Ah, good to see a write up from my former local patch - the Cormorants used to sit on the wires too then 
Didn't use to get Canada Geese then though!
Didn't use to get Canada Geese then though!
-
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My Trip to Sussex & Back (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter delia todd
- Start date
Hi Jos - yes, as soon as I saw the Cormorant I remembered an old thread where Andy mentioned it.
I think he offered to go up and measure the wire didn't he? D*m - wish I'd remembered that bit when we were there. 3
The memory of that day will stay with me a long time - what a lovely place.
D
I think he offered to go up and measure the wire didn't he? D*m - wish I'd remembered that bit when we were there. 3
The memory of that day will stay with me a long time - what a lovely place.
D
Venus Pools
Saturday 29 October
Thick clouds first thing, but beginning to break up, so I could see a patch of blue sky to the north.
Oh, my goodness, Jacana, thank you for this one. :clap: You are so lucky to have Venus Pools on your doorstep.
I arrived about 9.30 and the light was still pretty poor. Main Hide first: Canada Geese all over the place, with Teal, Lapwing, Shoveler, Mallard, and Black Headed Gull. It seems strange to see Cormorant so far inland, couldn’t be much further from the coast! There were a few Moorhen and Coot, with Fieldfare, Redwing and Starlings flying over. Then I found a Juvenile Dunlin, feeding around the feet of the Canada Geese, completely dwarfed by them. A very pleasant couple came in, and we chatted for a while, they do most of their birding abroad. He has just joined Bird Forum with the user name of Pandachris, so look out for him please.
After they left I searched more to the right hand side of the pool and saw Great Crested Grebe, and a couple of ducks that really had me going for a while - eventually I worked out that they were winter plumage Ruddy Ducks (I had only seen them in the summer before), then a Green Woodpecker flew past going left.
I moved down to Lena’s hide which has feeders set up outside. Coal, Great and Blue Tits in abundance, with Greenfinch making the majority of the visitors. Then there were Chaffinch, Nuthatch, a male Great Spotted Woodpecker, with Mallards pecking about on the ground. A couple of Tree Sparrows put in brief appearances, as did a Marsh Tit. Moorhen, Magpie and a Blackbird all were visible in and around the trees, then I heard a Wren singing. I could see Wigeon on the pool through a gap in the trees. A Sparrowhawk suddenly flew through and everything disappeared.
It was by now 1pm and I thought I had better set off up the road for Martin Mere - wonder what delights await me there?
D
Saturday 29 October
Thick clouds first thing, but beginning to break up, so I could see a patch of blue sky to the north.
Oh, my goodness, Jacana, thank you for this one. :clap: You are so lucky to have Venus Pools on your doorstep.
I arrived about 9.30 and the light was still pretty poor. Main Hide first: Canada Geese all over the place, with Teal, Lapwing, Shoveler, Mallard, and Black Headed Gull. It seems strange to see Cormorant so far inland, couldn’t be much further from the coast! There were a few Moorhen and Coot, with Fieldfare, Redwing and Starlings flying over. Then I found a Juvenile Dunlin, feeding around the feet of the Canada Geese, completely dwarfed by them. A very pleasant couple came in, and we chatted for a while, they do most of their birding abroad. He has just joined Bird Forum with the user name of Pandachris, so look out for him please.
After they left I searched more to the right hand side of the pool and saw Great Crested Grebe, and a couple of ducks that really had me going for a while - eventually I worked out that they were winter plumage Ruddy Ducks (I had only seen them in the summer before), then a Green Woodpecker flew past going left.
I moved down to Lena’s hide which has feeders set up outside. Coal, Great and Blue Tits in abundance, with Greenfinch making the majority of the visitors. Then there were Chaffinch, Nuthatch, a male Great Spotted Woodpecker, with Mallards pecking about on the ground. A couple of Tree Sparrows put in brief appearances, as did a Marsh Tit. Moorhen, Magpie and a Blackbird all were visible in and around the trees, then I heard a Wren singing. I could see Wigeon on the pool through a gap in the trees. A Sparrowhawk suddenly flew through and everything disappeared.
It was by now 1pm and I thought I had better set off up the road for Martin Mere - wonder what delights await me there?
D
Attachments
Jacana
Will Jones
glad you liked Venus Pools! your right i am lucky! there are always cormorants, grebes and mergansers of a type there, they stay on the pool and just pop over a little land brige and hay presto! your in a trout fishery! as a result there is a healthy population of them! I've seen more lifers here than anywhere else (including Dominican Republic!!!)
good luck with the rest of the trip!
good luck with the rest of the trip!
