BIRD NEWS:691

 

The grebe is far clearer in this shot. We did not actually see a blackcap, but they are apparently somewhere about.

We saw the brent geese, but not the yellowhammer.

We heard the skylarks

In fact, there were quite a few different birds to see on this excursion, although it had mainly been chosen for the exercise and relaxation points.

We stopped for a picnic lunch and spotted a grey heron roaming the sands.

On our return we discovered a reedbed hide. If we had known there were public toilets and a bird hide, we might have come to the marina/Birdham area before.

we didnt see the tufted ducks!!

BIRD NEWS:690

 

Regular readers will know only too well that I really love both pigeons and swans - especially Bewick swans and show pigeons. The Bewick duo and their three youngsters are knowing me quite well as I generally stand around for 5-15 minutes watcing them - unless I come with Liz who isnt especially keen on swans and tends to wander on past with a brief glance.

On this occasion, I was on my own, so stood around for a while enjoying them and took 2 videos.

HERE you can see the first, and HERE a second - illustrating Mrs Silvertag munching something in the mud on the bank - worms? ants?...

That alas was my trip....

My next excursion was with Liz to Chichester, whee we walked the entire length of the canal, round Birdham marina and up to Dell Quay and back. Plenty of birdlife en route, including swans.

We passed around a dozen coot nests.

Some coots already had babes...

Coots and swans here....

& a grebe!

BIRD NEWS:689

 

The last shot of the songthrush on my excursion to Arundel, taken as I turned from Dappers into Swillage Lane. once in Arundel, there were birds everywjere of course, as after grabbing refreshments after my 2 hour hike, I headed into the WWT.

Of course, a trip down Swillage Lane - means passing Swillage's 'Poachers Pond' - home of goggles the familiar goose.

Here, you can see Arundel in the distance and a big field. Coming from the field was the familiar song of a skylark. I did try to take some photos of one, as in total I discovered THREE! Alas, I failed - got some lovely shots of empty blue sky!

I arrived in Arundel and went round the WWT afte a coffee. here we see the dalmation pelicans...

Above a Nene....

Below, the trumpeter duo.

I got a rather good shot of a shoveler from one hide i entered. I dont often get close enough to take a photo.

I then approached my favorite birds at WWT - the Bewick Swans. they spotted me and came towards me...

I signed up to attend the WWT online event for curlew day. 'This World Curlew Day, on 21 April, we’re really excited to invite you to a fantastic WWT curlew themed evening, featuring world famous singer-songwriter David Gray in conversation with curlew champion Mary Colwell. ' You can view the event HERE.

BIRD NEWS:688

 

RSPB PB also meant birds in the trees...like this blackbird, singing away and glancing down at us. Later on we saw another bird if similar size and shape but different coloring - it looked a bit like a thrush with a plum chest - the only thing in the bird book I can locate that shows similar coloring is an American Robin....but this is the UK, not US....so a not sure what exactly we saw.

On our wanderings, we used bins and a scope to see and watch waterbirds - including black tailed godwit, teal, shoveler, shelduck, mute swan, avocet, widgeon... We then had lunch and wandered the exterior - down the muddy track past the church, just before which we spotted this in a tree.

It was a bird of prey - assumedly a kestrel.

It let us get quite near and take some fairly good shots on camera..... It was definitely a bird of prey and definitely not a sparrowhawk, buzzard or kite... Unfortunately I am not knowledgable enough to say for sure it was a kestrel - as we did not see it fly/hover. There is a minor possibility it might have been a hobby/falcon/peregrine... I am not experienced enough to say for sure.

Whatever it was, it made beautiful pictures with the tree and the warm blue skies beyond.

This 'ghost' bird was a pigeon or dove that flew into my kitchen window. Hopefully it recovered and flew away safely before any of the furry bird-murderers that live over the back fence and to the side tresspassed into my land to steal a meal.

My next excursion was a solo hike from home in Angmering thru the Angmering Park Estate woodland to Arundel. On my way I spotted a singing bird in the trees....a song thrush!

I got a few good pics before ambling off towards Arundel.

BIRD NEWS:687

 

In the first hide - the open air one - we spotted siskin amongst the birds. Chaffinches, dunnocks, blue tits, great tits, goldfinches - plenty on view.

The next - the elongated one - hide had us viewing siskin, lesser redpoll, goldfinch, blue tit, great tit, chaffinch, bullfinch, dunnock, greenfinch, wood pigeon, wood mice, and more!

However, my photos did not show the birds clearly, I was sad to discover. I was disappointed not to have gotten any good shots of the lesser redpolls, as this was the first occasion I had seen the species. I had also hoped to have gotten better snaps of the siskins.

I took a photo of the info board, telling us the species sighted the previous day. We saw many of these species ourselves - in fact we saw all the listed birds and animals EXCEPT: Pochard, gadwell, Egyptian goose, teal, shoveler, kingfisher, waterrail, little egret, heron, both snipes, coal tit, weasel and bank vole.

We extended our trip by wandering along part of the riverside walk.

I took photos of two of th boards illustrating the territory we rambled through.

There is even a poem by Shelley thrown in for you to read!

Back home, and the back yard is filled with blackbird, robin, sparrow, dunnock, wren, wood pigeon, collared dove, magpie, blue tit, great tit....but my little gray wagtail has not been seen for a week or two. Maybe he went elsewhere to find a mate or only visits during winter.

Liz and I next took a trip to RSPB Reserve Pulborough Brooks. That means show pigeons!!

BIRD NEWS:686

 

The pheasant was soon joined by more pheasants....and Liz offered it a crumb of cheese and a crumb of lentil chip to see what it would actually fancy. It had spat out the second offering of dry seaweed crisp.

A pair of robins joined the throng in the trees....all as eager to devour our lunch as were we.

There were soon more pheasants than humans eyeing our picnic lunch!! Whilst it was amusing and entertaining and informative - and my first attempt at handfeeding pheasant - it was also somewhat 'hey guys....can I have some of this myself please?'

Pheasant, robin, blue tit, great tit, dunnock.... they all wanted OUR lunch! We agreed that on our next visit to Wakehurst, we would bring some bird seed with us to share so we could eat our own food in total.

At least I got some great pictures of the pheasants...both male and female - in their pretty plumage. The males colorful and showing off, the females a shimmer paisley like brown.

We did of course venture onwards at last....but definitely plan to take bird food along with human food on our next trip to this destination.

Our next trip took us to Warnham nature reserve in Horsham. Firstly, we spotted a cormorant, some tufted ducks, a grebe, some gulls...

EGG facts here for Easter...

BIRD NEWS:685

 

This pair of owls are atop the trees in the woodland walks outside of Nymans, which was our final trip for February.

At home, a pair of collared doves seem to have moved into my yard.

Our next trip was to Wakehurst Place. Above you can see a pond of birds which was near to the start of our several hours of ramblings.

This is the first of many pheasants we encountered on this trip. I just thought it looked nice and colorful in spring plumage at this point. We had many more pheasant encounters on our day's outing though.

A woodpecker seems to have enjoyed this branch prior to its falling off the tree.

Talking of pheasants, we arrived at a possible picnic spot in the Himalayan Glade to find one using one of the picnic seats.

We sat down to eat our lunch and this fella came and stood in front of us....as if to say 'gimme food' in seagull, ibis, pigeon, or pelican style. I was unsure if it would like my fare - but offered it a small corner from my dry seaweed crisp...which it took and devoured - with little enthusiasm but high intent.

The pheasant was not the only one eyeing our lunch... a treefull of blue tits and great tits and a single coal tit eyed us as soon as we brought food out of our backpacks.