Red-necked Grebe

Wednesday and a promising start to the day with the mist clearing and the sun starting to break through. First stop was Warblington just over the border into Hampshire. The fields around the church are becoming a reliable area for Cattle Egrets. Only one so far this year but there were eight here at one point last year and also birds present for a couple of years before that.

Find the cattle and you can usually find the Cattle Egret. This time in the field just west of the cemetery at the end of Church Lane. There is a Little Egret roost close by and this morning five of them had joined in with feeding on the insects disturbed by the cattle.

Next stop was Church Norton to look for the reported Red-necked Grebe. This is a bird that I had seen a few times before but it had always been distant and my only record shots were poor. We were fortunate in meeting Andrew House when we arrived but the update he provided was mixed - Still there but distant. 

A walk along the spit and we realised we were in luck. The Red-necked was being aggressively pursued by a Great Crested Grebe and it was bringing it in closer to the shore.

It was not clear why this bird was behaving so aggressively, possibly protecting some food source, later we saw the Red-necked happily feeding alongside another Great Crested without any problems.

Fortunately things eventually quietened down and we managed to get a couple of reasonable shots.

There was not much to look at on the North Wall other than an idiot in a light plane (G-MZPJ) making a number of low passes across the harbour and seemingly intent on disturbing all the birds. Possibly practising forced landings but if so a poor choice of locations and lucky not to be involved with any bird strikes.

With little else of interest at the North Wall we headed off to the Burgh in the hope of seeing a few raptors and downland birds. Again nothing much showing. A distant Buzzard, Corn Bunting and Grey Partridge but no sight of the Red Kites and no Fieldfares or Redwings in the usual fields below Burpham Church.

Still, a good day out and a few shots of the Red-necked Grebe that are better than anything I had before.

Great Reed Warbler

Reports were still being posted of the Great Reed Warbler singing his heart out every day at Paxton Pits. This has been going on for over three weeks now and with the numbers of visitors probably starting to reduce it seemed to be time for a visit.

Any location, that involves me having to travel around the M25, takes some serious consideration before I decide to take it on. However, this would be a life tick for me, so in the end I decided to go. An early start saw me on site by around 08.30. A fifteen minute walk got me to the location, at the southern end of Washout Pit, where I found about half a dozen people already waiting for a view of the bird.

The reports had been correct. It may not show that often but it sings non stop. I spent the next three hours trying to spot it and to track its movement from the song coming from deep within the reed bed.

The song was loud and distinct and you always felt that it was close by and about to show. It did, eventually, and we had about five minutes of it sitting out on top of the reeds still belting out the song.

I had been wondering why the bird had stayed in the same location for so long. It turns out that it is protected by a large expanse of water. It is probably just as well. We all feel that we are the "special one" and should be allowed a much closer view than everyone else. Without the water someone would have got too close and flushed it by now.

My shots are a big crop but they are the best I could get and it was nice to come away with a record shot as well as a life tick.

Not much else photographed that day although there were Hobby and Nightingales at the site. I got a few shots of Damselflies that will be in the next blog and then later a pair of juvenile Grey Partridge attempting to blend in with the background......

...... and a bit of colour with a Cardinal Beetle.

The day turned out to be a bit more of a twitch than I would have liked and it involved a lot of standing around and waiting but I can't complain at the outcome.

Short-eared Owl

We had set an ambitious programme of visits for today, in an attempt to fill a few of the gaps in our year lists. It got off to a good start when we picked up Hawfinches in the trees at the back of Yew Tree Cottage in West Dean Woods. They were very distant and did not give any picture opportunities but this is a bird that you are always pleased to see.

The next target was Woodcock and Ambersham Common is a place where we have often flushed them in the past. This usually comes as more of a shock to us than to the birds, as they suddenly burst into the air just a few feet in front of you.

However, today it was not going to happen, the place was full of horse boxes, four wheel drives, and yellow jacketed marshals. We got the definite impression that we were not wanted, they probably thought we looked like hunt saboteurs. For our part we were happy to move on and look for some peace and quiet elsewhere. Not an easy task when there is an "El Alamein" style soundtrack playing out all across Sussex as the landed gentry enjoy their weekend "sport".

Next stop was Lavington Common which proved to be mostly devoid of life other than a few Crows and a couple of dog walkers. The best we managed here were two Yellowhammers.

Yellowhammers

We stopped off at Burton Pond and Lord's Piece. Birdsong was more evident at these two but there was little to look at. Waltham Brooks usually saves the day but even here there was nothing much moving and nothing at all at the Sewage Works. By know I think we had seen more butterflies than birds, not bad for the end of November.

Our final destination was the Burgh to see the Short-eared Owls. The walk in gave us views of Grey Partridge, Corn Buntings, and the usual Buzzards and Red Kite, but unfortunately not the Merlin that we were told had been seen.

Grey Partridge

Red Kite

We had great views of at least six of the Short-eared Owls for about an hour before the sun went down. I was disappointed in that I only managed one decent picture. In bird photography you are always pushing the camera and the lens to the limits of their performance capabilities but I should have done better. Now I am just going to have to go back and do it all over again. Life is hard!