Pulborough in bloom. Spring is (almost) here!

On Monday I left early to visit a local place near Oxted hoping to see a ring ouzel. It was a nice walk but no ring ouzel. This is my bogey bird at the moment.

I then went to Pulborough hoping to see the common crane which had been there for a couple of days. On arrival I raced down to Jupps viewpoint but there was no crane. Twitching is no fun when you miss all the birds!! Shortly after, a man came from the other viewpoint and said the crane had flown at 10.05 and I had arrived at 10.10! Grrrrr!

To compensate, there were two snow geese, a life tick for me after my signal failure to see this bird in Norfolk. When I came back later they were closer to me and promptly mated!! Well, it is Spring.

Snow geese.







Although cold, there were sunny intervals and some of the bushes on the reserve were in bloom. This allowed me to spend some time relaxing with the great tits, which were nibbling the buds out of the blossom. They look very nice with a floral background.

Great tit.










I also found a number of blackcaps. I got a nice view of a male, but the females were keeping a low profile, probably building nests and being homely.

Blackcap, male.









This bold chiffchaff was collecting nesting material.....

Chiffchaff.
(shorter wings,
darker legs)




....and this willow warbler was very actively staking out his territory in song. Magic!

Willow warbler.
(Longer wings,
paler legs)








If these two birds look almost identical it's because they are, almost identical. Telling them apart by song is easy. However, other features are the length of the wings and the leg colour. The wings of the chiffchaff are generally shorter. You can see from the pictures above that the wings of the willow warbler extend further back than the chiffchaff. Also, the legs of the chiffchaff are darker than those of a willow warbler.
The crane didn't reappear that afternoon, but I didn't mind after the lovely birds I'd seen.

White-throated sparrow at last

OK, so Sunday was supposed to be the best day of the holidays weatherwise wasn't it? I thought I would go and see the American White-throated sparrow at Old Winchester Hill Fort. I decided to leave early and I was there by 7 a.m. The weather was really misty and visibility was bad. It was also drizzling. Great! When I arrived there were already about 20 people there!! Someone said it had just been out in the open singing from a very exposed bush (as people are apt to do in these situations), but was now nowhere to be seen. Great!

There was some very thick undergrowth where the bird was. I didn't blame it for not coming out where only rain, mist and about 21 eager birdwatchers were waiting. Soon someone spotted it deep in the thicket. Not ideal for photography at the best of times. Shutter speeds were ludicrously low at normal ISO, so I had to increase it more and more till, even at 3200 ISO, the shutter speed was about 1/25 sec!!! Photographers will know how bad that is. I had to wait to be able to get in a position where I could get a reasonably clear view through the undergrowth and I was finally able to get a few shots of the neat but pathetic looking sparrow cowering in the middle of the bush. We could hear its call, a repeated single note, which was really rather plaintiff. I was pleased to have seen it and got a record shot, but after a cup of coffee, I moved on.

White-throated sparrow. (f5.6 at 1/30 sec. ISO 3200!!)

Next stop was Birdham near Chichester, where the call of a lesser whitethroat was a nice surprise. There were plenty of yellowhammer, and I got a reasonably close picture of a female.

Female yellowhammer.

A short hop to Church Norton by Pagham harbour produced ringed plover, house martin and swallow for my year list. On the way home I popped in to Pulborough Brooks, which was very quiet, with no waders to speak of. There were plenty of blackcap, whitethroat and so many rooks. One came quite close to the hide and there are a couple of pictures below. You can see what a strange looking bird it is close up. I don't like to speak ill of birds, but there are more attractive ones out there. They can look like some hooded monks. What is that funny bulge under the bill?? Who knows.

Rooks.