So having dropped Margie off at work, no rest for the wicked👿! The temptation to head home, flop out on the sofa and stuff myself full of excess Chocolates, Biscuits, Crisps etc was very strong, however demonstrating my legendary willpower I decided instead to head out ,locally of course adhering to Tier 4 restrictions. So I decided to explore the foothills of Wolstonbury Hill the intention to loop around it rather than attempt the summit!
I parked at New Way Lane , three cars already present turned out all to be together and seemed to have some sort of contraption maybe be a power glider type thing but they went off the other way so much for Tier 4!! Though they were all bigger and uglier than me (hard to believe I know) so I limited myself to one sarcastic comment.😒
So I headed off , the light was terrible, misty and dull, I wasn't particularly confident of a bird-filled adventure!! Some sheep looked bemused by my presence but as I entered the woodland things picked up nicely and I found myself surrounded by a large flock of small birds these turned out to be mainly Long-tailed Tits and Goldcrests none of which I could turn into Firecrests though I wouldn't have been surprised if there isn't one in the mix with the Goldcrests, difficult to tell when they are all around you but would of thought at least 20LTT getting pics was a nightmare but one of my favourite winter birding experience with birds calling all around!!
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| Sheep |
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| A Sheep |
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| Long-tailed Tit Silhouette |
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| Slightly more Cooperative Long-tailed Tit |
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| Long-tailed Tit |
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| Long-tailed Tit |
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| Goldcrest (Honest Guv) |
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| Log |
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| Log with Fungus |
As I continued along the path I heard but failed to see Nuthatch, Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers some Redwings flew out of the wood I was in and settled in trees across the field from me. I also had two very noisy Jays in the trees above me, Amazingly😲through the branches and despite it's constant movement, I managed an Ok pic of one but sadly the same can't be said about the Redwings!😢
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| Redwings |
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| Surprisingly good shot of a Jay a species which despite it's bright colours I find difficult to spot. |
And then I saw the sign
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| The Sign |
I must have been Channelling Sherpa Tensing or something as I made the decision to attempt the Summit!!!😲😲😲😲😲, "madness" I hear you cry and you would be right ,my last two attempts at mountaineering, Snowdon (I hadn't pre-booked the Train) and Cader Idris both ended in dismal failure!! Yet here I was, with no ropes, crampons ,bivouacs etc indeed not even a bottle of water or an Oat n Raison Cookie to my name, about to head fearlessly upward once again!! Not for me the straight up the middle easy route, I would dogleg round the back and head up the notorious south face!! Eschewing a base camp I decided to make the assault on the summit in one hit, I'd also forgotten along with all me kit to tell the Mountain Rescue where I was heading, to late now I was committed (I can almost here Margie saying "you should be😀") Through the gate I went!!
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| The Notorious south face (may not actually be south or notorious!!) |
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| Close up I calls it the knee killer!! |
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| It's steeper then it looks (admittedly not much) |
I was distracted from the perils ahead by a nice Mistle Thrush (several seen through the morning), a Robin, and a small Starling flock which had a couple of Fieldfare associating with it !
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| Mistle Thrush |
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| Robin |
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| Starling |
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| Fieldfare |
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| Fieldfare |
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| Fieldfare |
Lungs Burning, Back Screaming, Gasping for Breath, one of my legs fell off (may not of happened) still 100yrds done can't be bad, I paused for breath, a figure passed me in the mist, could it be a Yeti? Bloody Joggers!!!😄At this point I added to my collection of pictures of Hurstpierpoint Church from various angles!
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| Hurstpierpoint Church in the mist |
I pushed on continuing the ascent, at this altitude, as the air thins oxygen starvation can set in dizzy spells and Hallucinations are not uncommon though strangely I didn't have any and pushed onto the Summit😂 Success!! Unfortunately I had forgotten to bring a flag so took some pics of the trig point to mark the occasion.
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| Trig Point atop Wolstonbury Hill |
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| The Trig Point |
At this point I saw a Green Woodpecker, which promptly did what any self-respecting Green Woodpecker would do in the circumstances and flew of laughing at me!
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| Green Woodpecker making pre-flight checks |
I finally got my breath back and was looking around when I nearly trod on some Skylarks luckily they only relocated a few yards before settling down and resuming feeding. Instantly alert, I went full Ninja and became one with the Skylark soon the little fellas were feeding happily around my feet (well almost😎 ) and I got a couple of pics, Indeed so in tune with the Larks was I that had it been spring, I wouldn't have been surprised to find myself a hundred feet in the air singing my heart out!!!
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| Jack n Jill in the mist |
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| Black-headed Gull (winter plumage) |
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| Common Gull (winter plumage) |
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| Ist winter Common Gull |
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| and again |
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| Common Gull |
I arrived back at the car , the road was rammed probably go early if you are going would be the advice I would give!, to find a Song Thrush singing atop a tall tree, In a distant dead tree a brown blob revealed itself to be a Buzzard in an effort to get closer a new footpath (to me) was discovered although it only looped around back to New Way Lane, though did find some more Redwings, another couple of noisy Jays (potentially the same ones not that far from the original sighting as the Jay flies) and some friendly Rooks.
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| Distant Common Buzzard |
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| Rook |
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| Redwing |
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| Jay |
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| Jay |
So that was about that, got home was taking the Camera down, when I noticed a Sparrowhawk sitting on the fence, softly, softly opened the back door, amazingly the bird didn't spook and I spent 11 minutes taking pics of it, you can imagine how many pics that was!! Best of the ones I've looked through so far below. A 1st winter bird not sure if Male or Female, leaning towards Male as it seemed small but happy to be put right if any experts out there want to give an opinion.
So there you have it an exciting adventure, which will probably mean I can't walk tomorrow, the pics are mainly atrocious, except for the Sprawk, I blame the conditions and my incompetence!!😅Nice to be surrounded by Long-tailed Tits (that could have been ruder😜) and I enjoyed the Skylarks nice to be out and about!!
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