Sunny at the Burgh

 Having spied the weather forecast, we decided Sunday would be the best day for a trip out so found ourselves parking at the Peppering Triangle just before 8 o'clock, the weather was glorious though cold which to be honest is how I like it! First bird on view was an extremely nervous Grey Partridge that disappeared into the hedge before I got the camera up! We saw a few Partridges on our walk they generally exploded from the hedge next to us and disappeared at a rate of knots and I for one was not quick enough to get a pic😢 Though as we are at the back end of the shooting season it's not that surprising they are a tad nervous!!😲 A Kestrel was sunning itself by the Car Parking area and there were about 6 Pied Wagtails, in the small field on the left as we walked towards the houses. Beyond the houses we found a few Greenfinches and there were plenty of Dunnocks in the hedges there was also a small flock of Guinea Fowl which Margie insisted on taking a pic of!😏

Margie's picture of the Sunrise all very nice but we were supposed to be on site watching this not from the living room window!!!

Guinea Fowl by Margie

Arundel Castle by Margie, she's obsessed with em I tell ya!😀😀😀

Kestrel nicely lit!

Pied Wagtail

Greenfinch

We saw approximately a million Dunnocks on our walk today I limited myself to just the 2 pics!😀

We headed towards the Burgh itself, the lone tree, possibly my favourite tree in Sussex, maybe even the world if I'm honest! Even better today as there was a Red Kite sitting in it!! Was lovely to hear the Skylarks singing as we walked!

Some Scenery by Margie

The Lone Tree by Margie

Lone Tree with Red Kite by Margie

Skylark singing against a Blue Sky, lovely to look at a bugger to photograph

I done me best but they was very high!😢

Now did you spot the other Red Kite in Margie's picture? I did, eventually!! Luckily it sat a while and we were able to get some pics of it!

Red Kite

Red Kite

Cracking views!! Sadly a Landrover came along and flushed both birds, happily they flew around giving great views before settling back in the Lone Tree!

Maybe a few too many Red Kite pics perhaps, Nah!!😁😂

Showing well back in the tree!

Margie's pic of the Red Kite in the tree!

Margie taking pictures of Sheep again and is that a castle in the background!!😀?

We headed down to the Dew Pond, small birds were few and far between, though the six Red Kites at the bottom of the path may have been the reason they were keeping their heads down, plenty of Buzzards about as well and a Raven kronked over! 

Lone Tree from a different angle with Arundel Castle in the background, my pic thought I'd get in first 😂

A Hare, we saw a few, but most were distant, was quite pleased with this pic as had to do manual focus and we know what my eyes are like !!!😂

4 Roe Deer prancing in the distance. Prancing is a good word, I will use it more in the future!!

Common Buzzard flyby!

four of the Red Kite

The other two!

More flying about pics 😏

Raven

Margie's pictures from this part of the walk below!!

Margie's version of the Castle and Lone Tree scene

The path down to the Dew Pond

Panicking Gulls, this happened several times never saw the reason for it!! Were a few groups of Common Gulls seen but never close enough  for pics and lots of Herring Gulls

There are some really nice views in this area, captured by Margie

and again!

As we walked up the other side we started to hear more small birds, a small flock of Corn Buntings which I couldn't get a pic of and a very large flock of Linnets which again I struggled with, a few more Chaffinches and a couple of Yellowhammers.

As we walked along the path towards Kithurst we noticed a very large bird being mobbed, one of the White-tailed Eagles that have been knocking about the area, sadly it was miles away and drifted off right!

Linnet, despite the fact that there were hundreds of them, my incompetence, the light and the flightyness of the birds means I didn't get many usable pics, this one had to be massively lightened to see any detail!

White-tailed Eagle, halfway to the sun!

Yes more Red Kites

Chaffinch

Linnet

Margie hitting the Landscape again

The path

Me looking for Eagles, sadly they didn't visit the Dungheap although a few Pied Wagtails did!

Amazing to see, Eagles, Kites, Ravens and even Buzzards in the south of England if you had said that 30 years ago people would have laughed at you!!

We looped back down the long path back towards the Burgh, at this point we ran into a large flock of Buntings, mostly Reed Buntings with several Yellowhammers, difficult to say how many birds because they were mostly buried in the hedges but at least 50 birds I would say, they more or less stayed with us or rather just ahead of us until we got back to the Burgh, pics were difficult see the above for the same excuses for the poor pics!

Reed Bunting

Yellowhammer

Fallow Deer

Robin, showing the other species how to pose, sadly they ignored it!

Margie spotted this Yellowhammer buried in the hedge, another manual focus effort from me!!

We headed back to the Burgh, Margie already full of herself from spotting the Yellowhammer, excelled herself by spotting a cracking pair of Bullfinch, once again buried in the hedge but lovely to see!

Bullfinch, best I could do unfortunately

Big flock of Stock Doves

Yeah another Red Kite

More sheep and scenery from Margie!!

Sheep, Sky and Scenery by Margie

Margie's favourite tree in the area!

We walked back to the car, good numbers of House Sparrow around the houses, spotted literally two second after me saying "we haven't seen any House Sparrows this time" !! A Kestrel showed very well, with the light behind it 

Kestrel

Male House Sparrow

Blue Tit

Female House Sparrow

A cracking walk around, just over 5 miles in just over 4hrs our legs were certainly feeling it, saw most of what I expected , Partridges, Red Kites, Yellowhammers etc, but not what I'd hoped Hen Harrier (scoured hundreds of miles of field edge/hedgerow to no avail 😢 , Merlin and decent views of Corn Bunting (saw a few in the distance but none close!) Overall a highly enjoyable morning walk !!!