Sunday 1st February :- What a cracking day!. I had kindly been invited by my very good friends Michael & Wendy Ball to their home in Sussex for a couple of days. We were going to spend a couple of days birding before heading out to Bulgaria for my Winter – Geese & Raptors short break on February 3rd. Our other mutual good friend, Chris Byrne had driven through from Kent and arrived in good time for breakfast After this we headed out in the cold of the early morning with a forecast that promised some snow. Michael skilfully negotiated the narrow streets through his home patch to our first site, the Amberley Wild Brooks. This is an area of wetland bog surrounded by deciduous woodland adjacent to the RSPB reserve of Pulbrough Brooks. We scanned the wildfowl finding a single Barnacle Goose amongst the large flocks of Greylag & Canada Geese, plus plenty of Pintail, Wigeon, Shoveler, Teal, 6 Black tailed Godwits. Lapwings, Grey Herons and a Mute Swan. In the woodland we saw a large flock of Siskins, a single Redwing, Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, and close views of a Treecreeper and Goldcrests. Michael then took us round to another part of the same wetland were he knew there could be Bewick’s Swans, and he spot one as we saw at least 23. This wasn’t all, Wendy found a lone Dark bellied Brent Goose and several Gadwall, however the weather was getting a little worse as the icy wind cut through the clothing and we were now heading for the South Downs. We parked at the head of the valley, which looked down over Duke of Norfolk’s abode – Arundel Castle to the sea beyond. We walked a little way up the track and searched the fields for some of our target species and quickly we found a Red legged Partridge, and a few Stock Dove were in with the Woodpigeons and hordes of Rooks. I then see our prize a ‘Ringtail' Hen Harrier followed by a second and we watched them enthralled as they interacted as they quartered the down-lands. Chris then found another target with a small covy of Grey Partridges, a bird I have not seen for a couple of years. We then walked further up the hill seeing Common Buzzard, Skylarks, Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Linnets, Reed Buntings and Yellowhammers. A very welcome cup of tea, and some of Wendy’s homemade Ginger Cake brought some feeling back into our cold bodies. As we left a sprinkling of snow started to fall – welcome to Britain!. We dropped down to the coast and the wonderful Pagham Harbour but the wind had strengthened and boy was it cold as we walked towards the hide. We had already seen plenty of waders (Curlew, Common Redshank, Dunlin, Grey & Ringed Plover) plus 3 Avocets found by Wendy and lots of Mediterranean, Greater Black backed, Lesser Black backed, Herring, Common & Black headed Gulls. Then at the hide we settled down being grateful to out of the wind for a while and a good spell of watching birds. The highlight was getting scoped views of both male & female Merlins (awesome) as they perched near the hide. Along with Red breasted Mergansers, Knot, Bar tailed Godwits, Oystercatchers, Turnstone, Shelducks, Little Grebes and 100’s more Brent Geese. The slow walk back to the car park produced a well appreciated Spotted Redshank and on the pool at the entrance we added a few Goldeneye and Tufted Duck. Lunch was taken back at the car, which was again very well received with hot soup and sandwiches as the snow started to fall in earnest. After lunch we drove around to the ‘North Wall’ of Pagham Harbour and was again excellent with additional species of Common Snipe, 10+ Golden Plover and a (heard only) Water Rail. However this area produced a group of 50+ Black tailed Godwits, more flocks of Wigeon, Shelduck and Pintail - yet another fantastic site. The afternoon was wearing on and the weather wasn’t improving on the coast so we headed inland to our final site - Burton Mill Pond. As we moved inland the weather incredibly started to improve with sun streaming through the clouds as we arrived at the small reed-fringed lake. Michael had been seeing a Great Bittern here for a couple of weeks on odd occasions and hopefully our luck would be in. We all set up and checked the area finding Common Pochard, Tufted Duck, Gadwall, Mallard, Cormorant and Little Grebe. Michael had said we might see Mandarin flying over and sure enough while we were there we saw 8 birds going to roost?, plus a Grey Wagtail heading for the nearby stream. Although we were not finding out main target until suddenly I saw a movement at the edge of the reeds. There (still in very good light) was a Great Bittern motionless but incredibly out in the open. We were getting phenomenal scoped views of this very elusive species as it sat in the reeds. Then the most amazing thing happened, it started acting like it was either alarming or displaying by stretching it’s neck right out and fluffing it’s neck feathers like a long toilet brush, plus flapping it’s wings a little. Something I had never seen a Bittern do before and a real privilege to see. It was sadly time to leave as the sun was setting behind the hills but it wasn’t the end because as we drove back a Woodcock flew up from the side of the road and into the nearby trees. We have had a fantastic day with a final tally of 85 bird species (plus one heard) and Roe Deer, Hare, Rabbit and Stoat.Monday February 2nd :- Heavy overnight snow had thwarted our plans for today with most of the morning being spent clearing the drive. The forecast wasn’t good and most of our thoughts were of the next day when we were meant to be flying to Bulgaria for a Winter short break. Just before lunchtime we said our “goodbyes” to Chris as he was heading home to Kent in could have been very difficult driving conditions. He did however get home in very good time and more importantly in one piece. After a spot of lunch we risked going out and drove the very short distance to Shoreham Harbour looking for Purple Sandpipers, but to no avail. However the bays were full of Turnstone, with a few Sanderling and Dunlin, but off shore was better with 2 Red throated Divers, 20+ Great Crested Grebes, 3 Teal, plus a few Guillemots & Razorbills flying west. The snow had started to fall again so we headed home to Upper Beeding and made ready for the following day.
