Trip to RSPB Pulborough Brooks today, this is our go-to place when we over-sleep as it's quite close, this tends to mean we don't get the best of it. We arrived about 9.30 and headed off down the trails, stopping off first at the feeding station, loads of small birds here with Blue and Great Tits in abundance, quite a few Greenfinch some of which were calling in the tops of the trees, House Sparrows here as well, with several Dunnocks and Robins chasing each other about, the highlight though were a few Long-tailed Tits!
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| View of the Brooks by Margie, water levels very much lower than our last visit! There was a flock of Fieldfares and a couple of Mistle Thrush on the field which flew up into the trees, too distant for pics but nice to see, haven't seen many this year! |
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| Greenfinch |
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| Long-tailed Tit |
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| Long-tailed Tit |
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| House Sparrow |
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| Dunnock |
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| Long-tailed Tit |
We headed off down the Zigzags and had the good fortune to spot 3 Bullfinches high in a tree, a Male and 2 Females
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| Male Bullfinch |
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| This bird was buried in a Hawthorn and was strangely tame, it seemed bright enough and was vigorously feeding on the buds of the tree, however think the pics show it has signs of scaly leg! Hopefully won't restrict it too much |
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| The other female and the male seemed unaffected |
Next stop was Fattengates courtyard, more close encounters with small birds that come to the seed scattered about! Was also nice to see a Bank Vole nipping out of it's hole to grab some seed!
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| Dunnock |
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| Blue Tit |
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| Chaffinch |
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| House Sparrow |
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| Nuthatch, several about, spent most of the time chasing each other! |
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| Coal Tit, always tricky to get a shot of darting in and out! |
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| Bank Vole |
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| Nuthatch |
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| Chaffinch |
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| House Sparrow |
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| Great Tit |
The walk down to West Mead was uneventful, with Margie spotting a pair of Mallards!
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| View of the Brooks by Margie |
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| Mallard by Margie |
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| Coming out of Fattengates by Margie |
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| She can't help herself! |
We arrived at West Mead hide, great close views of Lapwing, a sleepy Snipe and the usual Wildfowl many of which were also enjoying a snooze!
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| Lapwing |
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| Teal |
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| Lapwing spooked by a Buzzard |
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| The Buzzard that spooked the Lapwing |
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| A very pale individual |
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| The Lapwing reappearing when the Buzzards had gone! |
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| Slightly ruffled hair |
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| Snoozing Pintail |
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| Couple of Snipe |
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| Margie's go at the Lapwing |
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| The view from the hide |
We had been siting next to a RSPB volunteer, his walkie-talkie announced an Adder just outside Winnpenny Hide, which was fortuitous so we headed out to have a look, on the way to the Snake we had a flyby Kestrel and a Stonechat!
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| Kestrel |
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| Stonechat |
We arrived to find a small crowd staring into the undergrowth, who announced "it's gone" !! Blooming typical, only it hadn't gone just buried itself in the undergrowth, quite tricky to pick out and lots of manual focus managed a few pics!
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| Can ya see it! |
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| Bit more obvious! |
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| Got the head!!Whoop!! |
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| Think I got all of it in this pic, was informed that it is a female, at least 2 foot long! |
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| Tongue out!! Showing off now😁! |
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| Margie's pic probably the best of the lot! |
What a fantastic animal, superb, a real treat to see it, looked stunning through the bins, the pics do not do it justice!
We walked around to the hangar, I hadn't bought the scope, I know lazy git😲, so everything was distant, Red Kite on a post and a couple of Avocets miles away the best of it, more seed on posts bought in another Nuthatch and there was a party of Long-tailed Tits in front of the viewpoint also had a Goldcrest nearby but to tricky for pics!
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| Kestrel |
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| Kestrel |
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| Wigeon flypast, several flocks flew over |
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| Nuthatch |
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| Long-tailed Tit |
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| The Hangar Robin |
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| Primroses by Margie |
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| Nuthatch by Margie, not really sure who leaves the seed, but seems to be spreading to areas outside of Fattengates! |
We visited Jupps but not much about, flagging a bit now we headed back towards the center, amazingly and a bit strangely the Bullfinch was still in the same Hawthorn feeding !! Though obviously could have left and returned!!
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| This Highland Cow seems to have perfected the art of picking it's nose with it's tongue! |
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| Seems pretty smug about it!! |
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| This one has turned it's back on the whole situation! |
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| Bullfinch still chomping on the Hawthorn |
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| Looking over the Brooks from near the visitor center, there were hundreds of birds in the air our very own murmuration, we couldn't find the cause, likely a rampaging Peregrine or maybe the White-tailed Eagles that have been in the area, we tried hard to find whatever it was but to no avail!😢 |
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| Buzzard flyover the Carpark! |
A very nice day, lot's of Birds and that cracking Adder the icing on the cake, which I couldn't have because I've gone Gluten Free 😢(see last post) café was packed anyway!!
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