With the car being mended and the courtesy car being a tad on the small side, long distance travel is out, so despite a very tempting Shrike up in Gloucestershire, I found myself up on the South Downs way at 5.15am Saturday Morning. I had a theory that with no rain for what seems like centuries, the pond halfway between Clayton and Ditchling Beacon would, like me with just the right application of Lynx back in the 80s, be a total Bird magnet. (If anyone who actually knew me back in the 80s could refrain from commenting, it would be appreciated😀😀) Amazingly my theory was correct!!
I started at the windmills, the Sun was rising and looked pretty angry! But the views all round of the parched earth were impressive!
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| Sunrise, or just after! |
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| Got a bit arty with this one! |
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| "Jill" |
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| Bit dry |
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| Different Windmill |
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| More artistic use of the livestock! |
I head off, taking my usual diversion through the horse paddocks and stables, Swallows on the wires, Sparrows and as I got the other side a big flock of Linnets, possibly at least a 100 birds all in all!
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| Skylark |
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| Can see Brighton from here |
I turned left and followed the track back to the SDW, a Common Whitethroat evaded the Camera. As I headed off a bird flew across behind me! My thought process was as follows "That's not a Pigeon" (up to this point pretty much every birds seen flying hade been a Pigeon, Corvid or Gull) " That Kestrel is flying kin quick" then finally "It's a Hobby" 😂. Lightening quick but I managed to react in time to get a few shots as it flew down the valley right where I'd been standing 10 mins earlier!! Hopefully my friendly Skylark survived!
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| Hobby, the first I've seen this year |
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| Nicely showing it's red trousers! |
I continued on towards the pond, scanning with the bins I could see a lot of movement in the surrounding bushes looks like my theory was coming true!!
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| I always think these bushes look like they've had just about enough! |
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| The parched Downs |
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| Kestrel, sadly drifted off the wrong way! |
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| Linnet |
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| More Linnets |
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| Another Linnet |
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| Yep another one |
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| Even more Linnets! |
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| And more |
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| Linnets flying in |
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| Typically a smart male Linnet and had to shoot through the gorse! |
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| More Linnets |
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| Linnets having a drink |
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| is that? Yes you guessed it another Linnet! |
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| Goldfinch, hurrah something different although that's a linnet behind 😀 |
So although my Bird magnet theory proved correct, 99.9% of those birds seemed to be Linnets!! Lovely to see so many mind and pretty sure these were different Linnets to those back at the stables as I'm fairly sure I would have noticed 200 Linnets flying over my head!! Suggests it's been a good year for them as there were quite a few youngsters amongst the flock! in search of some variety I headed down into the open access land opposite the pond, in the full knowledge that I would have to climb back up the hill later! so brave!!
Was a good plan as not only did I see a couple of Yellowhammers and a noisy Buzzard, I also had a close encounter with a Fox and an even closer encounter with a Hare! There were some Linnets as well mind!😀
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| Not 100% on these thought they might be young Corn Buntings? |
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| At the time I thought this was a young Robin, was distant, in Shadow and doing Robiny things but thinking it's a very young Meadow Pipit looking at the pics? |
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| Linnet |
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| Linnet, alright enough with the Linnets!!😂 |
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| Fox |
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| We stood like this eye to eye for a good couple of minutes |
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| It even had a sit down before disappearing into the gorse! ("Fox Whisperer" could be another good nickname, but not really birdy enough!) |
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| Hare first viewed at distance |
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| Seems relaxed |
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| Started coming towards me |
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| Closer |
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| Had a sit down |
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| Obviously I was in full stealth mode, standing out in the open in the middle of the path, wishing I wasn't wearing a bright blue top! I obviously give off an animal friendly vibe! Cracking experience! |
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| Another Linnet, in case you forgot what they look like! |
I tore myself away and headed to what I like to call the Corn Bunting field, where predictably there were no Corn Buntings although there was a single Stonechat.
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| Stonechat |
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| Rook |
I decided not to head for Ditchling Beacon, due to rising heat and laziness so went into the Clayton Embankment reserve, lots of wild flowers and Butterflies, though didn't see any Blues, there were several Wall Browns and a couple of Painted Ladies among the Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns. It was Yellowhammer central as well with several seen! Also a couple of Goldfinch, Whitethroats, and more Corn Buntings!
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| Wall Brown |
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| Goldfinch |
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| Common Whitethroat |
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| Different Wall |
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| Different Common Whitethroat |
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| Corn Buntings |
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| Yellowhammer |
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| Different Yellowhammer |
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| Same Yellowhammer different angle |
I decided to head back to the pond for one last visit!
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| Yellowhammer, female or maybe a juvenile |
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| Corn Bunting having a wiggle |
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| Yellowhammer having a drink |
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| Young Corn Bunting I think |
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| Linnet |
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| Corn Bunting |
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| Swallow, they had been coming in for a drink all morning, occasionally landing, but always out of sight, so I moved position an got a couple of shots where it became apparent that they were gathering mud rather than drinking, presumably to repair nests prior to having another brood! |
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| Think this is definitely a young Yellowhammer, with a Linnet obvs |
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| Corn Bunting |
At this point a Spaniel jumped in the pond, to be fair it did look hot, this ended proceedings and in the face of increasing people and heat I decided to head home retracing my steps. Highlights of this were a couple of blue Butterflies not seen many this year and a lot more Swallows by the stables! Still a lot of Linnets as well, which confirms my two flock theory!
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| Common Whitethroat, saw several lurking about in the bushes |
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| Certainly a parched looking landscape |
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| Blue Butterfly |
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| Meadow Pipit saw a few |
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| Starling, one of a small flock by the Horse Paddocks, about 40 birds |
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| Swallow, had been a bit worried when there were only three first thing, but several more swooping about now |
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| Go on admit it, you thought i'd forgotten the Church pic! |
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| Big old boy! Just ten feet away, proving once and for all I have fully cured my total rational fear of these beasts. They kill more People than Sharks you know! Though they probably don't meet many Sharks so it's not that surprising statistic really😁😀Old ones are the best! To be totally honest there was a fence but it was very ricketty! |
So that was about that a very enjoyable four hours, no sign of any migration as yet, but give it a month or so and there will be Wheatears and Whinchats going through, nice to reasonable numbers of Cornies and Hammers and of course Linnets! Won't forget the Hare in a hurry either!!!
