walking for about 5 minutes when I heard the first nightingale (well, my second of the year  - I can hear one singing every night now when I'm in bed!). We listened to it for a while and although we knew which bush it was hiding in, we couldn't spot it...but its song was magical!

 More signs of spring included a male bullfinch feeding a female, chaffinches mating right in front of us and whitethroats collecting nesting material. Here's a rubbish shot of one:

 

Whitethroat with nesting material

 Walking along 'adder alley', we heard our first cuckoo of the year. Yay!

When I heard the sound of a 'football rattle' again I knew what to look out for! And indeed, a beautiful male lesser whitethroat showed surprisingly well - unfortunately he was backlit so the shots I got are quite poor (but still better than the only shot I managed last year!). Here's one:

No sign of the grashopper warbler that was reported a few days ago but we saw a nightingale flying into cover, a striking male reed bunting, a willow warbler, singing dunnocks and several goldfinches:

A crow alerted us to a bird of prey flying above - it was a peregrine carrying what looked like duckling prey.

More whitethroats, nightingales and blackcaps were singing beautifully when we walked back to the car.

A lovely afternoon's birding in the sunshine!

Back!

Got back last night from a week away visiting family in Germany. So while this visit was not about birding, there were some lovely garden birds that I got to watch every day, including a fantastic pair of bullfinches - never had views that close before! Also got myself a couple of books about German birds - should be interesting.

I'm looking forward to seeing some spring migrants this week that have returned in the meantime, such as whitethroats and nightingales. But guess what - I have already heard my first nightingale, within hours of getting home - lying in bed at about 3 am I could just about hear one singing in the distance. :)

One of the nightingales I was lucky enough to watch last year

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!

Climping / Pulborough Brooks

....and so it continues. We went to Climping the other day - no wheatears. Got home and had a look online: Climping sightings of the day included 9 wheatears and 2 black redstarts, one male about 200 yards up the road from where we were - for its second day. Why wasn't it reported the day before then maybe we could have seen it too... and a whinchat was also seen in the morning...another bird that I tried to find in vain last autumn. Never seen one! So you'll understand why I might just feel a LITTLE annoyed.

I guess we just need to stop looking for a specific species and it'll turn up when we least expect it. Oh, and of course I did lose the photos I took the other day. No idea why but the files were all damaged and could not be recovered after my card reader died on me. Very annyoing! I had some really nice shots of grey plovers and a little egret in flight and several of a male green woodpecker. Oh well...

OK I bet you've had enough of the whining now and rightly so! Let's move on to the birds that we did see at Climping. I really like sanderlings and there were a lot of them about.

A beautiful male kestrel was hovering above us and a joy to watch.

The highlight were a pair of ringed plover and I managed to get better records shot this time. Impossible to get close to, the birds didn't seem to like people and I obviously didn't want them to get stressed out. So I watched from a distance. These little waders are just SO cute! :)

Ringed plover

Well camouflaged...

We then decided to move on to Pulborough Brooks for a late afternoon stroll around the reserve. It was beautiful!

The sun was shining and there were birds and bird song all around us. Spring has definitely sprung now!

Chiffchaff

Dunnocks, robins, chaffinches, greenfinches, blackbirds and songthrushes were all in full song...it just sounded wonderful!

A male dunnock, happy to be photographed while singing to the ladies

A male chiffchaff perched and sang in a bush right in front of us. Lovely! I manged to take a nice shot of him - definitely one of my best chiffchaff photos! Such beautiful little birds.

We then spotted FIVE blackcaps (the first of the year too!), four of which were males pursuing and singing to one female.

Male blackcap singing Imagine the song of four blackcaps together...amazing! On the way back to the car park a couple of fieldfares flew over - I was surprised they haven't left yet.

So the resident birdies at Pulborough (and the return of the first few warblers) made up for the earlier disappointment! Rarer migrants are special, of course and I'm still hoping to see wheatear, black redstart, whinchat etc. but I do love all of the 'common' birds that I can watch and get to know through the seasons. Not long now and the whitethroats (I LOVE whitethroats!) and nightingales will be back. Can't wait! :)

It is starting...

...to get a bit frustrating now. There are wheatear sightings all over the place (including the places we visit on a regular basis) but we still haven't seen one. For the 6th time now we went to where one or more had been seen and dipped. Yesterday, 11 (!) wheatears were seen between Goring Gap and Ferring...so we went today and...nothing. And then I get home and read about wheatears seen at Pagham and even Pulborough Brooks today. Also, a male black redstart, a bird I have been wanting to see for ages, had spent a few days at Ferring Rife...but of course had left by the time we arrived today.

Birding can be really frustrating at times...and the few photos I did take today I can't access now because my stupid card reader has packed up - who knows, it might even have damaged the card. *GRRRRRRR*

On a positive note, I saw my first swallow of the year today and also dunlin, sanderling, grey plover, oystercatcher, little egret and green woodpecker.

Pagham Harbour

We had a nice sunny day birding at Pagham today. I really wanted to see a wheatear but unfortunatley, yet again, there weren't any to be found anywhere. A few were seen in the area a few days ago... but not by me!
Anyhow, when we arrived at Church Norton, the 'pigeon' perched in a tree turned out to be a male kestrel and I managed to get a few shots before it flew off.

Male kestrel

The tide was coming in so there weren't many waders on the beach.

There was a chiffchaff hunting flies in the reeds (by the second Severals) and a Cetti's warbler was singing.

Chiffchaff with insect prey

Two chaffinches were fighting and a linnet was perched in a bush, preening. On the ground, I spotted my first peacock butterfly of the year.

Peacock butterfly

We then moved on to Pagham Spit, again hoping to find wheatears. A skylark was singing above us and two ringed plovers were in front of the hide, along with some turnstones. Unfortunately, before we had even entered the hide to get some better views, they all flew off. So I only got a couple of record shots of the ringed plover. Beautiful little birds!

Ringed plover

Two female scaups were on Pagham lagoon (too far away for any decent shots though), along with a great crested grebe, a coot and quite a few black-headed gulls (couldn't find a Mediterranean gull in there).

Female scaups

My personal highlight of the day was a lone sand martin that I spotted hawking over the water.


Sand martin

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!