Crawley area birding spots.

[Blokkie]

Hi all, more or less my second post or so. I'm armed with a pair of Nikon Stabileyes 16x32s and apart from the regular appearance of turdus merula in our garden, I'm sort of looking forward to finding some spots where there are havens for birds near where we live, which is Chavtown, aka Crawley. Can someone recommend some local places we can go to that have a broad spectrum of birds that are easy to see. I'm brand new to this birding malarkey so break me in gently if you will.

[Matt Silk]

Buchan Country Park is fairly decent, with a range of habitats and most of the commoner species.
Worth Forest has breeding Firecrests?, Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers and Willow Tits (all v. rare in Sussex) but it is a huge area and these are some of the hardest uk species to find so definitely not a gentle start.
Weirwood Reservoir (towards East Grinstead) is good for an inland site with a range of water birds and some feeders in the nature reserve car park which attract a good range of species.
Further afield a day out at Pagham Harbour, Rye Harbour or in the Arun Valley (especially Pulborough Brooks) are good bets, with good visitor facilities (and help on offer at pulborough and rye).
Otherwise just explore local woods and farmland - the birds are out there to be found!