Bostal Road to Cissbury Ring the hard yards!

 Decided my search for Ring Ouzels and other Thrushes should continue on the South Downs today after yesterday's failure to connect on the coast, parked on the Bostal Road and made the long trek to the Cissbury Ring,once again I successfully beat the sunrise! Margie is nursing a poorly toe so was on me own again😢

First bird was a Kestrel hunting in the half light, couldn't get close to him, a Pied Wagtail on a post and a Robin singing to greet the rising sun, the best before the Sunrise!

Kestrel

Robin welcoming the day

Pied Wagtail on post!

The Sun duly rose, good thing about this walk is it's behind you most of the way so easy on the eyes, weather was better this morning, bit windy but no rain and less cloud hurrah!

Not a bad one and quite uplifting! 

A few Pheasants and Red-legged Partridge knocking about, a few Chiffchaffs in the bushes and a couple of Chaffinch. There were a lot of Gulls on the fields including a few Common Gulls, one of me favourites but quite flighty today, although I made judicious use of a bit of hedge to get a few shots!

Chaffinch

Red-legged Partridge

Common Gull

Sky was still a bit funky

Were plenty of Birds flying about though, a few Skylark, several Meadow Pipits and a couple of small flocks of Linnets. I also heard Redwings calling, looked up expecting the sky to be dark with them, flock of 4 went over, whoop!!😏 Couple of Pied Wagtails showed alright in a muddy bit near the path, bonus point if you can name the fly species!!😂

Pied Wagtail with Fly

I had reached the Ring!! Hurrah!! There were a few birds calling from the bushes around the base mainly Robins and Chiffchaffs, at this point I made the frankly bonkers decision to climb to the top!! Neolithic man had of course designed it to prevent such things and it's very steep, I also feel that Neolithic Man made a bit of a design error in making the paths out of chalk and flint, cos they are feckin slippy !! I made it to the top with only minor mishaps, that didn't damage the camera or my dignity to badly, whilst catching my breath a bird flew into the top of tree to my right, due to the nature of the geography this was eye level, a cracking Yellowhammer which landed, gave a chirp as if to say cheer up, then flew off!! This did indeed cheer me up, the views are pretty good as well! I also found my second Charm of Goldfinches of the weekend which was also good!!😀

Yellowhammer

Goldfinch

A part of the Charm

I wandered around the top, I found a Yew Tree laden with berries with no birds😏 a couple of Blackbirds appeared, a Thrush silhouette on top of a tall tree turned into a Mistle Thrush when I manoeuvred into a better viewing position, couple of Chiffchaffs chasing each other around and a Sparrowhawk lurking in a bush which was way to aware of me to hang around!!

Couple of Blackbirds

Sparrowhawk

Thrush Silhouette

Mistle Thrush

Trig point proof I made it to the top

Shoreham, Brighton and Belle Tout from Cissbury Ring

Linnets

The yellow on the bench is not a loving tribute to one who has passed as I thought from afar, but was a bag of Dog Shit, although to be fair may have been someone they didn't like!! Loads of Dog Walkers up there! 

The Yellowhammer was back in the tree as I made it back to the start, although were two now so may
 not be the same one!

Gingerly headed back down the side of the Ring and took the path through the small car park towards the copse on the hill opposite, highly enjoyable part of the walk with Skylarks singing and chasing each other all around, spotted a couple on the ground but couldn't get any pics of as within a nanosecond of me lifting the camera they were in the air again!! Another flock of Redwing flew over, 12 this time and several Meadow pipits flying about as well! A Red Kite appeared in the distance a lolloped towards me, I was hopeful it was going to fly right over my head, but it changed direction at the last minute, denied!!

Skylark

Red Kite

So distant 😢

There were quite a few birds in the copse a few Blackbirds, another Yellowhammer and Goldfinch, I took the path to the right, which runs parallel to the path I had originally been on, with the view that this would loop me back to the car, lot's of set aside in this area and plenty of birds, the path follows a lovely wide field margin which was alive with bird calls, plenty of Meadow Pipits, several small flocks of Linnets and Goldfinches would erupt from the weeds periodically,  add in the numerous Skylarks and it was lovely part of the walk, another Red Kite flew in from another direction and crossed the path where I'd been 20 minutes ago, denied again!!! Then a flock of about 20 larger birds flew into the field margin, Corn Buntings, whoop!! Best of all 4 of them landed in a the single Hawthorn bush on the path! With nowhere to hide I approached slowly to try and get some pics!!

Sky still abit funky

Red Kite, a bit closer

2 of the Corn Buntings

He even started singing, my favourite song

What a treat, eventually the birds flew off into the field and I continued down the path, it became more overgrown and the view was restricted, the path did loop around and eventually intersected onto the original path I had walked to the ring, although a lot further from the car than I'd hoped, quieter section this with just a Stonechat and a Meadow Pipit on a fence seen, but plenty heard around mostly Skylarks and Pipits!

Meadow Pipit on a fence

The paths met at a small pond, and there were a few birds using it, then another large Charm of Goldfinches arrived and settled in the bushes around it, as I scanned them I noticed that two of the bushes were caked in Corn Buntings, possibly as many as 20 birds, could possibly have been the same flock as I'd seen earlier but as they'd flown off in a completely different direction seemed likely this was a different flock!!! Again I used the hedge to get as close as I could!!

A small part of the Cornie flock!!

The walk back to the car was long and arduous an awful lot of ups and downs!! I trudged on, twice the fields erupted with Gulls, Corvids and Woodpigeons the sky filled with panicking birds, scan though I might I could find no reason for it, it was over such a large area both times I suspect it must have been a bird, Peregrine perhaps or maybe a wandering WTE can't think of anything else would cause such panic, the birds seem to ignore the Buzzards and Red Kites I'd seen. Nice group of 4 Stonechat along the hedge on the final stretch to the car and the Kestrel was still trying his luck being mobbed by Skylarks and Mippits, (😀dinner fights back) but again couldn't get close!!

Stonechat

Kestrel

Doesn't look that far does it but the phone says I done 5.88 miles the legs reckon 20!!

Not the Thrushmegddon I'd hoped for, but a quality morning none the less Corn Buntings are special birds for me, always a joy to see and hear, good times!