Monday, 10th June: Rainy, cool and grey early on with a brisk W/NW wind force 5-6, drying as the morning progressed, with sunny periods, variable amounts of cloud and lighter winds.
A day off the patch for me, but worthy of mention is the reason why....a singing Cirl Bunting on the Downs in the Southwick/Portslade area - the first in Sussex for almost 30 years. A small photo is attached for information....
While I'm on about previous records, some of you may be interested in a couple of current statistics....as far as I can ascertain, the total number of species recorded (by all observers) on the 5Km patch so far this year stands at 160, with my personal total currently standing at 136. I should perhaps be doing better and seem to have missed several 'dead certs' so far, but there is time yet!
Sunday, 9th June: A fine and pleasantly sunny morning with plenty of scattered cloud and a light to moderate breeze, W 2-3.
Barnham Brooks & Lidsey area: The flooded fields continue to dry up, with some exceptions. The 6 Egyptian Geese were still present, but the highlight was a pair of Grey Partridges, unexpectedly flushed from long grass at the edge of a footpath, by a dog. At least 40 Mallard and 12 Shelduck were in the rifes and remaining floods, a single Oystercatcher was also present and a Cuckoo was heard calling distantly. Swift numbers were back to normal with about 15 high up over the brooks and a few Reed and Sedge Warblers, Cetti's Warblers, Whitethroats and Reed Buntings were heard or seen during my circuit.
Moving on to the Lidsey area, 6 Cattle Egrets with 4 Little Egrets were found in the existing floods, with around 150 Black-headed Gulls feeding on the periphery. Another 60+ Mallard were also located, with a few more Shelduck, 2 Teal and 2 Gadwall.
Cattle Egrets were again the main focus of interest in the Lidsey area around the remaining floods.
Saturday, 8th June: Sunny interludes with frequent cloudy and grey conditions and a fairly cool, moderate to fresh wind, W/NW4-5.
Editorial: The blog has been running for several months now, and I'm generally encouraged by the supportive comments received. Whilst it has run smoothly, by and large, there have been one or two technical issues behind the scenes as the Blogger system can be quite temperamental sometimes! I also said earlier I might tweak a couple of things as time goes on, and that point has now been reached.
I plan to reduce the number of colours used in the birdnews texts from four to two; this will be one to indicate the whole of the parish of Middleton-on-Sea (M-o-S) and another for the rest of the patch. I will also be experimenting with a number of colour tones before finally deciding, so if things look a bit 'odd' please make allowances. There may be other tweaks in due course.
M-o-S beach & Elmer Rocks: With migration now virtually over, all bar the shouting, a bit of a change this morning, starting at the M-o-S beach end. I was surprised to find a Great Crested Grebe still on the open sea, although two Little Egrets along the beach were perhaps more to be expected. The highlight though was a couple of summer-plumaged Sanderlings* which dropped onto M-o-S beach for a quick feed, before they flew off W. This species has an extended migration and although it's now very late they are still doubtless on their way to the Arctic. (*Non-birders note: this is the same species you see regularly in numbers during the winter - those grey and white little birds running along the shoreline. They look very different now in their summer colours and most are already in the Arctic).
At Middleton-on-Sea beach: (above) Little Egret and (below) summer-plumaged Sanderlings
Bilsham farm: On the reservoir this morning were 7 Tufted Ducks, 4 Coots and 2 broods of Mallard - a female with a recent brood of 5 small young and a female with a much older, established brood of 8. Also, 6 Pied Wagtails were feeding around the water's edge - probably a recently fledged family. Swifts were also much in evidence again and a view high to the N revealed at least 100 and probably more.
Friday, 7th June: A pleasantly sunny day, with periods of cloud though staying dry, with a chilly edge at times due to a moderate NW breeze force 4, backing SW 4-5 later.
Barnham Brooks: In case anyone was wondering about my lack of recent reports, the last two days have seen me unavoidably committed with no birding possible, thus I was keen to be out in the field this morning. After a bit of catching up elsewhere, I spent most of the time at the Brooks, where I soon discovered that the flooded fields are fast drying up; some are still likely to last a while yet, while others now hold little or no water at all, so it will be interesting to see how things progress into the summer.
