A foggy morning in Hurstpierpoint, I chanced my arm and headed down to Iford Brooks, in search of the Russian White-fronted Geese that have been in the area for a few days! On arrival, glorious sunshine, hurrah! As I set off I bumped into another local Birder (Simon) and we headed down the track from Iford Church across the Brooks, a small flock of Long-tailed Tits were in the trees showing well and a single Chiffchaff was elusive along the side of the trail!
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| Iford Church |
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| Long-tailed Tit |
A large flock of Geese near the small Airfield failed to hold any wild geese, just feral Canada and Greylag Geese despite giving them a good grilling! The walk out across the Brooks was very quiet a lone Cetti's Warbler which evaded the camera, a couple of Kestrels were knocking about and a Buzzard sat on a bush. Things livened up a bit near the end of the path where more cover produced a mixed flock of Redwings and Fieldfares.
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| Fieldfare |
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| Redwing and Fieldfare, in my defence they were distant and flighty |
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| Meadow Pipit seen in a small flock on the way back! |
As we headed back, a large flock of Geese flew up in the distance, they came out of the Sun, but Simon called them from the calls, it's nice to be out with someone who actually knows what they are doing, we watched the birds circle a couple of times before they dropped down on to a small pond beyond the first hedge line. We hurried down the path to get a better angle to view the pond out of the Sun. At this point the fact that I had heroically carried my Scope and Tripod as well as Camera, Big Lens and Bins paid off! I could see several Russian White-fronted Geese on the Pond, along with Wigeon,Teal, and the Feral Geese. Slowly the Canadas and Greylags leading the way they came out of the Pond towards us!
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| Incoming Whitefronts |
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| I was hoping for some Whitefront flight shots but they remained stubbornly grounded, though the Canadas and Greylags obliged |
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| Lapwing, a few flew about, annoyingly a bigger flock appeared as I was leaving |
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| Mallards |
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| Gradually they came closer! We made various counts while were there and eventually settled on a figure of 117, which Simon counted twice in a row! |
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| Greylag Geese |
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| Heron |
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| Little Egret |
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| Juvenile and Adult |
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| Getting closer |
Simon headed off to get some lunch I decided to hang around and hope the flock would take to the air which eventually they did, however at this precise moment I was moving position to get a better angle so missed the shot!! Though I did get them in the distance!!😱😡😡
Yes I was annoyed as they disappeared back to the pond!! I decided to head home, the walk back was uneventful, I gave the large Goose flock another squizz amazingly the nearest two birds were Whtiefronts! The closest ones yet!
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| Whitefront with Greylag behind for scale |
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| I got a bit arty with the Reeds |
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| A final Robin |
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