February Birding

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 After a very ‘birdy’ January, the pace of February was somewhat slower, with family visits and trips to see friends reducing our birdwatching opportunities. However, overall it was a case of quality, not quantity.

We started the month with a trip to Eastbourne on the 3rd,  in search of  a fairly long staying Hume’s Warbler. Rarer warblers like this can be very frustrating, as they flit unobtrusively amongst the branches, and so it proved today. We were helped by the fact that it’s call was loud and highly distinctive, and the bird was very vocal, often alerting us to its current position. Nevertheless, it felt rather like jigsaw birding - ‘I’ve seen the tail…this time I got the wing bar… now the head and eye stripe’. Eventually I managed a fleeting glimpse of the whole bird in the bins, but it was certainly hard work! 

On 14th February we were back again in Eastbourne, this time lured across by the American Robin which had appeared the previous week in someone’s front garden, presumably blown well off course by the recent storms. When we arrived, there were plenty of other birders present and the bird had been seen about 10 minutes before we arrived. The crowd was good natured, and after some time the bird obligingly put in an appearance in a nearby bush, affording some excellent views, a highly attractive thrush sized species, with a striking throat and bright eye markings.


American Robin

This was only the 28th American Robin ever found in this country, with the most recent sighting in Devon in 2018. In anticipation of a high level of interest, an enterprising local birder had set up a donations page for the Eastbourne food bank which raised a total of £2865.  Just imagine how much could have been raised at this Golden Winged Warbler twitch in Maidstone several decades ago!


Our third star bird for the month again required considerable patience and perseverance. We headed with Sue to Ashdown Forest, at a site known to support Goshawks. After a quick tour of Old Lodge, where a Woodlark was heard but not seen, and a Dartford Warbler was hanging out with some Stonechats, we arrived at the Goshawk site by 10am. It was a full hour and a half, when we were about to give up, that a pair suddenly appeared above the treetops where they put on a fine aerial display.


Meanwhile in other news, I finally ticked a Coal Tit…!

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