Charmed on the Patch

 I very nearly didn't go out this morning, woke up early but rolled over and drifted back to sleep, luckily I dragged my sorry carcass out of bed and was parking at the Patch on the old London Road at about 6.55am!! After yesterdays pretty average return on Ashdown Forest I wasn't expecting that much. Things started well with 30+ Swifts over the wood that follows the stream, now both my regular readers know how bad I am at photographing Swifts, However I will always give it a try!! ( I follow Margie's mantra when I question her singing ability, "Just because I can't sing doesn't mean I won't Sing!!😲😂) Results were predictably bad, a few of the best below. (I use the word best in it's loosest possible sense!)😂

Common Swift

You've spotted it a few Swallows in with the Swifts

I do love a Swift!💗 I was however distracted in my efforts by the arrival of a large mixed flock of birds in the hedge next to me, Tits and Warblers mostly but also some Goldcrests, now if you think Swifts are hard to photograph you ain't seen nothing yet!😲

Spot the Goldcrest!!

Things did improve slightly

Still playing hard to get!

Getting there

Come out ya bugger!

Finally

Hurrah!!

If I'm honest I'm not even sure they are all the same bird, so difficult was it to follow their flitting about!! So fixated was I on getting pictures of the Crests that I didn't get any pics of anything else!!😏

Oh well back to the Swifts!

Common Swift

Still crap, gave up in the end with arm ache, the big lens is blooming heavy to be holding up chasing Swifts about! 😢😂 Carrying on, a bird on the wires in the distance turned out to be a Yellowhammer which had a bit of a sing which was nice to hear!!

Distant Yellowhammer

I ignored the Glades and headed up the hill turning right at the top and heading down towards the entrance to the Vineyard, pretty quiet along here with no Skylark action in the unharvested Oat Fields hopefully they have fledged their young and moved on. Things improved massively as I headed down the hill even from this distance I could see loads of small birds flitting about in the hedge at the bottom, and in the rough pasture and the taller trees beyond. Was a right old mix to be honest, Yellowhammers, Reed Buntings, a Stock Dove, several Chiffchaffs, Common Whitethroats and Blackcaps, I stopped a few yards before the gate and took pictures of some of the above!!

Blackcap

Yellowhammer

Reed Bunting

Linnet

Stock Dove

Reed Bunting

Reed Bunting

Chiffchaff

Blue Tit

Chiffchaff

Blue Skies, lots of birds and the Sun behind me, birding heaven, though it has to be said these birds seemed to be able to hide behind the smallest twig!! 

At this point I made a rookie mistake, the set up is the hedge I was working, quite large and bushy, beyond it a field of rough pasture about 50 yards wide, at the back of that a much bigger hedge of mainly mature trees and bushes, you cannot see into the field from my position, now a sensible birder with a bit of field craft would have gone through the hedge (via the gap provided by the path obvs!) like a ninja, extremely carefully and slowly, that birder would have been rewarded with pics of a Charm of at least 60+ Goldfinch feeding on seed heads, me on the other hand strolled through without a care in the world to be greeted by a Charm of 60+ Goldfinches erupting from said seed heads and disappearing into the tops of the tall trees!!! Bugger!! What an amateur!! 😢😱😲😂

Oh well you can't win them all! It was  a spectacular sight, and the birds sat it the trees preening and chirping away to themselves so not all was lost!!

Goldfinch

Lots of Youngsters in the flock many still begging for food

The most I got in one picture

A few Linnets in with the flock as well

Having a preen

You still here!

I mooched around the area, trying to get the sun in the right place for more shots of the assembled cast, I didn't realise on the other side of the Trees the owners of the vineyard have left a large strip of land which is full of thistles and other seed producing plants which the Goldfinches were happily feeding on whilst no doubt laughing at the pillock with a camera waiting for them to come back!! Never got a pic of them feeding at all, Gits!!

Common Whitethroat

Reed Bunting that can even hide behind a shadow!!

Came out in the end though

Not for long mind

Blue Tit

A Bullfinch flew in and buried itself in the hedge and despite calling for pretty much the whole time I was there never showed again, even more strangely a very vocal Nuthatch was calling incessantly from the trees where the Goldfinches were yet I never laid eyes, let alone the camera, on it, which is strange as they don't usually hide!!

Anyway I went through into the vineyard, discovering the Goldfinches in their other feeding spot, who promptly took off again!! I'm not bitter about it obvs😡😂

The Vineyard itself was quiet as I climbed to the top of the hill, a couple of Green Woodies heard but not seen, at the top a few Swallows zipping about the field and I nearly trod on a Skylark, the only one seen or heard today. Views are good from here.

HPP Church

Ditchling Beacon I think

I headed down towards St Bartholomew's  Church, a few Swallows about but I decided against trying to get pictures of em zooming about! Instead of following Church Lane, I went along the footpath beside the Church and out to the field beyond, the Purple Hairstreak Tree was as usual devoid of Purple Hairstreaks, In fact I think I'm going to strip the tree of it's name!! Once it had Hairstreaks and nothing since! From now on it will be known as  "a tree" until such time as it gets its act together and starts producing!!

The field beyond the church is full of long grass and meadow plants, with loads of insects, birds were feeding in the field, mainly Whitethroats which would appear suddenly from the grass and disappear equally quickly into the hedge, walking into the sun, the light was terrible, it was hard enough to ID the birds let alone  get pics but I managed a couple!

Backlit Whitethroat

Got one of them in reasonable light at least

I wandered around the Patch, It's quite overgrown at the moment, another flock of about 20 Goldfinches flew over and I ran into another flock of Tits and Warblers, mainly Long-tailed Tits and Chiffchaffs but a few other bits in with it, difficult to get pics with the amount of foliage on the trees, but good fun trying!

Beautiful Demoiselle

Chiffchaff

Common Whitethroat

Didn't get any usable pics of Long-tailed Tits, hopefully as the Autumn progresses they will become more amenable! One bird which I'm pretty sure was a Willow Warbler, won the title of the most annoying bird of the day, flitting about in the hogweed, I took loads of pics of it and only got 2 usable pics! 

Willow Warbler , very strong super, appeared almost bright yellow from the front and looked long winged. happy to be corrected if anyone thinks different

The title of most tricky bird to photograph must go to Green Woodpeckers saw several today, managed one pic, for a big bird they don't half hide well

Green Woodpecker

At this point I had a choice, go back to the car through the Glades, very overgrown, full of things that want to sting or bite me or retrace my steps up the hill and back through the vineyard. No brainer! A nice breeze blowing and sunny blue skies gotta be a Raptorfest from the hilltop! Not so much😢!! Though did see three distant Buzzards. Headed back down through the vineyard, the Goldfinch flock was much reduced, though I'd passed three dog walkers and a jogger on the way down so may explain it!! Still a few about and a couple of Yellowhammers singing in the hedge as well!

Another Dragonfly ID possibly a Broad bodied Chaser?

Stock Dove still present and having a sing

Having a sing

Yellowhammer

Kestrel glided past

That was about it, got too hot at this point so I went home.

An excellent local walk absolutely loads of insects about especially Butterflies, masses of Gatekeepers!. Nice to see so many small birds today, although Greenfinches seem to have disappeared from the area, I only heard one distantly today and they seem to be missing from all the areas they were in previously. Hopefully I've just missed them and they will reappear in the Autumn. Didn't see any Chaffinches either, but Yellowhammers, Goldfinch and Linnet seem to be holding their own and nice to see Reed Buntings putting in an appearance, not seen many on the patch before!! All in all a much better morning than expected!!!😀