Blues & Ouzels

A day that was half a success. The letdowns were no Long-Tailed Blue at Beeding (Shoreham) Cement Works and no Crossbills at Lavington Common but "fishing would be called catching" as they say. The site for the LTBs at Beeding Cement Works is by the side of the road as you are going south at TQ 19905 08681. There are three concrete bollards which you can park by and view just over the fence into the cement works; lots of Everlasting Pea of course marks the spot. Four Commas, a few Small Whites and three Red Admirals were the best I could do today and I understand no LTBs showed on Friday either.

A note on the site from Neil Hulme via the Sussex Butterfly Conservation website:

 If you visit this site please do not block the track up to the houses (there is really only room for one car to park here). Parking can be found in the layby a few hundred metres further north, on the left-hand side. Please do not walk up the private track which serves these houses. Please do not trespass over the private garden to the left of the track. I still believe that the main emergence of British Long-tailed Blues is yet to begin, but the forecast of a big freeze next week may yet spoil the party. (Neil Hulme)

The successful part was an early-ish visit to Cissbury Ring for Ring Ouzels and Mistle Thrushes. When I arrived in the area of the far Yew tree I was informed somewhat taciturnly that there was nothing about by two birders present. Rather than wait and stare gormlessly at the tree waiting for a bird to emerge with a big fat sign pointing at it, I mooched off towards the flint mines and had found the first Ouzel of the day within five minutes! Good views were then had of three/four Ring Ouzels flying above my head, joined by a few Mistle Thrushes, which then sat on the bushes giving great static views. I managed to get another birder on the birds too which was nice and the other birders had them later too over the Rifle Butts area. No sign of the Yellow-Browed Warbler today, for me at any rate.


Mistle Thrush & Ring Ouzel:

Ring Ouzels:

Ring Ouzels:

Ring Ouzels:

Mistle Thrush:

Fatty the Chaffinch

At Church Norton this morning but not much going on, just a couple of Jays collecting acorns, a flock of Goldcrests, a charm of Goldfinches and a few Chiffchaffs. No sign of the large Pipit sp. reported on Thursday alas. At Ivy Lake even less, with nothing of real interest after apparently a big overnight clearout of passerines. The saving grace was a few butterflies about and a rather portly Chaffinch in one of the pine trees at home:

Comma:

Fatty the Chaffinch at home:

Speckled Wood:

Comorants and Bream

This time not the "Sea Breams" but the Common Bream of freshwater, specifically those in Westhampnett lake (which incidentally also holds Common, Mirror & Crucian Carp, Roach, Tench and of course Eels) the young of which were attracting much Cormorant & Great Crested Grebe activity on Wednesday; roughly 150 Comorants and twenty Grebes were tucking in to the fish.


Cormorants:

Ivy Lake

In between the rain & work I managed to get out and look around Ivy Lake: quite a few Chiffchaffs, probably 20, a flock of mixed Tits and a Cetti's Warbler were my lot; the Chiffchaffs gave me hope for something else there soon though...A brief stop at Church Norton earlier only found a Whimbrel feeding close to the end of the car park path.


Whimbrel:

Chiffs & a White Front

I gave Lidsey another going over this morning and found a nice little route through the fields at the back of the sewage farm which has tons of potential, hopefully something good will turn up here. Today there were as usual plenty of Chiffchaffs around the site, unusually by the entrance and the tree avenue rather than the far hedgerow, unfortunately I couldn't turn up any Yellow-Browed Warblers amongst them but their time will surely come! Also around the SF, plenty of Pied Wagtails, a single Grey Wagtail and a charm of Goldfinches. A Red Kite also drifted over and the usual Starlings were around the filter beds.


Chiffchaff at Lidsey:

Just as I was on the verge of tracking down that elusive YBW (!) I had a text from SR telling me that the White-Fronted Goose I'd been looking for yesterday was on the stilt pools at Medmerry. I arrived to find that AH had beaten me to it and a discussion on the bird's provenance ensued. It certainly didn't appear to be over-tame and is unringed; perhaps it is last year's bird returning, the bird from Cuckmere that never left or a new bird that came in with the Brent Geese?


White-Fronted Goose:

...with Canada Geese:

...with Wigeon:

A Pallid Harrier in a Field

I've been up ( and down!) The Burgh recently on the trail of the Pallid Harrier. Several Harrier sp.sightings (and one was very convincing) and four days later I finally caught up with the bird definitively. And it was on the deck in a stubble field. And sat there preening. For ten minutes. Excellent! The only issue was photos which were pretty difficult with a bridge camera through a hedge & so I'm kicking myself for not taking the iPhone scope adapter but never mind. Here's the best I could do:


Pallid Harrier:

Wheatear:

Also about the area by the dewpond track which the Pallid Harrier seems to favour were a Marsh Harrier, a Harrier sp. (probably Hen), a Sparrowhawk, two Snipe over, a Siskin, a Hobby, several Buzzards and Red Kites and numerous Kestrels.

Mullet & Breams

An email from Adrian Thomas about the progress at Medmerry arrived today, of particular interest to me were these snippets:

 A survey by IFCA (Inshore Fisheries Conservation Authority) revealed large numbers of juvenile fish using the intertidal creeks, including Sea Bass, Flounder, Plaice, Sand Smelt, Golden Grey Mullet, gobies, and Gilt-head Bream.

·         Breeding birds: 16 pair of Avocet raised an exceptional 24-25 young (perhaps 25% of the Sussex population); 16 pairs of Lapwings raised 4-5 young; there were seven pairs of Redshank, six pairs of Ringed Plovers, and six pairs of Little Ringed Plovers (perhaps 30% of the Sussex population).

How interesting to see that Golden Grey Mullet & Gilt Head Bream are doing well here. Golden Grey Mullet have traditionally been found further down the coast on the Ferring/Goring beaches where they can be found close inshore, as in 20 feet close, in July and August; Worthing Pier could occasionally also be productive for a glimpse of these. Gilt Head Bream can be found more in Hampshire, Pennington sea wall being a favourite location, though they also turn up around Worthing and up as far as Lancing. I've seen Couch's Sea Bream from Pagham so maybe they'll be next on the list for a spot of Medmerry colonisation!

The bird stats speak for themselves with hopefully more to come.

Today, no Osprey for me at the east side of the breach but PH pointed out a Spoonbill and there were a few cold looking Wheatears about too:


Wheatear: