Turtle Dove

It has been a bit of a mixed bag so far this week. Tuesday I was out looking for Turtle Doves on the Knepp Estate. There had been a number of reports of them posted but after four hours of searching I hadn't even managed to hear one purring. There were Cuckoos calling all over the place but they were very difficult to see. At least the Storks were showing well. I assume these two were from the re-introduction scheme. They looked like Red DC and Grey CU. Odd though that they had the rings on opposite legs.

With nothing much else showing, I went over to Woods Mills to look for a Turtle Dove there. The result was exactly the same

White Storks probably from the Knepp re-introduction sceme

Wednesday morning, this time with Dave as my good luck charm, we tried Woods Mills again and one of the first birds we saw was a Turtle Dove.

Then off to find our next target, West Sussex Wall Brown butterflies. A quick trek up onto the downs and we had eight to ten of the butterflies in our sights. Great butterflies to see but very territorial and aggressive and thus difficult to photograph as they are always on the move.

Wall Brown

Wall Brown

We also managed to find a single Small Blue at Kithurst Meadow but in the scramble to get a picture it did a disappearing act and we could not relocate it. I am always surprised at just how small they actually are. Later on we had our first Small Copper at Whiteways.

Small Copper

Green-veined Whites

Green-veined White mud puddling

Brimstone

And the dragonfly season is also under way with the best seen so far, an early Brown Hawker at Rowlands Wood. I see them there most years but as ever it failed to put down anywhere for a picture.

Broad-bodied Chaser

Azure Damselfly

Large Red Damselfly

So a good day Tuesday. Wednesday we were out early looking for more of the same. This time at  Old Lodge with targets of Woodlark, Tree Pipit and Redstart. Unfortunately the weather did not live up to expectations, being cold and windy, and we only managed the Woodlark.

Woodlark

 Compensation was in the form of a Garden Warbler that Dave found belting out its song from halfway up a Pine tree in Rowlands Wood. My first of the year.

Garden Warbler

Wryneck

I finally managed to catch up with the Church Norton Wryneck, although it was not very obliging and stayed deep in cover for most of the time that I watched it. I had missed them on the spring migration so this was a welcome year tick for me.

I had hoped for a better picture but after about five minutes the bird dropped into the long grass to feed and had not reappeared when I left an hour later

Wryneck

There seems to have been a shortage of small birds around the hide and cemetery areas at Church Norton of late but today restored my faith in the area with multiple sightings of Redstarts and Spotted Flycatchers and also this Green Woodpecker feeding in the field behind the hide.

Green Woodpecker

Green Woodpecker

The Spotted Flycatchers and Redstarts all seemed to favour the barbed wire and fencing for perching up. It's probably convenient for them but it tends to spoil the pictures.

Spotted Flycatcher

Spotted Flycatcher

Redstart

I had a look at the North Wall but with the recent heavy rain the Breech Pool was again overfull and there were no waders there. I caught glimpses of a single Spotted Flycatcher and a Wheatear but could not get pictures of either. Fortunately the Swallows were obliging even if they were favouring the barbed wire again.

Swallow

The following pictures were taken in a brief very wet stopover in Norfolk earlier in the week. The trip was more memorable for the birds I missed than for those I saw. In particular I had Booted Warbler, Icterine Warbler and Wryneck reported on Gramborough Hill just one mile from where I was staying.

Gramborough Hill - Not a big area to search for three rarities

It was getting dark and raining heavily when we arrived but I was up early and on site before 0600 the next morning. Unfortunately the rain had cleared in the night and the birds had flown. The best I managed was this distant Garden Warbler.

Garden Warbler

Other pictures taken included this Little Stint enjoying the rain, a couple of Pied Flycatchers and a few of the regulars.

Little Stint

Meadow Pipit

Pied Flycatcher

Ruff

It had been a disappointing week but one good bird like the Wryneck makes all the difference. Bring on the rest of the migration

Garden Warbler

I woke up this morning to what looked like a thick sea mist. I live close to the coast so there was always the hope that by the time I got to the top of the road I would be back in sunshine. No such luck this time and when I got to Pulborough Brooks I found myself sitting in a hide looking out at a bank of colourless grey fog.

