Green Sand, Peregrines and Snipe along Glynde Reach

Along Glynde Reach (North of the bridge) this morning there was no sign of New Year’s Eve’s Bittern. Fortunately some of the more interesting local birds were there to compensate.

Eleven Common Snipe were flushed from the sedgiest field, while three Buzzards and a Sparrowhawk wheeled above.

Up on the central levels towards Ripe there were no waterfowl, but what sounded like plenty of Wigeon and Teal, and some geese, calling from the hidden clay pit along the way.

A pair of Peregrines were found along the fences in the open fields, with little but corvids and a Kestrel for company.

Coming back down the Reach, the local Green Sandpiper put in a brief, bottom-flashing flyby.

Bullfinch, Snipe, Brambling

Firle Street in the snow, outside the Ram

My sightings yesterday in Firle included a Nuthatch on our garden fence (locally common, but I don’t remember seeing one *in* the garden before), and a Bullfinch sounding more depressed than usual.

 

On a trek to Middle Farm, Paul S flushed three Common Snipe from the stream beside Heighton Street, and had a Brambling over.

Firle’s wader oasis

There’s a small pond at the foot of Firle Bostal, beside the road leading to the beacon car park. I’ve never seen a wader there before (though to be fair, I’ve rarely given it much attention).

So yesterday’s experience there borders on the surreal. With the surrounding fields a kind of moonscape, this modest pond, still free of ice, was attracting desperate waders from miles around.

When Paul and I looked at just after midday there were two tight bunches of Common Snipe and a few sole operators around the pond, totalling around 24 birds. To put this in perspective, I’ve only seen one Snipe before in Firle on this side of the A27, during the previous snow in December.

Soon after we got there, a Green Sandpiper flew towards us and dropped into the stream out of sight – again, a bird more usually seen no closer than Glynde Reach. At the back of the pool, a darkish, lone wader turned out to be a Redshank – our first in Firle. And close to it, the smallest wader but the biggest surprise – a Jack Snipe, separate from its commoner cousins, feeding discreetly at the back of the pond – another Firle first (for us at least).

With the four Lapwing feeding around the water and in nearby fields (also unusual in this part of Firle) and a Woodcock flushed earlier by Paul in the adjacent field, that’s six species of wader in one small area.

The attentions of a male Sparrowhawk and two Kestrels also made it clear that there were more Snipe feeding in hidden parts of the stream – when the raptors flushed the lot, a single flock of airborne Snipe numbered 33 birds. After successive distrubances, many of them plonked themselves in the middle of snowy fields around – a bizarre sight, and not ideal for avoiding birds of prey, but just showing how desperate they are.

A tough time for the birds, but a magical one for birding.

Jack Snipe 1

Common Snipe 33+

Redshank 1

Green Sandpiper 1

Lapwing 12+ (also spread along paddocks at Place Farm)

Woodcock 1

Grey Wagtail 1

Sparrowhawk 1

Kestrel 2

Lesser black-backed Gull 1

Glynde Reach

In an entirely predictable but still very annoying turn of events, the appearance of the shrike at Glynde appears to have coincided neatly with the only week in the last year that I’ve spent out of Sussex.

But a walk along the Reach today was worth it anyway. The water was frozen, and the landscape surrounding it subject to a severe and picturesque frost.

At the bridge, a male Blackcap fed beside the Reach – the first I’ve seen this winter. There were two pairs of Stonechats, one close to the village, another half a mile along the reach towards Ripe, and many thrushes and Robins.

Overlooking the open fields, there were no Lapwings visible (although Alan Kitson reported some with 60 Golden Plover and a Barn Owl towards the other side of the Levels today). A Buzzard braved the cold air, and a Kestrel scrutinised the area from a number of high perches – possibly a reason for the shrike’s absence.

Then returning to the village, a Common Snipe gave us a flypast, as it prospected a reedy ditch for some unfrozen mud to poke its considerable bill into. And a group of 17 Mute Swans heading over the village towards the levels made a beautiful sight and an equally impressive sound.

Who needs a shrike anyway?