Nightingale in Firle

This Nightingale was recorded a few days ago, near the railway line just north of Middle Farm (thanks to Roz South). Is there a more wonderful sound?

Recent research has suggested that it’s only unpaired males that continue to sing in the darkest hours of the night. Those that have paired off concentrate their efforts in daylight hours, particularly dawn and dusk like most other songbirds.

It’s thought that the Nightingales declined by 57% in the UK between 1995 and 2009. The British Trust for Ornithology is running a full survey of the UK’s Nightingales this spring. If you have one singing near you, log it with the BTO.

Willing the Willow Warbler’s return

Yesterday was cold, grey and damp, but in spite of that, our Willow Warbler returned.

Back on last year’s territory, it sang from high in one of the large ash trees at the allotments. Today was still chilly, but bright and sunny, and I took this recording.

The song is Chiffchaff-like for a moment at around 26 seconds in. You can also hear Song Thrush, Woodpigeon, Rook and (I think) a brief snatch of Dunnock.

As regular readers will know, I’ve been willing the warbler to return – last year was the first in the time that I’ve lived in Firle that one has stayed for the summer. So this is a particularly welcome arrival in 2012.

In croakier voice, at about 10am today a pair of Ravens flew over as I put the washing out – the first, I think, I’ve ever seen from the garden.

Also present, a Great Tit that does quite a neat three-note impression of a Green Sandpiper – this has stopped me in my tracks a few times over the last couple of weeks, and now I know who the culprit is.

1 April 2012

Warm, sunny days and signs of early spring all over: this Hebrew Character is early on the wing (typically March / April) and the first large moth to land up in our bathroom this year.

In the park, the Teal have departed, as have the vast majority of winter thrushes, though groups of a few dozen have been over the village in the mornings, emerging from their roost (I think in the Plantation).

The Green Sandpiper lingers along the stream, and the pair of Grey Wagtails (which can be truly elusive in the late winter) were seen again yesterday, heading towards the stream from the Long Pond. Where will they nest this year?

Linnets by John Gould

At least three Blackcaps have set up in the village over the last week or so, joining the Chiffchaffs which preceded them by about ten days. So far they’re the only summer visitors, unless you count the Linnets that turned up again a couple of weeks ago – we’ve hardly seen any this winter.

A Raven flew low over Crossways, croaking as it came, on 30 March, and a Yellowhammer was singing close to the A27 nearby on the same day. One usually holds territory here, but I’m still amazed he manages to little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheeeese successfully against the noise of the traffic.

A couple of pairs of surviving Red-legged Partridges have set up territory, one along Chalky Road and another along Mill Lane near Glynde.

And as the temperature dipped today, a couple of Siskins heading North over the village were a further reminder that summer isn’t quite here yet.

[Aside: it was a couple of years ago to the day that an Osprey flew over me in the car. Best I could manage today was a Sparrowhawk, and it wasn't for the want of looking.]

At last, Med Gull

I looked over the usual flock of 150 or so gulls in the Park just now, through the drizzle. No surprises; only a few Common Gulls mixed in with the Black-headeds.

But having walked another couple of hundred yards I looked back and saw that the flock was bigger, and that, finally, there was a white-winged one amongst them.

I’ve been watching out, in a fairly low-key fashion, for a Mediterranean Gull ever since I moved to Firle. I saw them with the Black-headeds when we lived not far away at Alciston. And I’ve always assumed that we have them in the parish fairly regularly, given the huge number of gulls that pass overhead between the Ouse and Arlington Reservoir, as well as the wintering group in the Park.

But it’s taken seven years, on and off, to clap eyes on one. Even through the rain, at a distance, this adult bird, moulting into summer plumage, was lovely.

Hardly less impressive, there is a flock of over a thousand winter thrushes in the Park too, feeding in the Lambpool (field adjoining the Decoy Pond) which has been spread with muck in the last few days.

The majority are Fieldfares, but Redwings (and with them Starlings) number in the hundreds too. At least one of the Redwings was singing.

Yesterday, four Teal and one or two Green Sandpipers were flushed from the stream.

Spring rumblings

We spent half-term in Devon, leaving a still-snowy South Downs behind us for a (slightly) warmer West Country.

Arriving back a week ago, there were still traces of snow on the north face of the escarpment, but by Thursday it was T-shirt weather, with nature responding in suitably Spring-like fashion.

In my last blog post, just before the snow, I mentioned the lack of Snipe and Woodcock around Firle, despite the cold. The following day I flushed a snipe (of some sort) from the stream, and a couple of days after that Paul Stevens flushed a Woodcock from his garden. Since returning from Devon, I’ve had two definite Common Snipe along the stream – so there. Reverse jinx.

