Having been sat on the sofa for most of the day, although I did fill the feeders up but mostly watched footy and ate!! I decided that an evening walk would be in order, rumours that Saharan dust would produce an awesome sunset the main motivation. Margie decided to give it a miss, put off by the windy conditions and claiming too much to do!! Though I think she just wanted to be alone with the jar of sweets I bought her for Valentines!!!💘💕
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| Sweet Jar looking suspiciously lower!! |
So I set off, despite the wind it was quite warm so was glad hadn't overloaded on the clothes front, all was going well, although no birds at all, when halfway down Bullfinch Lane I reached for my Bins, oops, catastrophic, rookie error, I'd forgotten me bins 😱😱😱😰 now as a birder I would rather go out without me trousers than me Bins!! although I can appreciate given the choice between seeing me without my bins or without my trousers the majority position would probably be sans Bins😂!!!So the dilemma, retrace my steps and get my bins or continue without, The pros of returning, I would get my Bins, the Cons of returning it was a long way and I'm lazy!! Up to now I'd seen very little it says something for the paucity of sightings that I'd covered nearly a mile without noticing me missing Bins, also the chances of another birder seeing me and thinking I was Dude photographer was low so my reputation would survive!! The chances of finding a Mega were low ,it's Hurstpierpoint after all!!😆 In the end laziness won out and I headed on!! Anyway a decent birder doesn't need to rely on expensive optics to be successful, we can rely on our senses, becoming one with our surroundings and "feel" the birds the only problem is my eyesight though augmented by Vision Expresses finest lens ain't all that great and my hearing, largely destroyed by heavy industry and Thrash metal ain't that great either I would have to smell the birds!!!😲😲👃
The fields at the end of Bullfinch Lane were also quiet and blooming windy I decided to make a stand at Yellowhammer corner, I had, as Margie had predicted, massively over-estimated how long it would take to get here so was miles too early for the sunset!! Was expecting a told you so on arrival home😃 (I wasn't disappointed!!) Still a Skylark had started a song flight which improved the situation, with good views all around, it soon became clear that most of the entertainment would be provided by large flocks of Gulls which were coming up regularly between my position and The Downs and the funky cloud formations with occasional diversion to to get pictures, when a Skylark rose out of the field in front of me!!
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| Gull Flock |
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| Got to be a Church pic! |
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| Common Gull |
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| Common Gull |
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| Common Gull |
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| Common Gull |
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| A rare sighting these days |
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| Skylark in song flight |
Luckily I'm a fan of Gulls and very much enjoy this sort of birding, I also impressed myself by correctly IDing most of the flocks as either Common Gulls or Black-headed Gulls (proven by pictures later) I was hoping for an armchair tick of something awesome or even a Med Gull but examination of the pictures failed to find anything unusual!
Next a large bird appeared in the distance, in the absence of Bins I was happily stringing the Norfolk Bearded Vulture possibly heading back south although thinking it was most likely a Heron which was being severely buffeted by the wind!! In this depressing year this was a year tick!!
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| Heron |
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| Heron |
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| Heron |
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| Windy Heron!! |
The Gulls kept on coming!!
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| Black-headed Gulls |
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| Common Gull |
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| Black-headed Gulls |
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| Herring Gull |
A few other bits and bobs also went over, this is a good little watchpoint will be defo having a Raptorwatch in the Spring!!
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| Cormorant |
Mallards |
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At last one of the Skylarks which up to this point, had been chasing each other over the fields and making the occasional song flight, hovered briefly in front of me, the shots ain't great but you can see what it is
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| At last a reasonable shot! |
The sky was throwing some good moves now, but the gathering cloud made me think the sunset was going to disappoint!! A few too many shots below but I love a funky sky!!
It was clear by now with the sun behind the cloud that the anticipated sunset wasn't going to happen, well obviously would happen, but not in a way conducive to pictures, I decided to head home, at this point a small flock of birds flew into the hedge presumably to roost, I felt they were buntings and a couple of really bright ones convinced me they were Yellowhammer ,about 12 birds came in and I'm pretty sure they were all Yellowhammer but I can't rule out Reed Bunting for a coupl,it was gloomy by this time and I had no Bins!!!!!!😢 A few shots of the Yellowhammers below and the Moon!!
The walk home was uneventful, but an interesting evening, I usually like to wander when I'm birding but today proved that standing in one place can be productive as well!!!
