With Sunday’s forecast pretty catastrophic I swapped the RXbirdwalk to today, when I thought the rough weather would get some migration going, and it did in a way: plenty of hirundines of 3 species, Meadow Pipits, a few Pied Wagtails going over but absolutely no Siskins or Crossbills which might normally be expected by now.
Until recently, the ridges have been pale desiccated grey while the gullies between have been green. Today the tonality was reversed as the sunlit dry Crested Dog’s Tail was the paler and the sodden shallow soil the darker.
The last of unexpected violent showers passed through just before we started, the very last as we sheltered behind a hedge watching Chiffchaffs darting back and forth across the track. Once the clouds had moved away the vegetation was left sparkling in rich early autumn colours, the abundant blackberries beaded with rain. Warblers were dashing about in their usual tantalising way, zipping across gaps to vanish almost instantly – just as you were focusing – into the dark hearts of the thorn bushes, or perhaps lurking half-hidden where the diagnostic bits were blocked by a leaf. The great majority were Chiffchaffs & Blackcaps, the latter not properly visible till the northern end of the Beach Field. There were plenty of Chaffinches, Robins, Dunnocks, Blue & Great Tits mixed in, just ot keep you on your toes, and occasional unsatisfactory views of Common & Lesser Whitethroat.
Very few Blackbirds though, and no Song Thrushes although at Pett during the week there were signs of an increase. There were though several Goldcrests throughout the walk.
We noticed a new wild bees’ nest on this moribund Willow in the Wood. Others are in the Willow by Marker 12 and in the Castle itself.
By late morning the wind had got up to a strength where it was difficult to hold binoculars steady, so half an hour in the hide was a pleasant relief although most of the Wigeon had flown off shortly before we arrived. As usual there were a lot of Canada Geese with a group of the buff-faced hybrids among them but also two hybrid Greylag Geese I’d not seen before, one with extensive white on this neck, the other very pale.
Otherwise, among many Lapwings we picked out a couple of distant Redshanks, single Greenshank, Green Sandpiper & Snipe. Over the reeds at the back one Marsh Harrier quartered and I had a brief glimpse of a Great Egret.
Quite a lot of the usual birds had made themselves unavailable – Egyptian Goose, Skylark for instance, and there was no sign of Nuthatches or Treecreepers in The Wood but maybe the wind was too much for them. So I think we added no further species once we turned back from the hide until Chat Corner turned up 2 Stonechats. Nonetheless, we clocked up 70 species.
After
