White WEBS and heavy going

The WEBS count on the 17th commenced with a proper feeling of winter in the form of some early morning snow. Unfortunately this was the exception rather than the norm since, following the warmest December on record, we have now had the wettest January with just two frosts locally and persistent rain being the order of the day.

Highlight of the WEBS was the number of birds, especially Lapwing with 430 on Down Level and a further 200 on Horse-eye. Unsurprisingly given the mild weather, there were no Goldies about and only a few Snipe on the wader front. The duck were few in number with just a single drake Shoveler, 17 Teal, and 10 Mallard scattered about, but the geese included singles of White-front and Barnacle albeit of suspect origin...
As ever raptors keep the spirits high with the ringtail Heh Harrier still present on Horse-eye together with at least 2 Marsh Harrier, the resident Peregrines, and at least one Shortie as ever near Lookers.

The levels are extremely heavy going at the moment with very deep muddy paths and off piste even worse! Needless to say there are opportunities to explore further afield and a trip to Dunge on the 10th was particularly rewarding with Penduline Tit, Long-eared Owl (above), 2 GWE, Slavonian Grebe, and Smew the highlights with the Glossy Ibis at Pett providing a late afternoon padder on the way home.

Elsewhere bits and bobs included a cracking Firecrest in the bushes to the east of Horseshoe plantation on the 23rd. Stay safe.

Out with the old



A morning walk across White Dyke to Rickney and then Lookers in bright sunshine and a brisk breeze for my last outing of the year. A pair of Pintail were a welcome surprise by the caravan park at the end of White Dyke given the paucity of duck around at the moment. A couple of Little Egret were on Down Level and a singleton on Horse-eye and one of the Peregrines was also seen on Horse-eye. The Brown Hare pictured above was in the field to the east of New Bridge road and was a very welcome winter surprise.
Although not seen today the ringtail Hen Harrier was seen on the 20th and 27th along with various of the winter residents, perhaps surprising given the ridiculously mild conditions. Indeed it has been so mild that I put the moth trap on for a couple of nights - no macros but 2 Light brown Apple moths on the 18th and singles of Light brown Apple moth, Common Plume, and Rush Veneer on the 27th were the first moths I have trapped in December! Stay safe.

Great White Egret and the levels perfect ten

Today saw me leaving the house pre-dawn for the monthly WEBS with Hazel, my labrador, for company. The levels rarely disappoint and as soon as we hit White Dyke with the first fingers of sunlight breaking through the heavy cloud a Water Rail was heard squealing while a female Marsh Harrier was watched quartering Down level. Whilst following the harrier a Peregrine burst through my field of view and took out a slow moving Lapwing, a good start for me, alas not for the struck wader.
Unfortunately Henry is unwell at the moment so for todays WEBS I had to take in Horse-eye as well. Two more squealers were in the reed bed and as we headed over to the orchid fields a ringtail Hen Harrier was watched quartering Mappins, more quality! The levels are a tad soft underfoot at the moment so as we headed back towards Down I fully expected Hazel to flush a few Snipe, unfortunately none obliged, along with a distinct lack of duck the only downer of the morning. Walking across Down yielded 2 Buzzard, the resident pair of Peregrine pictured below perched side by side on gateposts mid-levels, and a Kestrel hovering in the distance.

On reaching the small rise mid level I always stop and scan in an attempt to gain maximum advantage from my elevated position. First up, large White Heron on Mappins with carrot for a bill, neither stop press nor frontiers of bird identification I know, but GWE are still thin enough on the ground to make them a good find on the patch. This bird is the fourth GWE I have seen on Horse-eye and Down over the years and my third self found there so all in all the morning was going along swimmingly. Whilst watching the egret a Merlin was picked up flying along White Dyke, another top winter raptor not seen every visit.
Moving back to White Dyke a single adult White-fronted Goose was seen and the GWE was watched feeding on Mappins with a Little Egret for company. Our walk continued along New Bridge road picking up Chiff-chaff and a slightly showy Cettis (our 5th in total including the calling ones) before we ultimately reached Chilley farm for one of the countys' best breakfasts and a mug of black coffee.

Following on from the mornings good birding I headed over to Lookers late afternoon. The Little Owl was on show and a couple of Shorties were intermittently hunting between bouts of sitting in the fields, another squealer was in the reeds here as well. As I headed home via Horse-eye farm one of the Shorties perched up on a fencepost right by the car giving me a proper stare with its glaring yellow eyes. What better to round off a perfect day of winter patch birding than a Barn Owl, and sure enough there was one hunting at the back of Down near Downash in the gloaming. While watching the owl the days final raptor appearred in the form of a female Sparrowhawk scooting low over the fields towards Rickney so completing my levels perfect winter ten birds of prey - seven raptors and three owls, plus the Great White, and not another birder in sight!  

Winter Wols back in Wesidence

As Bawwy Kwipky would say (if you are not a Big Bang Theory fan the reference will be lost on you!). Today (22nd) saw me walk from Hailsham to Chilley Farm in the morning before a later pootle out to Lookers Cottage.

Low light of the day was this Shortie which was on New bridge road between Horse-eye farm and Rickney. Whether this bird was the subject of a collision or not was impossible to say but I would be of the opinion that this would be extremely unlikely given the speed you can drive around the levels at. I turned it over to check for evidence of shot and rings, neither of which were obvious. All very depressing.
On a more positive note this mornings walk produced a couple of Golden Plover over White Dyke, there plaintive call evocative of wild places, a couple of Snipe (flushed by Hazel), 4 Wigeon, 2 Marsh Harrier, 2 Buzzard, Kingfisher, and a showy Cettis', all on Horse-eye/ White Dyke, a Chiff-chaff along New bridge road, and numerous small flocks of Redwing and Fieldfare pretty much everywhere.