No Dippers or Green Sandpipers at Gobian?
Andrew Rowlands
Well-known member
'fraid not Jos, nor Little Egrets ... it's been a little wet here of late, lots of flood pools for the Green Sands to feed on; main river a little high for Dippers, they were probably on the tributaries.Jos Stratford said:
Martin Mere
Sunday 30 October
What a gale blew all night. It must have rained too but I didn’t hear it. I woke very early because of the time change and it was still dark. I got up and went to the window to see what the weather was doing and WOW a Barn Owl flew past heading towards the reserve. Ooh, I thought, this is going to be a good day. :t:
After (too much) breakfast I met Stuart in the reserve car park. It was still very windy with very heavy-looking clouds. We had a bit of drizzle walking though the collection birds but not too bad. The Swan link Hide was the first one we entered and, great goodness, the pool was literally covered with ducks, hundreds of them - Wigeon, Teal, Shelduck, Pochard, Pintail, Mallard. Actually you name it, it was probably there!
We walked on, in the pouring rain, to the Janet Kear hide at a feeding station, but nothing was really showing there at that time - later we had Blue, and Great Tits, Chaffinch, Greenfinch and Tree Sparrow with a Mallard wandering round.
We went on to the United Utilities hide, overlooking the mere. So much to search here. Again there were Wigeon and Teal but also Shoveler, Cormorant, Little Grebe and a small group of Gadwall. In the distance we could see a Buzzard sitting on a fence post. The rain kept coming down in bucket loads, really fierce gusty downpours. Suddenly Stuart said he had seen a Swallow fly through his ‘scope.
In a break between the rain we set off for another hide - a big two-storey affair and went upstairs. More rain came in soon after we got there. The group already in the hide were watching a Barn Owl hunting and we had superb views of it. We saw another raptor fence-post sitting, which eventually it was decided was a juvenile Marsh Harrier. Every now and then it would drop down into the grass and pop back up again onto a post. The views weren’t good due to the murky conditions at the distance he was.
I’m getting lost now as to which hide we were in and what we saw at each. I found a couple of Ruff, and we saw Lapwing, Heron, Stonechat, Greylag Geese, Whooper and Mute Swans, Coot, Moorhen, a flock of Starlings, Long Tailed Tit, Collared Dove, Dunnock and a group of Snipe which flew over. Oh, and OK Stuart, I’ll mention the Pheasants if you insist!
The weather had improved markedly by now and it was time for me to leave for the long run home. What a great morning we had - thank you Stuart for your interesting and entertaining company.
Well - that was the end of my holiday and I'd love to do it all over again next week. Thank you everyone who helped find me such brilliant places to visit. 90+ species seen. Can I count the Tawny Owl which I heard only? Could have done with the Dipper Andy o
D
Sunday 30 October
What a gale blew all night. It must have rained too but I didn’t hear it. I woke very early because of the time change and it was still dark. I got up and went to the window to see what the weather was doing and WOW a Barn Owl flew past heading towards the reserve. Ooh, I thought, this is going to be a good day. :t:
After (too much) breakfast I met Stuart in the reserve car park. It was still very windy with very heavy-looking clouds. We had a bit of drizzle walking though the collection birds but not too bad. The Swan link Hide was the first one we entered and, great goodness, the pool was literally covered with ducks, hundreds of them - Wigeon, Teal, Shelduck, Pochard, Pintail, Mallard. Actually you name it, it was probably there!
We walked on, in the pouring rain, to the Janet Kear hide at a feeding station, but nothing was really showing there at that time - later we had Blue, and Great Tits, Chaffinch, Greenfinch and Tree Sparrow with a Mallard wandering round.
We went on to the United Utilities hide, overlooking the mere. So much to search here. Again there were Wigeon and Teal but also Shoveler, Cormorant, Little Grebe and a small group of Gadwall. In the distance we could see a Buzzard sitting on a fence post. The rain kept coming down in bucket loads, really fierce gusty downpours. Suddenly Stuart said he had seen a Swallow fly through his ‘scope.
In a break between the rain we set off for another hide - a big two-storey affair and went upstairs. More rain came in soon after we got there. The group already in the hide were watching a Barn Owl hunting and we had superb views of it. We saw another raptor fence-post sitting, which eventually it was decided was a juvenile Marsh Harrier. Every now and then it would drop down into the grass and pop back up again onto a post. The views weren’t good due to the murky conditions at the distance he was.
