18th June 2024: Birthday Birding

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 Tim’s birthday today, and he wanted to explore a fairly new local nature reserve at Waterhall on the South Downs near Brighton. This is the site of a former golf course, that has been left to rewild, with a variety of footpaths traversing the area. There is much grassland with many wild flowers, and areas of scrub and hawthorn hedgerows. Cattle are used to graze the area and improve biodiversity.

This wasn’t the greatest birding location I’ve visited, but was interesting as a ‘work in progress’. It certainly looks a hotspot for autumn migration later in the year.

We encountered several species of Corvid, together with Song Thrush and most of the  regular bird species you might expect in this sort of habitat. We found plenty of Whitethroat and a couple of Blackcaps. Probably the best bird was a singing Yellowhammer which flew in to the top of a nearby bush and proceeded to loudly advertise his presence to the local ladies. Brilliant!

Yellowhammer

After our walk we headed to Mile Oak Farm for a toastie, then strolled up the track where we again found the Cirl Bunting singing from the treetop, albeit more distant than our previous sighting. A vocal Whitethroat also appeared to be holding territory here.

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