Steyning Levels

31 December 2016

The fog lifted eventually and we set out after lunch to walk up the river bank.  As we crossed the field a crowd of seagulls were overhead mobbing a Buzzard which glided seemingly unconcerned until one gull got too close and it flipped over to show its talons.  The seagulls backed off and it continued over towards Beeding Church.  

I had a confusing few moments with some House Sparrows and a pair of Reed Buntings in winter plumage.  

As we walked up the river bank it became clear that all of the hedges had been stripped of berries and so we had little expectation of seeing any Fieldfares or Redwings, but there were two or three of the former and possibly one of the latter, but not the big flocks that we have been seeing recently.  There are fewer Blackbirds around too.  

Two chaps were trying to catch a Greylag goose in the river that appeared to be injured.  We have seen it a couple of times along one stretch of the river.  Able to walk and swim, but clearly not to fly.  We wished them luck and we did not see them or the goose on our return, so they may have been successful.  

On our way back we looked down on the Castle meadows and saw two Roe Deer and saw (and heard) a Green Woodpecker, my last bird of the year.

Chichester Harbour, East Head

Another clear, bright frosty day and East Head was very crowded with people and dogs.  The tide was up when we arrived, so no birds on the foreshore area as we walked around the head.  However, Turnstones were, as they so often do, making use of man-made structures at high tide by crowding onto the Spit Head buoy.  We could see 17, but there may have been more around the other side.  This buoy has a ledge running around it just wide enough for a Turnstone to perch comfortably; others in the vicinity didn't have one.  There were about 500 Brent Geese on the car park fields and some Lapwings, a few Oystercatchers and a single Curlew.  

View across to East Head from the Causeway

After hot soup for lunch we headed up towards Ella Nore as the tide was falling.  As we approached Snowshill there was a huge disturbance as a hot-air balloon took off from the car park.  Brent Geese, Teal and Wigeon flocks and other birds, including at least one Snipe, hurtled about in all directions.  Eventually calm returned and flocks of Dunlin, Grey Plover and a single Bar-tailed Godwit settled to feeding on the mud.  From the vicinity of Ella Nore we saw a single Great-Crested Grebe and a flock of nine Red-breasted Mergansers - three male and six redheads - out in the harbour.  On the way back a single Little Egret, apparently undisturbed by people passing just above on the causeway, demonstrated his fishing skills in the stream feeding out of Snowshill. 

  

The tide is out!

Bramber Brooks

24 December 2016

Beeding Brooks

A pair of Stonechats were flitting quickly from one bank of the river to the other and perching on dead thistles and a wren shot across our path.  Apart from them, there was little in view until we spotted a large flock (30+) of Fieldfares in a hedgerow together with a small flock 4+ linnets.  A flock of about 50 Starlings flew -over heading southeast - possibly on their way to the great murmuration at Brighton. In the horse-grazed pastures there were over 20 Redwings the largest flock we have seen this winter.

Garden Visitors

An elusive female blackcap spent a long time in the honeysuckle on the old apple trees in the garden.  The first time we have seen one in the garden this winter.  A Coal tit spent a long time in the tree making repeat visits to the bird feeder.  We have had fleeting visits before, but this was the first time one had stayed for any length of time.