Six Egyptian Geese were present today, together with a pair of Gadwall, perhaps up to 30 Shelduck, 30 Mallard and a single Tufted Duck. A loose gathering of 18 Lapwings was around one pool and a Little Ringed Plover at another, but otherwise it was quiet for waders. However, a good count of 9 Cattle Egrets and 8 Little Egrets was made, while 10+ House Martins are still visiting to collect mud and just a handful of Swifts were feeding high up and fairly distant. I seem to have had a very bad spring for Swallows with numbers way down; just 2 birds were all I noted today and I seriously wonder if there has been a bit of a dramatic event during their migration. Time will tell.
Egyptian Geese (above), Cattle Egret and mixed flock of Cattle and Little Egrets at Barnham Brooks
Tuesday, 4th June: A rather grey and cloudy start, with a light breeze W2-3, the cloud breaking to give sunny periods as the day progressed and the wind freshened.....
Elmer Rocks: Having not visited the beach for a few days I thought it might be worth a brief visit today, and it certainly paid dividends when an Osprey flew west along the shoreline at 07:50hrs, but quite high up, pursued by a number of hostile gulls. (What was almost certainly the same bird was seen a while later by other observers at Pagham Harbour).
Unsurprisingly, it was fairly quiet otherwise, though up to 6 Sandwich Terns were back and forth offshore, 2 Oystercatchers were on the rock islands, a Little Egret flew W and 6 Linnets were on the beach. In the long hedge behind the beach 2 Whitethroats were still to be heard singing, whilst singing Song Thrushes were at Poole Place and weedscreen woods.
Just before I left, a final check produced a family of cute and very recently fledged Blue Tits in the tamarisk bushes near the Kiosk, whilst on the horizon a fine two-masted sailing ship was worth a second look and a photo!
How cute! Recently fledged Blue Tits in the hedges near the Kiosk, and (below) a two-masted sailing ship heading west along the horizon - a fine sight!
Sunday, 2nd June: Another cool early morning, with the N/NE wind continuing, although much lighter (force 2-3), before brightening up considerably and becoming warmer, with plenty of sunshine and scattered cloud.
Barnham Brooks: After birding elsewhere early on, I returned to the patch mid-morning, again concentrating on some of the more outlying areas. Eventually I located something of interest, in the form of 2 drake Garganey, amongst a few other ducks and often elusive in vegetation, then nearby were 4 Cattle Egrets, 8 Little Egrets and a Little Ringed Plover. It seemed that Swift numbers were easing back to normal, whilst a Cuckoo was calling from nearby and at least 4 Blackcaps and the same number of Cetti's Warblers were also still singing.
Cattle Egrets at Barnham Brooks
Saturday, 1st June: The start of summer - meteorologically speaking at least - began on a distinctly cold and grey note with a brisk N/NE wind 4-5 prevailing, but it wasn't too long before the sunshine came through and the temperature increased to give a bright and breezy day.
Bilsham farm: A fairly brief visit is all that was needed today and it soon became apparent that Swifts were going to feature heavily again, with 100+ above and around the reservoir, together with several Swallows and 10 House Martins. There was nothing at all on the reservoir itself, except 4 rather tatty Mallards and a Pied Wagtail, whilst around the hedgerows were a couple of singing Blackcaps and a Yellowhammer.
More Swifts (!) this time at Bilsham farm reservoir
Barnham Brooks: I concentrated on some of the more outlying areas of the Brooks today, but once again Swifts were present in large numbers. I could also see from a distance that there were certainly hundreds more, if not thousands, over the main area - but made no attempt to estimate numbers this time,
Highlights from these outer areas included 3 Cattle Egrets, 5 Little Egrets, 2 Little Ringed Plovers and an agitated Oystercatcher, which perhaps indicates breeding nearby. Around 15 House Martins were also back and forth, collecting mud.
No comments:
Post a Comment