Window to Wildlife

We combined our single household bubbling weekend at mum’s with a birdwatching outing with my brother, Andy. And a very successful weekend it was too! We started early, and drove to our first stop at Benfleet, where a Marsh Warbler has been present and singing on a footpath close to the station for several weeks. This would be a lifer for us if we were able to track it down, although Andy had previously seen one. However, finding it was the challenge...There were a number of footpaths and no clear directions. We headed in the direction of the railway line and were soon walking alongside some reeds - clue number one, as Andy had seen photos of the bird showing in a reed-bed. Clue number two soon came into view - a couple of men with binoculars dangling around their necks, motionless and staring into the reeds. They quickly confirmed we were in the right place, and within a few minutes the bird fleetingly appeared, but was easily identified by the stream of glorious song it poured fort...

We had previously gone looking for Nightjars at Pulborough Brooks a few weeks ago, and although we heard sustained charismatic churring, we failed to get good views of any birds. So we travelled to Lavington Common to meet with some friends for another attempt on Wednesday 17th June, meeting at 20.30 while it was still quite light. We headed out on to the smaller heath and wandered along the track, finding a Tree Pipit calling in a pine tree and a Yellowhammer singing for his ‘bread and cheese’ supper behind us. A Dartford Warbler was heard, then located  flitting in some small birch trees. All seemed quiet, so we retraced out steps towards the car park. Suddenly a Woodcock called and took off from the low-lying heather to our left and flew across in front of us, revealing its long bill. A great view, unusually in decent light at around 21.30. We crossed the road to ‘the Plantation’, where the growth is generally taller and a little less open, with more scattered pine trees. ...

Shoreham-by-Sea has been blessed with its own local rarity causing a stir this week, a Red-footed Falcon on the beautiful South Downs. These birds are normally not present in the UK. We have previously seen them on holiday in Greece, where we had the astonishing sight of eight birds sitting in one tree! However, there has been a bit of an influx to southern England in recent weeks. This bird was actually first reported by a non-birder, who posted a picture on a local Facebook group asking if it was a Sparrowhawk. Fortunately it was seen by others with some expertise who spent the day trying to get further information about its location. The following day, many birders were out early searching and two different birds were located in the area, one at Portslade which did not linger beyond that day, and another above Shoreham at Beeding Hill. The news was quickly shared and we trekked up to see it, a new UK tick for us. Tim managed the following shots: Note the vibrant red fe...

I visited Bower Marsh and Vange Marsh in Pitsea today. I was hoping to see house martin and sedge warbler as I have not managed to see either of these birds in Hornchurch country park so far this year, which is unusual. I began at Bowers Marsh and made my way towards the main scrape area where there are often many hirundines around at this time of year, but it appeared that there were only swifts and swallows present today. I had heard some songs of reed warbler or sedge warbler from the reedbeds along the paths and at the edges of the scrape but I am not very good at distinguishing one from the other by song and unfortunately they were not showing themselves at all. Before moving on from the scrape, I scanned the water and islands for anything unusual, but there were only black headed gulls, mute swans, mallards, coots, pochards, oystercatchers, avocets, little egrets, greylag geese, lapwings and a little grebe.  I took a few photos of the little grebe because it looked quite colo...

We took a friend for a walk at The Burgh, on the Norfolk estate. This is agricultural land which is also unfortunately managed for shooting, with both Grey and Red-legged Partridge regularly present, although we saw neither today. The estate has developed large wild flower strips alongside arable fields as part of the  higher level environmental stewardship scheme. This provides good food sources and cover for small mammals as well as game birds and this in turn makes it attractive to raptors. It has become the most reliable local site for Red Kites, and today did not disappoint. At one point we had seven birds in the bins at one time. This has been a great year for this species, and we have regularly seen birds over the downs nearby during our lockdown walks. Good numbers have also been reported elsewhere in the UK. Another highlight of the walk was finding a Lapwing with  this gorgeous, fluffy chick. Mum was attentive, but the youngster is vulnerable to predation...