Brightening up a dull day

First WEBS of the year and its pouring with rain so hauling my sorry self around the levels with Hazel proved somewhat sticky. Still these are the days that sort the men from the boys so we stick it out for the usual suspects including a very soggy female Marsh Harrier at Mappins, a couple of Water Rail, and when scanning the geese... a family group of 3 White-fronts', or should I be calling them Russian White-fronts' these days?
Anyway, since it was miserable and wet after covering the whole patch area and having a late breakfast, I headed up to East Grinstead with Sharon to see the Waxwings that have been on the Birches Industrial Estate. As always charming birds with their high pitched bell like trilling very evocative, I counted 29 but the flock is 30+, not quite the 300+ that I saw here in one of the invasions in the late 90s' but enough to keep me happy in the ongoing precipitation.
Finally back to the levels and Lookers cottage in continuing rain for the Hen Harrier survey. Nothing doing, in fact no SEO either, not unsurprisingly given the conditions but I did however connect with a couple of Marsh Harriers including a close flyby of one of the adult females which sort of made another soaking worthwhile!
Other visits since Christmas included a very enjoyable day spent with old friend Nigel Driver on the 27th December, the highlight of which was a Pink-footed Goose on Horse-eye along with 7 White-fronts (2ad with 2cy and 2ad with 1cy), and a couple of SEO at the ever busy Lookers'. On the 1st of January, again in pouring rain, Peregrine and Marsh Harrier, and on the 2nd Jan 2 SEO amongst the chaos at Lookers.

December Moth

The mild weather over the last couple of nights encouraged me to run the trap. I was rewarded with 2 male December moths overnight on the 8th, a species I have hankered after for a while... Also a Common Plume on the 8th and a single LBAM on the 9th.

Just another day on the levs

First thing this morning I dropped in again at Normans Bay for this stunning little bird which now seems very settled. Both pictures and video are early morning and unmodified, no apologies - I like both.

On the sea sifting through the couple of hundred strong Scoter flock proved tricky in the choppy conditions but yielded several of the Velvets' and at least one Eider.
Lookers in the evening produced 3 SEO, Marsh Harrier, Buzzard, 2+ Kestrel, but again no Hen Harriers. Stay safe.

Dessie 2 - after the buzz

Depressingly I have had to spend the week at work but was finally able to get out this afternoon and take in some more leisurely time with the first winter male Desert Wheatear. There was no sign Tuesday morning but the bird was picked up early afternoon about a kilometre down the beach at Normans Bay. It then returned to the EA compound near where we had originally found it, enabling LP to catch up with it, and appeared to roost there. Subsequently it seems to have settled around a patch of rough scrub to the west of the Martello tower in Normans Bay and if not pursued will come very close.

On to Horse-eye where a couple of the SEO were putting on a good show until dusk. Also single Marsh Harrier, 2 Buzzard, 3 Kestrel, 3 Snipe, single Jack Snipe, 50 Fieldfare, Kingfisher, and 8 Moorhen. Keep it real.

DESERT WHEATEAR!

Post Twickenham visit on Saturday and domestic chores Sunday, and decorating tasks this morning - a holiday day, Sharon and I decided to take the dog for a walk. "Where would you like to go" was the question from Sharon, to which I replied "the beach". So it came to pass that just after 2 o'clock we parked at the beach end of Sluice lane, by the fishing boats, and walked back towards Normans bay, along what Sharon informs me is known as Herbrand walk.
A pretty uneventful 45 minutes followed, with Hazel (our labrador) mooching about and a distinct lack of birds. Having reached the outfall we decided to turnaround and head back to the car along the shoreline in the teeth of a pretty brisk easterly. After a few hundred yards we cut back up and towards the top of the beach where a small bird flew up and perched on a fence post. My immediate reaction was Wheatear and it was nearly December...
I asked Sharon to stay still and hold on to the dog. Bins up, "**** me its a Desert Wheatear", "Is that good" comes back from my lady wife, "Yes, ITS A DESERT WHEATEAR! A first winter male to be precise!". Immediate thought process follows, get some pics, its late (2.45ish) so get the news out asap. I get my little bridge camera out but the bird is moving actively along the top of the beach, it pops up on the metal grate near the sluice and I take a picture...

Bugger! Fortunately it stays still for a moment longer...
Thats' better, now phone the locals. No answer from Matt, Mike, Geoff, Al, Lawrence, Jake, all of them are out or busy! OK, send texts, done, phone RBA done. Now I can enjoy the bird for a bit, but it's very busy, moving along the fence line, then down on to the breakwater to fly down to the strand line to catch what are presumably sandhoppers, and then a couple of walkers come along and its on the logs at the top of the beach. I manage to get a few more reasonable record shots below.

The posture of the bird is indicative of the stiff breeze. Finally I have to relent and walk back to the car so Sharon can get some shelter, as I do so the bird is still feeding along the strand line at about 15.10 or so. Unfortunately when Al and Laurence arrive there is no further sign, a few dog walkers have been around but the bird was very active so may still be on the beach. We have a good look round but time is against us and at 15.55 it is pretty dark so I head off. Gutted that Al and Laurence haven't connected but elated at finding a quality rare in the greater patch area. Hopefully the boy will be relocated tomorrow, unfortunately I will be back at work.

BBS springs a bonus

The reason for the lack of recent posts has been primarily the lack of anything to report! The weather has been unseasonably cold which has resulted in no moth trapping and very little in the way of birds. It was therefore with some trepidation that I headed out this morning for my first breeding birds survey transects of the year...
I need not have worried though, May has arrived and all is well with the world. The day started with one of the Little Owls on guard and the transects went well with my first Lesser Whitethroat of the year singing near Lookers where a Wheatear was also seen along with the more expected Sedge Warblers, Reed Warbler, Whitethroats, and various other regular or should I say now, not so regular farmland species.
Moving on to my second transect for more of the same with the addition of Little Egret, Water Rail, and Lapwing and in the reedbed a familiar, though these days, not often heard song (at least in Sussex). Unfortunately the video does not contain the bird, only the reeling of one of the two Grasshopper Warblers that were belting it out! After Al Redman joined me we watched one of the birds skulking through the scrub before climbing into a bush where it proceeded to reel, the intensity varying as the bird turned its head with all the while its tail quivering in time. Only my 3rd and 4th on the patch and the 2nd and 3rd spring birds so a "reel" bonus!
Al and I then moved on to Down Level where we added Greenshank, Hobby, 4 Yellow Wagtail, a small collection of Peacock and Small Tortoiseshells, Raven, 6 or so Buzzards, 4 Gadwall, and a smattering of Little Egret.

On leucism and a murder mystery

The past couple of weeks have provided some interesting bits and pieces with the leucistic Hebrew Character pictured above probably the most noteworthy. The moth was trapped overnight on the 30th March and apparently completely lacked any black pigmentation. Hebrew Character is a moth which exhibits many variants however I was unable to find any reference to one quite like this in my limited literature. A Red Kite over the garden on the 1st was followed by another over the A27 near Firle on the 6th, and reminded me that I had forgotten to mention the garden highlight of the year in my last post which was a flock of Pink-feet calling over the garden on the night of the 25th while I was checking the moth trap!

On the bird front things have been ticking along quite nicely. The last wintering duck are still holding on with the best being 2 Pintail and 20 Shoveler on the 1st, and 13 Gadwall on the 10th's WEBS count. The Wheatear pictured above was in the field at the end of White Dyke, which is now my traditional first Wheatear of the year field, on the 2nd when there were also 2 Golden Plover on Down, and 4 Shelduck. Levels highlight though was the return of the Yellow Wags with 2 on Down Level on the 10th.

On a more disturbing note the picture above was taken on the early morning of the 10th. I would not usually publish an image like this but it is the fourth dead Mute Swan that I have encountered in the past three weeks. All the others had been fully predated with only feathers, head, and wings remaining however this bird was still predominantly whole. From what I have managed to glean these are most likely fox kills however four in such a relatively short time would appear unusual...