Of Birds & Cake the Blog of Paul: Cattle Egret ,The Finders Tale!!

Decided to spread our wings a little further afield today, still, only a 15 minute car trip and we found ourselves at Beeding Brooks which was the nearest place to home where I felt I could see a Corn Bunting and a Sedge Warbler still embarrassingly absent from my woeful year list. I usually visit here in the Winter looking for Owls, so nice to come in the spring. We headed upstream on the East bank of the River Adur once through the gate, the long grass and sedgy/reedy area was full of birds, mostly Sparrows!! Which seem to have had a bumper year here as well as in our garden there were loads of em!! Now I like a Sparrow but on a trip out I like to see stuff I can't see from the sofa!! Soon though I wasn't disappointed with a Reed Bunting, several Whitethroats a few youngsters being fed as well as the singing male. Cetti's Warblers were making their explosive calls ,which pretty much followed us throughout the morning as did Whitethroats to be honest!! The river held a large number of Swans presumably last years young and other non-breeding adults.

Mute Swans (by Margie)

House Sparrow

Mute Swan

Common Whitethroat

Reed Bunting

As we progressed further along the path, I heard a Sedge Warbler calling on the far bank, it soon appeared, so target one successfully seen unfortunately the few pics I managed were unfit to share, think I've missed the opportunity for a decent pic this year ,when they first arrive they sit up nicely belting out their song but not today! We passed the footbridge as we left the dog walkers and joggers behind things became a little more interesting several Yellowhammers were calling ,but always distant or on the wrong side of a bush,(for better pics of Yellowhammers see yesterday's blog!) On the bank of the river a Little Egret was fishing and we spent some time trying to get pics of it with it's reflection not easy blooming thing was like lightening although suppose you have to be to catch fish!!

Yellowhammer

Unlike yesterday Yellowhammers were playing hard to get!

Little Egret minus reflection

Little Egret with reflection

Little Egret feet touching feet (by Margie)

As we followed the river around the bend numerous Skylarks were rising into the sky singing and/or chasing each other around as is there want! I spent some time trying to get a pic but as usual didn't turn out that well, best 3 attempts below, some compensation was a nice male Linnet that posed ok ,there were several about. Got to be said the whole area was alive with small birds with Meadow Pipits displaying as well !! Not surprising really the long grass was full of grasshoppers and plenty of midges and other bugs about as well!!

Linnet

Skylark

The distant Downs (by Margie)

At this point as we were about to leave the river path at the footpath sign and cross the brooks back towards Upper Beeding I had a quick scan across the river in the far distance was a white blob which seemed to have a Yellow Bill ,I said to Margie that looks a bit Cattle Egretty? However there were a few Gulls loafing either side of it and I couldn't safely say it wasn't a Gull, which gives you some idea of how distant it was ! Also it was standing on the short grass bank right out in the open so not typical CE behaviour. It's at times like these that I regret not taking my scope, however with my Camera Set-up, bins, bottle of water adding the scope and tripod would take the weight up to about half a ton and I'm far to old and lazy for that!! So only regretted it for about 10 seconds if I'm honest!

With a shrug of the shoulders we headed out across the Brooks I had already clocked the cows before Margie pointed them out, but as they were all lying down and I was pretty sure there was a water filled ditch between us so bravely carried on. A Song Thrush was having a sing in a dead tree and as we headed towards the double gate a Reed Warbler sang and showed in that way that's impossible to get a picture but where you think you might. I didn't!! Preoccupied by this I only noticed the flying Egret as it was already passed us , a quick glance through the bins , as it flew and landed right in the middle of the Cattle unfortunately the lazy Cattle hadn't done a very good job eating the grass which was pretty much Egret length and effectively hid the bird from view, "Well it didn't have Yellow Feet" I said "and I think I saw a Yellow bit at the front" Margie being a bit of a spoilsport said "Think you saw"? Damn it stakeout time!! Scanning the Cows intently from the path I caught glimpses of the bird ,but never the bit I needed to see!! At this point a Corn Bunting started singing which after some scanning revealed itself on a very distant Hawthorn, target 2 acquired, whoop!! Back to the CE at this point it appeared in a gap in the grass I grabbed a couple of shots, zoomed in BOC, yellow bill yep!!Margie looked at the image sceptically "really"! "good enough for me" I replied striding away it's only a kin Cattle Egret I've seen hundreds!" this wasn't strictly true but I'm in double figures! , we weren't going to get any better views and anyway I reckoned the image was good enough to tell either way on the computer ! Now a non-birder at this point might ask why we didn't simply move closer to the Cattle to get a look at the bird, however there are rules, many Skylarks ,Meadow Pipits and Corn Buntings were about these are all ground nesting birds to have walked through the long grass would have been irresponsible and could of risked destroying a nest, the birds welfare always comes first, ALWAYS STAY ON THE PATH! So nothing to do with my alleged fear of large bovines at all!

Cattle Egret

As we moved away from the area, more Skylarks, Whitethroats, Cettis and another Reed Warbler . A Meadow Pipit flew up in a display flight and landed on top of a Hawthorn and even better sat there while I took pics of it.

Common Whitethroat

Song Thrush

Meadow Pipit

We reached the road and turned right to follow the path, where a sign filled me with dread ,Horses in field ,looked over the gate yep Bloody Great Horse !! The "field" was not very wide either uh-oh! Now if I'm honest had Margie not been with me I would of retraced my steps, all 3 miles of them to avoid it ,if there is one thing I dislike more than cows it's kin horses ,however Margie was feeling a bit tired so ,with her logical "the farmer wouldn't put it in the field if it was dangerous" ringing in my ears we ventured in, her naïve faith in the niceness of farmers is touching but I fear misplaced! However not wishing to dispel my Macho image and emboldened by the fact that the horse had it's head stuck in some sort of feeding trough we ventured in!! The field was more of a wide corridor between fields and bent around a corner as we rounded it another four horses came into view looking behind ,to late! the lone horse had sprung the trap and was heading towards us .The stallion looked at me, not sure, but was that a smug glint in his eye? ( I would like to point out that the noises Margie claims to have heard at this point were not whimpers but the camera straps rubbing on the carrying harness).I decided Trump like to dominate proceedings, striding forward past the beasts as if they weren't there, even stopping to advise another birder on the possible location of the Cattle Egret ,facing certain death is no excuse for suppression, although have to say was relieved to leave the field!!

The next area we entered was another sedgy area with large banks of nettles excellent habitat , with loads of birds in it ,most of the usual suspects and notably several Greenfinches, a Chiffchaff and another Whitethroat family!

Greenfinch (juvenile)

Greenfinch (Male)

Chiffchaff

And that was about that a Goldfinch and a Common Buzzard , the only raptor we saw, a nesting pair of Song Thrushes and we were back to where we started surrounded by House Sparrows. We also on the way round saw a few Swallows, Swifts and Housemartins but as per usual I completely failed to get a picture!

It was an excellent morning and the variety and abundance of small birds was heartening to see, hopefully the farmer will hold off cutting the fields until the Larks and Pipits have got their chicks fledged!

All pics by me unless otherwise stated!