A cheeky days holiday from work, couldn't wake up early so we decided to stay local and did the walk from the Old London Road again, this may sound repetitive however the area is criss-crossed with footpaths ,so although we have done the walk 3 times in a couple of weeks it has been different each time and there looks to be a lot more variants to do!
Today all seemed to be about youngsters, lots of families of Tits around mainly Blue and Great Tits, but we also saw young Chiffchaff being fed and a Blackcap family as well.
Things didn't start well ,left the Bins in the car so had to walk back and get em!! Margie said she wasn't going to have the Cardy/Fleece debate today as I would only put it in the Blog!! She then spent 5 minutes silently deciding which one to wear!! But we were soon on our way, fairly breezy today, which kept it cooler ,which actually made it easier to take pics of the insects as they weren't flying about so much, still plenty of the Beautiful Demoiselles knocking about , a Chiffy showed well early on as well.
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| Chiffchaff |
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| Chiffchaff |
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| Beautiful Demoiselle (Female) |
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| Bee |
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| Me trying to look nonchalant in Hat number 2 (by Margie) |
As we moved on more bugs were found ,several Ladybirds, a Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly amongst the best of them. We also had a Male Great Spotted Woodpecker, a couple of Green Woodpeckers and a Kestrel that didn't come close enough for a good pic. As the walk opens up you get some great views of the Sussex Countryside the sky was looking huge today!
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| Ladybird (by Margie) |
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| Distant Great Spotted Woodpecker |
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| Small Tortoiseshell |
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| Kestrel |
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| Meadow Brown |
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| Wolstonbury Hill (by Margie) |
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| The Weald (by Margie) |
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| Big Sky |
The walk then took us through the Albourne Estate vineyard which seemed pretty devoid of life .mowed to death but looked pretty, although as we neared the buildings there was a Mistle Thrush family in a tree who exited a we appeared giving their distinctive call, we looped around through the Isfield fishing club lakes ,more Chiffchaffs and quite a few Wrens calling and a Whitethroat singing on the wires.
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| Common Whitethroat |
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| Great Tit |
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| Lily |
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| Twisted Tree(by Margie) |
As we exited the lake complex , in the corner of a field a Mistle Thrush was running about, now these are usually pretty flighty, but I went full ninja and using all my fieldcraft skills (both of em) I managed to get a few shots before he flew ,spooked by the large flock of Woodpigeons that spotted me straight away, they are even more flighty, though I suppose if you spend most of your life getting shot at you'd be flighty too!!
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| Juvenile Mistle Thrush |
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| Nice shaped Tree (by Margie) |
We tracked back through the meadow like area ,lots of fledglings about , a Song Thrush gave us a tune from the dead tree , I spotted a Deer which was partially obscured by foliage but managed a few shots ,Margie ,vertically challenged, could hardly see it at all, so moved around and managed a clear shot ,if only I wasn't so lazy!! although I feel my shots have an arty quality about them which I was totally going for, honest Guv !
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| Deer (by Margie) |
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| "Artistic" Deer |
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| Song Thrush |
In this area we also had good views of Goldfinch, lots more youngsters including a family of Chiffchaffs with at least 4 young although getting pics of them proved impossible, there were lots of insects as well that I mostly don't know the name of !!The highlight of the walk back to the car was a Red Kite but it was distant and only on show for a couple of seconds so no pic!! No Bullfinches this time ,but plenty of variety. Going to be interesting to see what appears through the seasons going forward!!
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| Goldfinch |
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| Blue Tit |
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| Blue Tit |
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| Hoverfly |
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| Beautiful Demoiselle (male) |
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| Nice field edge |
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