Patching Peregrine!!

 So having failed to get up early yesterday and refusing to leave the safety of the sofa due to the heat, hot, damn hot🌞!! So no birding done 😢 I vowed I would make it up early today and despite a rather disturbed night's sleep due to the muggy conditions and some knobs car alarm going off, I made it up! in fact it was a pleasure to feel the pleasantly cool air hit my face as  I left the house at 6 AM! Alone again, with Margie preferring to melt in the bedroom therefore neglecting her birding duties😒😩. I decided with only about 3 hours birding possible, to hit the patch therefore cutting out travelling time, although the news there was 80+ Black Terns at Oare Marshes yesterday in cooler times would have tempted me, must have been a fine sight!!😵  (at time of writing not been reported today,one of those right time ,right place things!! which don't happen to me that often!)

So approximately 4 minutes after leaving home I was on site, hoping for Owls and anything Migratory!!! With a few Pied Flycatchers knocking about Sussex, I am ever hopeful!!  Leaving the car behind and into the first field ,the crop has been cut but the Margins are still in place, nothing much on here except a few Woodpigeons, not even the Linnet and Starling flocks that have been present the last couple of visits maybe to early for em, something made me look over my shoulder and standing right out in the open were a couple of Roe Deer a Buck and a Doe!! I thought they would run as I too was right out in the open and not really blending in due to wearing a powder blue ensemble of T Shirt and Jeans(note to self don't just grab the nearest T shirt next time) I don't usually go full camo but generally wear more natural colours to at least attempt to blend in! However to my astonishment they just stood there😲so I took a few snaps and when I left they were still stood there, don't think they moved a muscle the whole time!!  

Roe Doe

Roe Buck

I followed the edge of the field, noting a few more Woodies but not much else, as stepped onto the track I heard what sounded like a large round of applause, strange I thought I haven't done anything that great!!😀turning the sky was full of hundreds of Woodies and corvids erupting in panic from the field!! "Few more there than I thought" was my first thought, my second thought was "what's caused them to go up!!" Now in my experience there are two things that cause birds to panic like this in Sussex, either some knob has let his dog of the lead to run amok or a Peregrine is on the hunt, scanning through the bins, I soon picked out a big old lump heading towards me and it weren't a dog!!! Peregrine!!😏No time for smugness ,the buggers coming right at me, managed to get sorted and rattle off a few shots, still early morning gloom and a fast moving bird are not conducive to great shots, which is why I didn't get any great shots and the ones I did get I had to lighten massively to see the detail, which reveals a Juvenile Peregrine by the size of it I would say a female, it went through quick disappearing over the hedge not to be seen again, I didn't see it take anything, however on my return a couple of hours later, there was a pile of what looked suspiciously like Woodpigeon feathers, which I didn't notice at the time!! 😢

Peregrine Falcon

Unlightened Photo to give some idea of the difficulties faced ,woe is me!!

Streaking rather than Barring on chest means Juvenile!

So what a great start I thought!! Decided to walk up the hill to check out an area I thought likely for Little Owl, some big old Oaks and a couple of dilapidated barns look perfect, but no sign of anything Owl like, I retrace my steps and head through the glades, not much going on here, some small birds in the thick hedges,but everything I get on is either a Chiffchaff, Whitethroat, or Tits, throw in a few Robins, Blackbirds and Dunnocks and that was about the size of it,worse nothing would pose for pics though did get a stock dove on a wire but not much else.

Stock Dove

I reached the more open area, but much the same story, Whitethroats and the odd Chiffchaff and plenty of resident stuff, at least three but could be more Kestrels about ( due to the various locations and behaviour I would say at least 4 probably 5 birds, but only saw three at once) a couple of male Bullfinch which were to fast for the camera and a Yellowhammer which was in the wrong place for pics!! There were at least 30 Swallows hawking around the area which seemed to be hanging around the Church area our first walk here a couple of months ago there were 5 so that suggests they have got a few broods off this year . There were 3 Swifts as well in the same area as last week ,which suggests resident somewhere local. There also a lot of Great Spotted Woodpeckers in the area, I saw one group of 4 and several pairs and singletons at various points of my walk, obviously some could be multiple sightings of the same bird but anecdotally would suggest they have had a good breeding season, heard plenty of Green Woodpeckers but only one flyover sighting!

My usual rubbish attempt at a Swallow

Male Great Spotted Woodpecker

Kestrel

Woodie the Peregrine didn't get!

Juvenile Goldfinch

Goldfinch

Kestrel Hovering (Long Range Shot)

I decided to stake out the large dead tree for a while, this has been productive every visit and despite my bright blue attire was again with what was obviously a colour blind Whitethroat being particularly showy, mostly common stuff apart from that Wrens, Goldies etc, As I was stood there I heard the familiar clacking call of a flying Mistle Thrush which went past to the right, as I watched it ,it circled round ,it's gonna land in the tree and pose  I thought, predictably it sailed right over the tree and landed in a conifer further back still looked quite photogenic though! Putting my bins on it I realised it wasn't alone the tree was full of Mistle Thrushes, I would say there were at least 10 birds and a couple of Starlings even more strange when one of the birds flew out of the tree, a couple of hundred yards further right into another tree, where it joined another group of Mistle Thrushes again about 8 or 9 different birds, they all seemed to be together and has got to be the biggest flock of Mistle Thrushes I have ever seen, they are usually in family groups maybe six or seven never seen so many before, can't believe they are one family, so must be a couple or maybe three families together which I think is pretty unusual, unfortunately my pictures only show 7 of the birds in one go, should have wound the lens in and tried to get all the birds in one picture. Still fantastic views of what I think are very under-rated birds!

I count seven Mistle Thrushes in this picture and a couple of Starlings but there were more further down the Tree

More Mistle Thrushes

Showy Whitethroat

With the heat building I decided it was time to head back to the car, at the first field ,the Linnet flock and the Starling flock had reappeared on the wires, I counted 57 starlings ,which I think was a fairly accurate count of the flock, I managed to count 54 Linnets but they were much more flighty than the Starlings and seemed to be in multiple small flocks ,flying up and down to the wires separately rather than the Starlings en-masse movement, so think there could actually be well over a 100 present with flocks coming in from all over the large field! There was also a single Chiffchaff on the wires which even managed a brief burst of Chiffchaff song, which was nice!

Starling

Chiffchaff

By my count 57 Starlings, happy to be proved wrong if anyone can be arsed to count em!!

A few of the Linnets including a nice fancy-dan Male!

Another male Linnet not so fancy but at least it was on the closer of the wires!

At this point with the car in sight and temperatures rising, I made the somewhat foolhardy decision to divert up the hill and have a quick walk down to where the Yellowhammers were last week, turned out to be quite a good decision with a very bright male singing which allowed me to get quite close which was nice of him and for once the sun was in the right place!

Yellowhammer

I think this has been the year of the Yellowhammer for me seen loads in the local area!

Well that really was it now, heat exhaustion setting in, water bottle emptied I staggered back to the car like a poor man's Beau Geste🌞 finally making it home at about 9.30,no real evidence of any migration nor any Owl action, hopefully as the days shorten and sunrise gets nearer to the point where I'm able to get out of bed I will have more luck on that front!! But a highly enjoyable walk, with some good birds seen ,I'm gonna give the "Bird of the Day" award to the Mistle Thrushes although the Peregrine pushed em close! Good Times!! 😃