Blustery morning at Beeding Hill!

 I decided a 3 and a half hour drive to see a rusty Dunnock in Suffolk wasn't a great idea,(am I even a birder😏) so decided a trip to Beeding Hill/Anchor Bottom to try and see the reported Ring Ouzels would be more conducive to a greener lifestyle although if it stays all week the pull may become irresistible😲. Arrived at the carpark just before 7.30, very gloomy, windier than I was expecting but very warm. While  I was setting up 3 dark thrushes flew over, heading north, it was very gloomy so not sure of the ID but fingers crossed it wasn't the target birds buggering off! Not a great start! Things went even further down hill as I arrived at the gate, with Anchor Bottom spread out before me, crawling with cows!!!! Nooooooo!😢😱

Cows in the gloom, kin hundreds of em!!

Now as we know I've heroically overcome my totally rational fear of large Bovines that could easily kill me, so entered the field without a care in the world😙. I wasn't sure exactly where the Rouzels had been seen, I decided to walk around the top of the field, mainly because this would allow me to scan the tops of the Hawthorn copses, also the drop down was incredibly steep and quite frankly I didn't fancy the walk back up😱 It was absolutely nothing to do with the fact the cows were concentrated at the bottom!!😂 Things started ok with a couple of flocks of Redwing and Fieldfares emerging from the bushes and flying around, small flocks of finches also flying here and there but not really settling. In the distance there was a Peregrine sat on top of the large chimney, I walked the field no sign of any Rouzels😢

Fieldfares

Peregrine

Peregrine food feasting on berries!

After three quarters of an hour, with things very quiet and the sneaky cows trying to surround me, appearing randomly out of the bushes, I decided to head back to the car park and investigate the area into which those early thrushes disappeared into.

Preparing the ambush!!

This one was the ring leader!!

Flock of Goldfinch, hopefully the pics will get a bit better from now on!

I headed north down a very steep path, which was practically a ditch zero visibility with hedges all around and not much in the way of birds, diverted off left following a path across an open field, Meadow Pipits, Stonechats and Goldfinches and a Kestrel zooming about, the path looped round and joined another path which lead me back up after another climb 😢😱 to the car park!

Meadow Pipits

Meadow Pipit

Kestrel

Nice views all around!

At this point I decided to kick the Rouzel search into touch and have  a walk along what I later found out is the Monarch Way, last time I was here, a couple of years ago to see the Red-footed Falcon, there had been plenty of Skylarks showing well, would be nice to get some close views! This plan came together quite quickly, there were Skylarks singing all around and plenty of Meadow Pipits about as well!

Plenty of Rooks around.

A couple of Ravens went through, interesting to see the effect they had on the Rooks seemingly creating blind panic in the flock which all took to the air and headed off, wouldn't of thought they were that much of a threat to them! 

Light was a bit of a bugger, nice Meadow Pipit silhouette!

Skylark on the deck! I won't bother with me flight shots!😢😁

Shoreham power station, great views all around this probably ain't the most picturesque! 

Better view of a Meadow Pipit!

I continued down the path, where the bushes started, things started to liven up with lots of Stonechats, Meadow Pipits, Goldfinches and a few Linnets fly off the fences and bushes into the fields and back again.

Stonechat

Meadow Pipit

Stonechat, Goldfinch & Linnet

Kestrel

Goldfinch

This was highly enjoyable birding, plenty of birds appearing on the fences, Skylarks singing all around, lovely, things improved even more when 3 Corn Buntings flew into a bush ahead of me, always a favourite!!

Corn Buntings

I hung around at the bottom of the big dip, one of the Corn Buntings started singing on the fence, a bit further away than I would of liked him but lovely, if somewhat weird to hear considering the time of year!

Nice showy Goldfinch

Singing Corn Bunting

I headed back, the Stonechats, perhaps fearing being upstaged by the Corn Buntings, stopped messing about and started posing like they normally do!

Stonechat

Goldfinch

Could it be?!! No it's a Dunnock, I doubled checked an awful lot of Dunnocks this morning!!

Goldfinch

Another Corn Bunting!!

Stonechat

Meadow Pipit

Skylark very patient bird!

I arrived back at the Car Park, walking across to have another look over Anchor Bottom, another birder was present on the bench with a scope, I made the usual enquiries, nope he hadn't seen any Rouzels, but one had been reported earlier, turns out they were seen by the quarry so I hadn't gone far enough😢😡by now I was knackered so no chance was gonna go again, as we stood there a Buzzard hovered in the wind before flying down into the bushes!

Buzzard

At this point I picked up another Raptor riding the wind, very distant, the conversation went something like this me "is this another Buzzard?" Him "where you looking" me "in front of the Pylon, bit small, is it a Kestrel?" Him "not on it!" me "could be a Sparrowhawk?" Him, on the bird "could be" me "Merlin?" him "Merlin don't usually do this they tend to go like a bat out of hell"  The bird flips around and zooms exactly like a bat out of hell out of sight, me "Merlin, hurrah!!!!" and I didn't even get a picture 😢😂 So to summarise I ID'd a bird as four different birds in approximately 60 seconds, got there in the end, bird of the day!!!!!!!!! Another birder appeared out of the Bottom, he hadn't seen the Ouzels either! Well an excellent finish to a day that started slowly but turned into a great morning!! A real slow burner!!!