Saturday 28 March 2009

Spoonbill & Willow Tit

Saturday 28th March - The Spoonbill found by Matt Eade on the scrape at Cuckmere Haven early morning was still present early afternoon in the fields on the west side of the river south of the Golden Galleon. In true Spoonbill fashion it spent most of the time asleep though at one stage went for a short walk revealing a yellow flag on the left leg and a green colour ring on the right. The combination of rings indicates that it is of Dutch origin. Also in the area 5 Shelduck, ca. 6 Little Egrets, 2 Curlew and a Green Woodpecker. A very heavy rain shower at Arlington Reservoir brought down 5+ Swallows and a Sand Martin though by the time we'd done the whole circuit they'd moved on. Not much else there - 5 Tufted Duck, Buzzard, 2 Green Woodpeckers, Mistle Trush, 3 Chiffchaffs (2 singing) and Nuthatch (h). No sign of the 'pole hunting' Long-eared Owl in a short search after dark - perhaps it's moved on?

Friday 27th March - Despite the less than ideal conditions, Bridget and I headed inland in search of LSWs. In the cold wind there was very little woodpecker activity - not surprisingly we failed with LSW though a major bonus was a male Willow Tit which was singing continuously (pee-oo pee-oo) from the canopy of an area of oak and hazel coppice. Like the West Dean birds it was very mobile continually flying from tree to tree though I did manage to get a good (if somewhat brief) view of it. Also in the area were at least 3 (possibly 6) Buzzards, a male Bullfinch and a male Reed Bunting. Chiffchaff, Nuthatch, Treecreeper and Yellowhammer were all heard.

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