A windless cloudless and very frosty Saturday morning in deepest Sussex (well, Pulborough!) was perfect conditions to get up early and catch the proverbial worm. I got to the RSPB resever at 8am and the car park was swarming with birds (mostly the usual small passerines interested in the feeders) with Green and Great-spotted woodpeckers flying about and drilling the trees.
After seeing my first Bullfinch the previous week, I saw three at Pulborough - two females together and then a single male later on in the morning.
And two lifers on the day - first off a single Treecreeper caught my attention as I turned a corner and saw something move up the trunk of a tree, and then seeing two more together on a different tree later on. And secondly, right at the end of the day when I'd been hoping to see one all along - a Fieldfare! At last, I was starting to worry that I was the only birder in Britain who hadn't seen a Fieldfare all winter! Actually, I have probably seen loads of them, but whenever I see a flock of thrushes it's always mile away, or flying near or through the sun, or they flew over me just as I was looking through my bins at something else - never a good enough look to ID them; for a while I thought there was some Fieldfare-conspiracy against me!
The brooks are still flooded, with plenty of wildfowl about. Mute Swans, Canada Geese galore, the odd Greylag, Teal, some Pintail, Wigeon and Pochard. Also saw a couple of Peregrines (or the same one twice - the two sightings were about an hour apart), which is always a lovely sight.
And the best part of the morning - the pot of tea and lovely cake in the café to warm me up! What more could you ask for…?
It was a lovely morning's birding, with a very good number of birds on show. I do like Pulborough, and must endeavour to go there more often when in Sussex.
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Edit:
Forgot to mention, that with the Treecreeper I reached the 100 species mark on my Sussex list. So a lovely pint to all Treecreepers!
And the Fieldfare has now made it 101, and my life list is on 112 - seven added in January alone.
After seeing my first Bullfinch the previous week, I saw three at Pulborough - two females together and then a single male later on in the morning.
And two lifers on the day - first off a single Treecreeper caught my attention as I turned a corner and saw something move up the trunk of a tree, and then seeing two more together on a different tree later on. And secondly, right at the end of the day when I'd been hoping to see one all along - a Fieldfare! At last, I was starting to worry that I was the only birder in Britain who hadn't seen a Fieldfare all winter! Actually, I have probably seen loads of them, but whenever I see a flock of thrushes it's always mile away, or flying near or through the sun, or they flew over me just as I was looking through my bins at something else - never a good enough look to ID them; for a while I thought there was some Fieldfare-conspiracy against me!
The brooks are still flooded, with plenty of wildfowl about. Mute Swans, Canada Geese galore, the odd Greylag, Teal, some Pintail, Wigeon and Pochard. Also saw a couple of Peregrines (or the same one twice - the two sightings were about an hour apart), which is always a lovely sight.
And the best part of the morning - the pot of tea and lovely cake in the café to warm me up! What more could you ask for…?
It was a lovely morning's birding, with a very good number of birds on show. I do like Pulborough, and must endeavour to go there more often when in Sussex.
---------------------
Edit:
Forgot to mention, that with the Treecreeper I reached the 100 species mark on my Sussex list. So a lovely pint to all Treecreepers!
And the Fieldfare has now made it 101, and my life list is on 112 - seven added in January alone.