On the insect front a Buff-tailed Bumblebee was loitering around the last flowering Ivy on New bridge road in close to freezing conditions. The moth trap has finally been moth-balled for the winter now the mild weather is over. The four nights I was able to run this month yielding a total of 10 macros' and 3 micros' the best of which were the male Feathered Thorn pictured right on the night of the 3rd and 2 Silver Y on the night of the 1st.

So to this evenings visit to Lookers where a couple of Shorties were putting on a good display as they hunted the rough areas looking back towards Hailsham, hopefully they will be around for the rest of the winter since they brighten up the dullest of winter days, along with another Buzzard, 3 Kestrel, Little Egret, one of the resident Little Owls, and a spanking sunset a good end to the day.

Ophion obscuratus and other miscellany

 The moth trap is just about ticking over with the odd late autumn macro. New for the year over the last week have been Large Wainscot (pictured below) on the night of the 22nd, and last night, the 30th, Feathered Thorn and November moth spp along with the striking ichneumon wasp Opheon obscuratus pictured above. Fortunately the last named is readily identifiable from the stiking cream markings on the abdomen and the white mark in the corner of the stigma on the wing illustrated in the cropped images left and right.

Out on the levels things have been very quiet with a distinct lack of late autumn excitement. One of the features of the autumn has been the good passage of finches so a few Lesser Redpoll which were present on White Dyke on the 25th were unusual for the patch though hardly surprising. A Kingfisher appears to have taken up residence along White Dyke, being seen there regularly, and along with subsinging Cettis' Warblers, will hopefully form a weekly padder through the winter.

So finally to todays final of the Rugby World Cup and a fitting triumph for the All Blacks. Sadly I failed in my application for tickets to the final but I musn't complain! What a wonderful tournament, full of great matches, sporting behaviour, and great bonhomie. The four games I was lucky enough to attend were seperated by just 16 points in total and were all absolutely wonderful battles shared with the best of friends and wonderful fans from all over the world. Hopefully my youngest daughter will carry the memory of Japan beating South Africa and everything that that performance demonstrated about teamwork and willpower in her memory bank, but perhaps more importantly the sportsmanship demonstrated by both players and fans on and off the field. For me as a passionate Englishman the loss to Wales was a bitter pill, but the occassion was fantastic and the welsh fans amazing, sometimes you just have to doff your cap and applaud however much you are hurting inside. Well played RWC 2015 and New Zealand, lets hope for more of the same from Japan 2019!

Early Whitefronts and the kick that broke a nations hearts

Another week of rarity filled entertainment on the patch, not. Winter is coming and the harbingers of doom reckon el Nino has a rough one in store, and perhaps this will prove the case since this months WEBS on the 18th yielded 2 adult White-fronted Geese and 50+ Wigeon along with the usual motley crew of residents. Migrant Hawker and Common Darter were both still on the wing along White Dyke. The moth trap continues to provide spartan fare with the best on offer being a Sallow on the night of the 10th and the Yellow-line Quaker pictured right on the 18th.

So to the highlight of the week, the Rugby World Cup, which to coin a cliche is a gift that just keeps giving. Yesterday saw me taking the well worn path back to the cabbage patch for the quarter final between Australia and Scotland courtesy of old friend Mr Paul Chapman. To say this was a meeting where I would qualify as a neutral (hence the donning of my beloved, poorly fitting, old school Tigers jersey) would be an understatement, and my intention was to watch the game and applaud quality football from whomsoever played it while being pretty ambivalent as to the final result. The scarf in the picture below was purchased by James whose colours were firmly nailed to Australia (why I know not, perhaps he too has a criminal past?), however I surprisingly found my supposed neutrality vanishing during the second half... I think this commenced with a "deliberate" knock on which resulted in a barely believable yellow card. My neutrality was wavering and I found myself on my feet when the Scots went over in the corner, before ultimately shouting "Scotland, Scotland" as the game entered the last ten minutes and the Scots took an unlikely lead, although the consumption of beer and a hip flask of the levels finest Sloe gin, used only for myself, Paul, and Paolo to toast quality try time, may have been contributory factors. To say the Scots were robbed would be an understatement, however once again it was another truly great game in a tournament of great games, and ultimately respect to Foley for slotting that final penalty in the Twickenham cauldron. Keep the faith.

Yellow-broweds' at the double



After last weeks first for Britain things were always likely to be a bit of an anticlimax this week, however birding on the whole was pretty good with plenty of bits and bobs to keep up the interest.

Out on the levels things have been pretty quiet with an immature male Marsh Harrier on the 1st and 4th the best bird on show. Common Darters and Migrant Hawkers remain in double figures with the picture below taken on the 1st in particularly pleasant weather. Also on the 1st a single Small Copper was on White Dyke along with a smattering of Speckled Woods'. Moths have been particularly poor recently with nothing at all of note, this may partly be due to the bat spp swooping around the garden the other evening intent on finding its evening meal...

Elsewhere a couple of potters to Beachy over the weekend provided good fare. On Saturday (3rd) a Yellow-browed Warbler was at the top of the lane at Birling along with at least one Continental Coal Tit. A walk around Holywell on the 4th produced the Black Redstart pictured left along with at least 300 House Martin. It has not been a good year for Clouded Yellows' so singles seen on the 1st, 3rd, and 4th were very welcome, with the latter pictured right. However highlight of the week has to go to the Yellow-browed in the bushes at my work place in St Leonards on the 6th, this has to be the best bird I have had on site topping the 4 Waxwings that were present in the car park for a couple of days a few years back! Unfortunately last weeks lowlight was the rugby... Never mind, learn from your mistakes, onwards and upwards, come back bigger and stronger, KEEP THE FAITH!