Recent Sightings Friday 18 November – First day of Winter! From volunteer Phil
A bright start gave way to grey skies for most of the morning with a biting cold wind from the south west followed by a sunny afternoon. For most of the day it felt like winter, but of course winter is arguably the best season for birding here. This is the time of year when we see large numbers of wintering wildfowl and waders taking to the air while being disturbed by raptors looking for a meal, something I’d not seen for several months.
A morning walk down to Hail’s View revealed something even more special. A ringtail (female or juvenile) hen harrier was to be seen for about 10 minutes gliding low to the ground over the South Brooks, presumably the same bird reported by a regular visitor the previous day. I was able to track it with my scope for several minutes before it eventually drifted away to the North where it was picked up by a colleague at West Mead hide. Later in the day I learned that it had also been seen on the North Brooks. In the scope it gave an excellent view of the plumage with the white band across the base of the tail and the attractive underwing pattern very visible. We must now hope that it stays for a few days as did a hen harrier in autumn last year. It was just too far away for an effective photograph and I was in any case captivated by the splendid view in the scope to want to tear myself away.
A few people have remarked on an apparent lack of greenfinches in recent months but on this occasion they seem to have reappeared, with one in the bushes down the zigzag path, and 3 in a tree at Fattengates along with a male bullfinch.
A little research suggests that some greenfinches migrate from Northern Europe to the Eastern UK for the winter and this might explain an apparent influx.
Arriving at West Mead I found a growing and welcome puddle of rainwater where the pool should be, but as yet no sign of water running down from Pipe Pond to fill it up more quickly. It will take much more rain to attract the usual wintering wildfowl. However there were good views of a juvenile marsh harrier quartering the ground by the river bank. Three buzzards also put in an appearance including the unusually pale fronted bird often to be seen here. All of these birds seemed entirely unconcerned about the digger doing ditch clearance work nearby. I remarked to some of our visitors that birds often seem to have no fear of vehicles, whereas people outside of a vehicle will make most birds shy away.
Around the reserve a few small parties of winter thrushes (redwings or fieldfares) could be seen flying around but identification proved less than easy in the rather poor light. However with the sun starting to re-emerge a solitary song thrush took a liking to the short grass in Adder Alley.
A few yards away another member of the thrush family – a blackbird - was enjoying hawthorn berries.
At the same time I was enjoying the cloudscape over the South Downs as the morning’s grey clouds finally lifted.
The North Brooks are now looking normally wet for the time of year. and it is showing in the numbers of birds. Large numbers of the usual wintering birds were present including wigeon, teal, Canada geese, greylags and lapwings. In lesser numbers but still easy to find are shelduck, pintail, shoveler,and mallard.
Also 10 black tailed godwits were showing well. These seem a little later in the season than usual, maybe deterred by the previous shortage of water, but it left me hopeful that many more will come in over the next few weeks. Last winter numbers peaked at around 1200 in late January giving some spectacular views.
Into this mix came the peregrine, alternately perched in its usual willow tree and then running sorties out across the Brooks creating pandemonium. This duly created several of those wonderful winter spectacles where the sky fills with clouds of swirling birds. In this photo a group of several hundred lapwings can be seen with a number of gulls. The peregrine however is nowhere to be seen, maybe on the ground with a kill or on its way back to the willow tree.
A fortnight ago I wrote about the need for more rain and it has duly arrived over the weekend so things are now looking set fair for the winter season.