Firecrests were last heard near the Ram early in the New Year, but there was at least one (possibly three) in the Park today. It / one of them sang sporadically – something I’ve never heard in Firle before - as it darted around a Holm Oak.

On Thursday (23rd) our usual Green Sandpiper had linked up with another. They flew together over the Decoy Pond, before one returned to the stream. There was also a pair of Coot on the pond itself.

Teal numbers are back down from the giddy heights of 75+ during the cold to single figures – there were just two singletons this morning. A pair of Grey Wagtails flying over the Long Pond today were my first for a while though.

The Lambpool field was alive with feeding brids this morning – whether the 220+ Fieldfares, 30 or so Redwings and 45 Starlings are remnants from the cold weather movement or the usual late winter build-up I’m not sure. But with Chaffinches, Stock Doves and Skylarks all in full voice over the weekend, it certainly feels that things are shifting.

Birds beget birds in Glynde

The Great Grey Shrike continues its stay in Glynde, near the village, and it’s remarkable what else has been seen there by visiting birders.

As well as the Rough-legged Buzzard and Short-eared Owl reported a few weeks ago, recent additions have included ringtail Hen Harrier, Merlin, Jack Snipe and Pintail, all pretty unusual.

Red Kites

It’s the time of year when kites start to move about in Sussex, and I heard about a pair not far away (I’m being coy, just in case…) today, apparently hunting, not just soaring on through.

Meanwhile on the Sunshine Coast…

A string of interesting records from the lakes at Eastbourne led me, finally, to make a visit with the kids (I’ve often driven past, but never before stopped). We walked out onto West Rise Marsh, where a whole lot of ducks and gulls were gathered in the warm sunshine. Behind the Pintail, Wigeon, Shoveler, Tufties and Great-crested Grebes was the Black-necked Grebe.

In return for the children indulging me a spot of birding, we then backtracked to the playground nearby. This affords pretty good views out across the marsh, and a couple of quick sweeps with the binoculars caught a Bittern lolloping along the far side of the lake before disappearing into a banks of reeds.

This is without doubt the best bird I’ve ever seen while standing on vulcanised rubber.

 

Shrike again at Glynde

I finally caught up with the Great Grey Shrike on Saturday, just ahead of the snowfall.

The Great Grey Shrike of 2008/9 at Glynde Reach, by Les Bird

The Reach was almost completely frozen, and I followed it around the bend towards Glynde Levels for almost a mile without seeing much at all – a dozen Lapwings scattered around the pasture, a few Fieldfares, a Kestrel and five Moorhens skidding about on the ice.

I was on my way back and had resigned myself to drawing a blank, when a scan of the bushes along the railway line near the Station revealed a distant grey bird with natty black face mask, atop a high branch. After a few moments it dropped down, flashing a long black and white tail, and disappeared into the wrong side of a low scrubby bush, not to be seen again. Hardly satisfying, but beats my total dip of the 2009 bird.

As I got back to the car, five Buzzards (all standard issue) were circling over the same sedgy field.

The previous day a walk along the unfrozen stream in Firle Park produced at least 75 Teal in a number of parties, the biggest of around 40, as well as the Green Sandpiper.

At least 40 were still present on Sunday, this time against a backdrop of snow, and a pristine, lone adult Lesser-blacked Gull (these always look fantastic in wintry weather) was gliding around the Park.

Aside from the bumper Teal numbers, the cold snap hasn’t generated too much out of the ordinary – a few Lapwing over the village, and plenty of winter thrushes and Blackbirds feeding around the houses in the village. No Snipe or Woodcock, as yet.

Gadwall, Great Grey Shrike

Cold is often the required condition for new birds at this time of year.

On Saturday, Liam and Jon Curson went looking for last weekend’s Rough-legged Buzzard at Glynde and came away with a Great Grey Shrike instead. This is, I think, about in the same spot as a shrike there three years ago (pictured, by Les Bird) and was still present today, just east of station, beside the Reach.

Yesterday, visiting shrike-appreciators included Alan Kitson, who also saw a Short-eared Owl flying high over the levels a little further up the Reach, plus two Green Sandpipers and a Kingfisher.

He then went on to Firle Park and found 700 Fieldfares. This is approximately 650 more than I’ve seen here all winter, but sure enough this morning there was evidence of the (presumably weather-induced) influx, with at least 100 knocking about.

More surprising though was the presence of a pair of Gadwall on the Decoy Pond – my first for Firle, alongside a Coot (only my second), with six Teal and a Green Sandpiper up the stream.

The tailless Herring Gull was back, on his own, on the Ram roof. Typically flighty (nothing like Brighton birds), he scarpered before I could get close enough for a picture.