It's probably appropriate then, that the first bird that appeared was a Grey Heron. The shots of the Heron below are far better than I saw on the day, its amazing what you can do in Photoshop to recover a picture.

Why does it look surprised? Well it had strayed too close to a Lapwings nest and it was under attack.

Look out

a warning pass

Followed by an exhibition of high speed precision flying -
a few inches lower and it would be impaled on the Heron's bill

Still defiant but moving away

and the Lapwing still intent on protecting it's territory

I was surprised that the Heron made no attempt to use its bill to defend itself. I would have thought that a quick stab would have brought the Lapwing down. But then I am thinking like a human and not like a bird. These territorial disputes probably have an etiquette that ensures that neither party gets injured.

With the fog gradually lifting I went to have a look at the Nightingales. An hour listening and watching these raised the spirits but did not give me many picture opportunities. They seem to have an uncanny ability to always perch with small branches in front of them.

In full song

From a distance the North Brooks did not look very promising but I decided to walk round to Nettley's Hide for a closer look. I am glad I did. There were distant views of a couple of Greenshanks and also a Green Sandpiper.

Greenshanks

Green Sandpiper

Linnets, Sedge Warblers, and Whitethroats were also showing well in front of the hide.

Linnet

Sedge Warbler

Whitethroat

The best find of the day, for me, was a Garden Warbler. This is a bird that always gives me problems but this time I managed to locate it from its song.

Garden Warbler

Sometimes you can walk around Pulborough Brooks and not see anything but today it was well worth the effort.

In the afternoon I went down to Selsey, mainly to look for the Sandpipers that have been reported on the Ferry Pool. There were none there on the way through but on returning later I found a Common at the back of the pool, a first for me this year.

I found the local Kestrel on the ground in the pumping station and in the process of devouring what ever it had caught. I grabbed my camera but I was stuck on the wrong side of the road, unable to cross because of the amount of traffic going by. I had to settle for a flight shot later.

Kestrel

A visit to the North Wall was equally disappointing. Last week it was flooded, this week it has the lowest water levels I have ever seen. Whoever controls the sluice gates seems to be doing their best to destroy the habitat.

Little Ringed Plover on the drying up bed of the Breech Pool. It should be under a couple of feet of water.

A great day out spoilt by what seems to be the wanton destruction of one of my favourite birding spots.

Nightingales

Today we were after Nightingales and any other of the Little Brown Jobs (LBJs) that we could find to fill the gaps in our year lists. This usually makes for an interesting days birding but a frustrating day for photography. The birds are often hard to find, they move fast, and they stay in cover. By the time you have identified them they have usually moved on and getting them in the view finder long enough to take a picture requires a lot of patience.  Fortunately that does not apply to the Nightingales. If you can find them out in the open they are usually more interested in singing and you can get some good views.

We started the day at Waltham Brooks where we had already seen Nightingales and Sedge Warblers on a previous visit. It was only a quick stopover and we did not find anything unusual although I was particularly pleased with this shot of a Linnet.

Linnet

It shouldn't have really worked. It was dull, windy, the bird was facing away from me, and it was too far away. I had no expectations of getting a usable shot. It perhaps makes up for the far more numerous occasions when I get home expecting to have superb shots in the camera, only to find, that when I put them up on the computer screen, they are not quite there.

Pulborough Brooks is a good place to observe the Nightingales. You have the best chance of seeing them when they first arrive and are establishing their territories. Later on you will still hear them singing but it will be from cover and they will be a lot harder to see.

There were plenty of Whitethroats around and a couple of Lesser Whitethroats but as usual the Lessers where proving hard to pin down. I was also pleased to get a shot of a Garden Warbler, a bird that I have had problems identifying and photographing in the past.

Whitethroat

Whitethroat

Garden Warbler

Late in the afternoon we were sitting having a cup of tea when Paul Snelgrove (Icemelter4) rushed in to tell us that there was a White Stork circling over the North Brooks. My thanks to Paul, it was a first for me in the UK and I would not have been very happy to have got home and found that I had missed it.

One final picture that I forgot to put on Tuesday's blog. Two Adders, I assume they are mating. The female is the larger brown coloured and the male the grey.

Adders mating

Its not the best picture I have ever taken but its certainly unusual and I did not want to get any closer in case I disturbed them.