Overslept this morning, seeing the lovely blue skies Margie and I decided a walk was in order but where to go? Margie decided to have a quick shower before we left, you know a quick shower, just the 45 minutes!!😏 While she was in there I decided we would head to the Downs near Steyning, not to bad we arrived at the carpark on the Bostal Road at just after 9am, it proved a good decision, glorious blue skies and with a nice, bracing breeze, we opened the car doors to hear Corn Buntings and Skylarks singing!! Excellent start, there were loads of birds around the car park and a long the road, along with the aforementioned Cornies and Larks there were loads of Pied Wagtails and a small flock of Goldfinches!
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| Corn Bunting |
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| Goldfinch |
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| Pied Wagtail |
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| Skylark |
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| Skylark |
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| I'm useless at Skylarks in flight!! |
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| Goldfinch |
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| Cows by Margie lots of Pied Wagtails in and around these beasts |
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| Some great scenery in the area captured by Margie |
Normally we would head to towards Cissbury Ring, but decided to go the opposite way this time, more Corn Buntings singing in the fields, lots more Pied Wags and Skylarks, we turned left at the top of the hill, found a Stonechat for a bit of variety!
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| Pied Wagtail |
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| Lots of Corn Buntings in this crop, unfortunately even the singing ones wouldn't come out and perch up |
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| Stonechat |
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| More rubbish Skylark pics |
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| Brighton |
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| Pied Wagtail |
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| Lancing College (I think) |
Some great views from up here captured by Margie below
Another Downs favourite Common Gulls were present. We also had a small flock of Stock Doves over but I missed the shot!!
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| Common Gull |
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| Bravely faced down this beast, with just a large hedge and fence between us! |
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| Shoreham/Brighton/Seaford Head |
Meanwhile Margie was doing her thing results below!
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| According to these cows there was 50% chance of rain! |
We headed back but at the junction instead of heading back towards the car we took the path east, this opened up to a large escarpment as we walked along just below the top, two Kestrels were hunting the grass below us!! My camera kept focusing on the background which was a tad frustrating !! However this was soon forgotten as we spotted a Red Kite flying towards us along the ridge! Giving a lovely flypast at eye level!! More cracking views all around!
Maybe a few to many Red Kite pics, here are some of Margie's landscape shots below!
At this point I was adjusting my trousers due to a faulty belt buckle and sadly reacted to slow to get a picture of the Peregrine that cruised by!! Annoying to say the least, following it in the bins into the far distance, saw it make a prolonged attack on the Red Kite which had relocated to the far end!! It made several attacks but was met with a strong defence and eventually gave up!! Some very poor photos of the action below!!
An epic battle!!
At this point one of the Kestrels appeared right in front of us and the Camera actually focused, hurrah!!
The bird drifted off and started hovering, literally 20 secs after I said to Margie, "would be a likely target for the Peregrine as well" when the Peregrine attacked it!!! Luckily it saw or sensed what was happening and rolled out the way at the last minute, unlike the Red Kite it decided discretion was the better part of valour and buggered off stage left at top speed!!
We were then treated to an imperious flypast, by the king of birds!!
What a bird!!! Both Margie and I looked at each other and went WOW!!😲 To see it at eye level cruising past having vanquished it's foes was something special!!
Couple of minutes later the Red Kite cruised past as well, with a "bothered? not I" kind of attitude!
The Kestrel reappeared shortly afterwards!!
I had just said we haven't seen a Buzzard yet, when two suddenly appeared, I had done the same with the Stonechat as well, what with calling the Peregrine attack on the Kestrel, people gonna start calling me Nostradamus Evans before long!! Rather that what they call me now, which I can't repeat here!!😲😂
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| Buzzard |
We were heading back now, more Common Gulls, a few more Pied Wags, another Stonechat, a few more Skylarks and the Goldfinch back at the Carpark.
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| Common Gull |
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| Goldfinch |
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| The cows on the horizon by Margie!! |
That was that, a fabulous morning, great birds, great company and always good when the suns out with a nice breeze to keep it cool!! The Peregrine going past will live long in the memory!!
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