Saturday 25th April 2026: Henfield Levels and Barn Owl

-

 Another SDOS walk, although this time we were off duty participants, with others leading the walk. It was a lovely sunny morning and the route took us through varied scenery, ensuring a good mix of birds.

As on so many of our recent walks, Common Whitethroats were everywhere, but the highlight today was the Lesser Whitethroat, with several birds seen and heard across the walk, and one particularly obliging bird giving some cracking views.

Lesser Whitethroat (Lance Bellers)

Several Barn Swallows were seen feeding low over the meadow, and a Great Spotted Woodpecker posed in a nearby tree. Several Goldcrests also showed surprisingly well, and Chaffinch, Goldfinch and Greenfinch were all seen. A pair of Reed Buntings chased each other around the bushes too.

Goldcrest (Lance Bellers)

Chaffinch

Red Kite, Buzzard and Kestrel all were seen soaring or hovering over head. Near the Downslink heronry, alongside a few geese and herons, a Lapwing was spotted, with a few more displaying further along the track. A distant Cuckoo was heard, but unfortunately it did not venture closer and we were not able to locate it.

With a tally of around 35 species it had been a good walk with excellent company.

But we were not done with birding yet! In the evening, we took stroll from home towards the Dogs Trust fields, where we had a fairly short but excellent view of a Barn Owl quartering over the ditches before it disappeared across the railway bank. A wonderful way to finish the day!

Barn Owl (not taken today)




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sunday 27th June: Roller in Suffolk

-
Image
 After daily reminders from Jenny that a Eurasian roller was still present in Suffolk I finally made the effort to go to see it and took advantage of the trip to visit several other local sites which were of interest to me.  My first stop was at the tiny village of Ampton where I normally find my annual tick for tree sparrow and this year was no exception as I saw one within 20 seconds of getting out of my car.  After watching it for a minute or so I quickly moved on to the next venue which was Lackford Lakes, a Suffolk wildlife trust reserve which had been reporting a juvenile glossy ibis for a few days.  I was told by someone in the car park exactly where it had been seen recently but he had not seen it that day when he had walked around earlier.  When I arrived at the hide 3 other birders were there but they had not seen it and so after 10 minutes I gave up waiting for it to show and moved on to try to see the roller. I had seen a number of birders along the ...
Read more

Friday 17th January 2025: Pagham Harbour

-
Image
We enjoyed a lovely day out at Pagham yesterday with Sue. We started with a circuit from the visitor centre, but the water levels were high at Ferry Pool and there was little of note. In the channel a few Redshank and Curlew were the best we could muster. We relocated to Halsey’s Farm and walked across the field to North Wall. There were plenty of Wigeon whistling noisily as we passed, and out in the harbour swathes of waders, creating a tremendous spectacle when they all took to the skies, a murmuration of Golden Plover swirling above flocks of Lapwing, and groups of Curlew and Black-tailed Godwit dropping in to the nearby fields. Lines of Brent geese headed further west, calling softly as they passed over.   Wigeon In the area we were thrilled to find a Long-eared Owl roosting, showing surprisingly well near the front of a bush. Long-eared Owl In White’s Creek we were treated to great views of a Spotted Redshank which wandered in very close, allowing us to note its key features. ...
Read more

Wednesday 11th March: Sdos outing to Warnham

-
Image
  We led an excellent SDOS trip to Warnham today, managing not just a lovely selection of birds, but that real rarity of late, sunshine!!! Fourteen members on the minibus were joined by nine members who had made their own way by car, so we split into 2 groups in order to accommodate everyone in the hides and make things more manageable.  On the millpond there were plenty of Tufted Duck, a few Teal, and Great Crested Grebe in stunning breeding plumage. Some bathing gulls, mostly Herring Gull, were in front of the hide, but also a couple of dark Lesser Black-backed Gulls that revealed their yellow legs as they rose above the water. Lesser Black-backed Gull (Andrew Farquharson) Bird of the day must have been the Siskin - they were everywhere around the feeders at both Bullfinch and Woodpecker hides, and their constant gentle twittering song filled the air as we walked along the path. The feeders also attracted plenty of Blue and Great Tits, but sadly nothing rarer. Goldfinches, ...
Read more