Sunday 8 February 2015

A Lesser Spotted Wodpecker located on call and occasional drumming on Saturday morning giving good flight views in the woods near Amberley, another one calling but not seen. Also at least 200 noisy Redwings in the trees here and plenty of Treecreepers and Goldcrests and a surprise for me, a Bullfinch.

At Coldwaltham SF, when asking two birders if they had seen either of the Siberian Chiffchaffs I was met with snobby distain but I found one anyway on the sewage tanks (they were looking the wrong way!) and what thanks did I get for pointing it out? A huff and a splutter! I think she thought I was going to nick her scope the way she grabbed it from my vicinity. We will all see more if we are polite and pool our efforts (it's not a competition despite what some may think) but this is alas lost on some people. Never judge a book by its somewhat hirsute cover you never know when it may be useful!

At Lavant SF (glamorous tour of SFs eh?), the Siberian Chiffchaff found by George Heath was also on show with a Grey Wagtail & two Reed Buntings, the latter a minor-mega for the area apparently!

Up on West Dean road at Lodge Hill Farm, still plenty of Bramblings in with the mixed flock of Finches and Tits and always nice to see four Red Kites low in the skies. Unfortunately Sussex Birders FB is now a photo competition where the quality of the image is more important than the subject (all that will happen is that no-one bar about four people will bother posting-there was even a review of some photographic equipment the other day!)  but I have no qualms about sticking the pics on here, "poor" or not!



Brambling:




Red Kite:




Treecreeper: