Stroll on the Downs

 A lovely day yesterday, saw Margie and me head up the Bostal Road near Steyning for a walk on the Downs, the view from the parking space was pretty good if a little misty, Margie's picture below!

Birds were a little thin on the ground as we walked the short distance to join the South Downs Way with a single Fieldfare and a Robin!

Fieldfare

Robin

Things improved as we hit the South Downs way, one of the joys of The Downs at this time of year is watching the Common Gulls quartering the fields, giving stunning often quite close views!

Common Gull

As we headed down the path, we picked out some small birds near a Pheasant feeder turned out to be Corn Buntings and a few Goldfinches! Nice to see a number of Stock Doves flying about as well!

Stock Dove

Stock Doves

Corn Bunting and Goldfinches

There was a herd of Cows in one of the fields lots of Meadow Pipits, Goldfinches and a few Lapwing feeding in it but all a bit distant. I was glad of the sturdy fence!😂 Margie took some pictures of the cows and the views below!

The Weald

The Downs

Cissbury Ring

Down land!

At the point we decided to about face and head back to the car, a Kestrel showed well and a Red Kite soared, but didn't come particularly close!

Red Kite

Margie managed to spot a Red Kite in a distant tree and tried out her superzoom on it!

Kestrel having a hover

Kestrel having a rest

We headed back, we had seen about 8 Corn Bunting up until this point, but at the Cow field there was a much bigger flock of over 20 birds, unfortunately they were disturbed from the track by a couple of cyclists before I had a chance to get many shots!

Corn Bunting

Lapwing

Corn Bunting

Corn Buntings

Corn Buntings

There were loads of Meadow Pipits flying about, which seemed to disappear on landing, 4 Stonechats were about the field and one posed quite well, also a nice bright male Pied Wagtail put in an appearance but was surprisingly shy!

Margie insisted I take a picture of the cutest Calf

Noble beast, not sure what breed these are but they must be hardy being out in the cold

Common Gull

Meadow Pipit 

Stonechat

Stonechat

Pied Wagtail

Finally managed to spot a Meadow Pipit on the ground

Lapwing playing hard to get

Common Gull

When you finally get one in focus, it turns it's back on ya!😏

Or hides behind a blade of grass

Meadow Pipit

Another Common Gull, can't resist em!

Stonechat, birds that know how to pose!

Margie meanwhile was trying to capture the strange sight of wind turbines floating in mid air! Her pictures below!

Very strange optical effect!

South Downs Way

She couldn't resist the cows either!

The view towards Brighton

A lovely walk in glorious winter weather!! Not huge amounts of Birds but nice to see a good number of Corn Buntings and large amounts of Meadow Pipits, were a couple of Skylarks and a couple of flocks of Starlings, but couldn't find any Yellowhammers but not bad for a couple of hours in the middle of the day!