Tuesday 17th January: Downland Birding

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Today we visited several locations with some SDOS friends across the Sussex downs, beginning with a local walk. Although it was extremely cold, the  beautiful winter sunshine made for perfect viewing conditions. First up, a very obliging Raven sat in a nearby tree giving stunning close views. Continuing along the track a flock of eight Corn Buntings gave decent scope views as they flitted along the shrubline ahead of us. We noted several loose flocks of Skylarks feeding in the stubble, plus eight or so Red legged Partridge and small flocks of Stock Doves in the surrounding fields. Several Red Kite and Common Buzzard soared across the landscape and some of the group noted a pair of Reed Buntings, although I missed these having asked on ahead chatting! Unfortunately our walk was cut short by the commencement of a game shooting party, leading to most birds departing the area!


We relocated to The Burgh after lunch and walked from Canada Barn towards the dewpond. We were surprised to encounter huge numbers of  Lapwing (Bernie estimated 500+)  feeding in a weedy field, presumably displaced from the Arun Valley due to heavy flooding. We enjoyed watching their beautiful flight and enigmatic calls. During the walk we had many sightings of Red Kite and Common Buzzard, then on the walk down to the pond we found our first Short-eared Owl quartering the field and hedgerow ahead of us, putting on a fabulous display. A little further on we encountered a further two birds, interacting magnificently in the skies above the fields. They are beautiful birds to watch in flight and we were especially thrilled as we failed to see one at all last year.

Short-eared Owl ( from Shoreham Birding)



In the hedgerows, we encountered a mobile finch flock consisting of perhaps 200 Linnet as well as a few Goldfinches and a party of Yellowhammers.  In addition to enjoying some decent birds, we also had some cracking views of Brown Hare with at least seven recorded in the area as we returned to the car.

There are many areas of scrub and small copses across the downs and these are sometimes used as roosting sites for Long-eared Owls. These can be very difficult to spot as they are exceedingly well camouflaged but we were lucky enough to encounter this one at an undisclosed site. With two winter owls in one day it was another highly successful day of birding.

Long-eared Owl



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