As it’s only 25 mins from home thought a trip to Knepp was a
legitimate trip out for some exercise. Talk of big crowds and full carparks
decided us that an early start was imperative, nothing to do with the Covid-19 I
just don’t like people!! Especially when birding, so we were up at 5 and on
site by 5.45 sterling effort all round ,I generally park on Countryman Lane and
enter the estate through the big gate, this is mainly because in previous visits
I have struggled to find the car parks!
We get kitted up, the usual cardy/fleece debate is sorted
quite quick and we are on our way.10 yards in and Margie already is onto a nice
Pied Wagtail and herd of ,what I think are Red Deer , excellent start!! A few
yards further on and there are a nice family group of Mistle Thrush running around
the field, a Buzzard (the only Raptor we saw) is escorted off the premises by a Crow we hear our first
Cuckoo of the walk, though it’s distant, as we walk a long we can hear
,Blackbird, Song Thrush, Whitethroat ,plenty of Wrens are singing and softly, again distant, we hear a Turtle Dove purring although the nature of the path
here means we can’t see much, it opens up at the crossroads we can hear two
Turtle Doves in this area although again invisible, a Whitethroat poses nicely
having a singsong on top of a bush and we finally get a very distant view of a
Turtle Dove sitting right on top of a dead tree, we can also hear a Nightingale
here but it is also very distant, there seems to be a theme developing with the
target species on this trip! Although Margie has found some “adorable Rabbits”
here which are depressingly close!! No Buzzard or Kite drops in on these tasty morsels,
so we move on!
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| Pied Wagtail |
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| Red Deer |
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| Mistle Thrush |
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| Buzzard |
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| Get offa my Land! (say in suffolk accent) |
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| Mistle Thrush |
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| Whitethroat |
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| Adorable Buzzard food (by Margie) |
We head north, we come across a hedge which has a Garden
Warbler, Whitethroat and Chiffchaff all singing in close proximity typically it’s
the Chiffy that poses well the others are buried in the bush!! We walk through
a small wood at the end of which up to 3 Nightingales are singing ,maybe it’s
the time of day or the fact that we are at the end of May but their hearts don’t
seem in it and by Nightingale standards it’s a pretty poor show and as usual
they are hidden from view.
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| Chiffchaff |
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| Wren |
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| Different Wren in terrible light |
We have a rather good encounter with a Cuckoo and then an
even better one with the elusive Garden Warbler, we spot the Storks nest, but
they appeared to have deserted it, no sign. At the lake, a pair of Canada Geese
have “cute” Goslings and there are a couple of Great Crested Grebes and a few
Tufties amongst the Mallards, a Grey Wagtail flies over too quick for a pic and
likewise a couple of Swifts elude me! We start to head back the way we came a
we go past a hedge I realise once again I have been caught out by large farm
animals, some rather large Bovines with massive horns have sneaked around
behind us and are looking menacing, (I’m sure these type of beasts come with a
built in Evans detector) Margie of course is ahhing and cooing about the pretty
calves and snapping away, when the nearest Bullock,3/4 of a ton of enraged
beast, with suspiciously lop-sided horns, starts it’s charge!! I face it down
magnificently and within 4 steps it backs down and goes back to calmly eating
the grass, it knows who’s boss. Margie says “you alright hunny” I give a casual
“fine” in reply, she’ll never know how close she came to death!
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| Empty Stork Nest |
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| Cuckoo |
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| Cuckoo in Flight |
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| Linnet |
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| Garden Warbler |
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| Garden Warbler |
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| Bovine (Mid-charge) |
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Calves
|
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| Geese with Goslings (By Margie) |
We have now reached
what I like to refer to as the comfort zone, this is the time between Margie
feeling too cold and then feeling too hot, this usually lasts about 20 minutes
but today was over in about 41 seconds. To be fair it was getting hot and I was
glad I had me hat, my welsh heritage means I get 3rd degree sunburn
within approx. 2 mins of exposure and once got sunburn, in Wales, in March !!! ,I
have two hats for these occasions, today I was sporting hat number 2 a trendy
black cowboyish type with a fine mesh netting which allows in the breeze ,which
I like to think makes me look a bit like a young Indiana Jones, not sure Margie
agrees! When it gets really hot I have a Khaki Legionnaire type hat ,Hat number
1, however I’m not allowed to wear this when I’m with Margie but if I do I have
to walk 10 yards behind her for some reason, not sure why!!.
Anyway in rising temperatures we make the decision to head
back to the car, we reach the main Turtle Dove area and I scan “Old Trusty”
this is a tree which on every other occasion I have been to Knepp at this time
of year has Doves in it, not this time ,I’m about to lower the bins when a bird
flies into the top of the tree, Turtle Dove hurrah!! I fill me boots with pics
as the bird puffs up and starts purring loudly, sits there for a good 3 minutes
before decamping to a nearby telephone wire, excellent!! We follow the path, it
goes between two lines of large oak trees and is quite gloomy, I’m walking along
aimlessly mind drifting somewhat, listening to various birds singing, reflecting
on an excellent trip when Margie whispers “freeze” there is such urgency in her
voice I stop dead in my tracks ,what has she seen , I glance back at her she is
focused in front camera clicking away , I peer into the gloom what has she seen,
I can see nothing ,all my birding senses are focused, every sinew stretched to
breaking point ,I go over the area inch by inch, what could it be ,the hoped
for Hoopoe? There’s been a few about! Red-flanked Bluetail unlikely considering
the time of year, Nutcracker?? “What is it” I whisper. In a low voice she
replies, “Squirrel!! Isn’t it cute” SQUIRREL WTF!! Manfully resisting the
temptation to dunk her in the adjacent pond I move on!! “you’ve flushed it now”
she wails!! Luckily at this point a Bullfinch calls and flies into a nearby
tree and I’m able to concentrate on trying to get a pic from the terrible
views.
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| Turtle Dove |
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| A different Garden Warbler |
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| Turtle Dove |
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| Blue Tit |
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| Blackbird (loads about) |
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| Bullfinch |
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Kin Squirrel (By Margie)
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That’s about it, another great walk around the Estate, No
Storks but not too bothered, we have seen them before and was more interested
in the Doves and Gales, which came up trumps, we heard at least 4 TD and several Cuckoos were calling and zipping about although pics were at a premium for both. Nice to hear and see so many Whitethroats and at least 4 Garden Warbler 2 of which, unbelievably, I managed to ID on song before getting views although Margie did point out if you say " I think that' a Garden Warbler" every time you hear something singing , the law of averages suggests you will be right at some point!!
We are home by ten and bonus bird on our arrival is a
Jay was under the feeders, somehow I managed to get the door open without
spooking it and was able to get a few shots !
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| Bonus Jay |
I realise that many of my international
readers (I’ve had 15 page views in Belgium!) may not know about the Knepp
rewilding project so have included a link to their website (below) which explains more
including their attempts to reintroduce Storks into the UK some 400 years after their local extinction! I
have no connection to the Estate whatsoever except I walk around it a few times a year and think it’s an excellent place for birding!!
All pics by me unless otherwise stated!
Oh and made a fruitcake yesterday!!