I’m getting lost now as to which hide we were in and what we saw at each. I found a couple of Ruff, and we saw Lapwing, Heron, Stonechat, Greylag Geese, Whooper and Mute Swans, Coot, Moorhen, a flock of Starlings, Long Tailed Tit, Collared Dove, Dunnock and a group of Snipe which flew over. Oh, and OK Stuart, I’ll mention the Pheasants
if you insist!The weather had improved markedly by now and it was time for me to leave for the long run home. What a great morning we had - thank you Stuart for your interesting and entertaining company.
Well - that was the end of my holiday and I'd love to do it all over again next week. Thank you everyone who helped find me such brilliant places to visit. 90+ species seen. Can I count the Tawny Owl which I heard only? Could have done with the Dipper Andy o
D
delia todd said:Could have done with the Dipper Andy o
Yep, fancy dipping on a Dipper! There's me setting you up with ideas to get you to Gwent and Andy doesn't pull one out of the bag
))) Hope you didn't tip him too highly... :-O
Jos Stratford said:Yep, fancy dipping on a Dipper! There's me setting you up with ideas to get you to Gwent and Andy doesn't pull one out of the bag
No tip - I couldn't even get him a drink - the pub was shut!
D
Sandra (Taylor)
Well-known member
Long Trip
Gosh, Delia, you are having a long trip aren't you? Must admit I'm not familiar with anywhere south of Norfolk but that's quite a list you've got.
You obviously know how to highlight words in your text. Please tell me how for next time. Normally I just highlight then click on the 'B' but can't do that when typing on BF.
Sandra
:stuck:
Gosh, Delia, you are having a long trip aren't you? Must admit I'm not familiar with anywhere south of Norfolk but that's quite a list you've got.
You obviously know how to highlight words in your text. Please tell me how for next time. Normally I just highlight then click on the 'B' but can't do that when typing on BF.
Sandra
:stuck:
Andrew Rowlands
Well-known member
If you click the "Go Advanced" button, you'll see the formatting buttons needed to embolden, italicise, etc., Sandra - failing that, hit Reply to this Post and see how I typed this :t:!Sandra (Taylor) said:
Andy.
Sandra (Taylor) said:
Hi Sandra,
Norfolk is wonderful isn't it, but you're missing a whole world not having been to the south. Dungeness to Dorset is great.
I lived in Thorner for a while, just outside Leeds - anywhere near you?
Be careful asking Andy for help with doing things in Forum posts - he just makes you practice till you get it right! o
Not quite sure why he told you what to do - I just got cryptic instructions! :h?: What happens tho' when you highlight and click on the B - it works for me? PM me and practice in that if you still need help.
D
Andrew Rowlands
Well-known member
Is that because you "go advanced" Delia, not "quick reply"delia todd said:
?Andy.
Don't know - I'll try a quick reply
D
That's a quick reply
D
That's a quick reply
Andrew Rowlands
Well-known member
Hmm ... must be something about the water up there ...delia todd said:
!Where's Blairgowrie anyway?
Andy.
Andrew Rowlands said:
Isn't it near Chichester, where the Prime Minister does his birding?!
Andrew Rowlands said:Hmm ... must be something about the water up there ...
Where's Blairgowrie anyway?
Andy.
Where the raspberries come from! :-O
Unfortunately not uisge beatha :brains: which some people add the water to - the nearest for that is Pitlochry. B
D
Jos Stratford said:
Umm you've completely lost me there Jos - not into politics :stuck: Don't tell me I could have bumped into him :-C
Blairgowrie is in Scotland - Chichester in England. Love 'em both! :t:
Andy said he'd never been to Scotland so he's got some excuse (not much tho') - you have TRAVELLED so should know better! o
D
Latest newspaper headline 'Blair Go Rye', obviously twitching something. Clearly it must be the Sun, as they clearly forgot should be 'goES' and misspelt Rye
Jos Stratford said:
Ah! - what do you expect from The Sun :scribe: ! Shame we haven't got any this morning - a miserable day.
Your geography is getting a bit closer - Rye's in E Sussex (nearly in Kent), Chichester W Sussex (nearly in Hampshire)! So I was a long way from him fortunately!
D
ps Suppose I'd better look up exactly where Lithuania is, I know it's there somewhere.
