Wild Goose Chase!!

 You know when you think you know something, you're a hundred % sure you know something. Then it turns out you didn't know something, well that is the story of today's trip out!! The something I thought I knew was the location of Iford Brooks!! Turns out I didn't! A windy weather forecast made me change my plan of going to Ashdown to look for Woodpeckers and Dartfords, with news of three types of wild Geese, White-fronted, Bean and Pinkfoot at the aforementioned Iford Brooks thought I would have a try for them.

I'd looked on Birdguides seen the area where they were, in my head I said ah Rodmel, then rather than click the directions button I just assumed!! Fatal mistake!! So the plan was park at Southease walk North up the West bank of the River, fighting off Short-eared Owls, Harriers and Kingfishers then scan the fields for the Geese, simple!!! 

Well to cut a long story short, it wasn't simple, Five and a half miles walked, for very little reward, to make things worse after a mile or so I began to doubt my plan but ignored myself!! (Margie says pig headed stubbornness and being always right is one of my most endearing traits). Got to Monk's Cottage, followed the footpath North until it turned into a dead end, at this point I did the google directions turned out I still had one and a half hours walking to do!! At this point I realised that Iford Brooks wasn't where I thought it was!!! 😱

In my defence I have been weakened by my diet, a brutal regime of just 3 meals a day with just 1 cake allowed for pudding!! It has worked from a starting weight of 14 stone 4lb 6oz I'm down to 14st,0lb,2 ozs not bad in 3 weeks hope to hit the 13sts next weigh in and my BMI of 13,3,0 in a month or two. Though achieving my original weight of 7lb3 oz is unrealistic😀😀 (The old ones are the best)

So what did I see, not a lot, couple of Little Grebes on the river, a Kingfisher shot out of the bank below me to quick for pics, were some distant flocks of Lapwing, and plenty of Starlings which whirled about occasionally, Meadow Pipits a couple of Reed Buntings, a big flock of Linnets, 2 pairs of Stonechat and several singing Skylarks but it was hard work, grey weather, birds at distance and me trying to juggle Scope, Camera and Bins made for poor pics, a few of which are below!

Little Grebe

Grey Heron

Starlings

Lapwings

Stonechat

Goldfinch

Stonechat

Robin

Teal, I think

The walk back was as poor as the walk out with the added bonus of having the now very bright sun in my eyes which gave me a headache, to go with the Backache from carrying all my gear so far and the leg ache from walking 5 blooming miles!!!

Back at the car I did what I should of done from the start and did the directions on Birdguides, 14 minutes away!! So off I went, a convoluted route through Lewes and I'm going down some track in the middle of nowhere until I get to the "Party field" where there was a complete lack of parties!! However scanning from here I found some distant Geese, Hurrah!! Trouble was even with the Swaro it was incredibly difficult to ID as was miles away and through a hedge, I relocated up the hill this was even further away but could at least see the Geese, the trouble was with the Sun's position and the distance involved it was pretty much impossible to ID to species, the Greylag's were pretty obvious even at that range with their large Orange beaks, I had a couple of smaller ones but couldn't really be sure and a small flock in flight could have been the White-fronts certainly weren't Greylags. Were a couple of other birders distant where I presume the best place to watch from is, yet scanning around I couldn't work out how to get there and at best it looked like a couple of miles walk and quite frankly I couldn't be arsed so I went home!!😢 

Possibly the worst day out ever!!

Tomorrow is another day!!