The infamous Dusky Warbler and a late Ring Ouzel in Sussex (14-19 November)

Friday 19 November. Cookie and I met David Buckingham at the Beeding Hill car park and walked the usual triangle. Visibility was poor all along the Monarch's Way and up to Truleigh Hill, only clearing as we skirted Room Bottom. There DB spotted a male Ring Ouzel in hawthorns below us although it soon dropped out of view. It moved up the valley and was soon lost to view. Also seen were 11 Blackbirds, 3 Redwings, 3 Song and a Mistle Thrush, 5 Stonechats, 6 Meadow Pipits, 20 Goldfinches and a Reed Bunting. 

video grabs of the Ring Ouzel in Room Bottom

I hadn't intended videoing it but had accidentally changed the camera settings. Further efforts were either out of focus or out of frame. It is my latest in Sussex by 10 days

Stonechat on Beeding Hill

Thursday 18 November. Megan and I too Cookie ot Widewater and walked to Lancing Beach Green and back. We saw the Black Redstart on groynes our way out (at the start of Eastern Sands) and return (almost back to the Widewater causeway). On the lagoon were 5 Mute Swans and 5 Little Grebes while a flock of mixed small waders was flying around at high tide. At one point I counted 55 Ringed Plovers, 5 Sanderling and 16 Dunlin roosting on the beach but it felt as if there were more birds around.

Black Redstart on the rocks at Eastern Sands

small waders looking to roost at Eastern Sands

the Black Redstart at Widewater

Wednesday 17 November. I took Cookie around Mill Hill seeing Stock Dove, 280 Woodpigeons, Buzzards, 3 Skylarks, 2 Long-tailed Tits, 2 Song and 4 Mistle Thrushes, 2 Stonechats, and 23 Goldfinches. We later took Cookie to Brooklands seeing 2 adult and 5 juvenile Mute Swans, 4 Teal, 2 Little Grebes, 23 Moorhens and 25 Coot.

Tuesday 16 November. I took Cookie to the Adur at low tide. We saw 14 Redshank and 44 Great Black-backed and 500 Herring Gulls between the bridges and 77 Lapwings by Ricardos. As dusk approached upwards of 1000 Black-headed Gulls flew downriver to roost but I couldn't pick out any Meds amongst them. Two of the Great Black-backs were colour-ringed on consecutive days 10km apart on small islands off the southern tip of Norway.

Great Black-backed Gull J05CC on the Adur. Ringed as ringed as a chick on the small island of Abalholmen, off Mandal, Vest-Agder, Norway on 25 June 2021

Great Black-backed Gull J30CC on the Adur. Ringed as ringed as a chick on the small island of Kjorten, off Mandal, Vest-Agder, Norway on 26 June 2021. I'd seen it on the Adur on 26 October

Monday 15 November. I wasn't altogether surprised by the early news that the Newhaven Radde's was a Dusky but it didn't end there, successive messages during the morning based on images from the previous day moved to Radde's/Dusky then fully back to Radde's until better images and a recording made in the afternoon switched it back to Dusky Warbler where, as far as I'm aware, it has stayed. While some of this was going on I took Cookie around Mill Hill seeing 4 Stock Doves, 2 Buzzards, 2 Jays, 4 Long-tailed Tits, 21 Blackbirds, 5 Redwings, 8 Song Thrushes, 3 Meadow Pipits, a Bullfinch and 80 Goldfinches.

Sunday 14 November. Megan and  I took Cookie for a walk around the Adur between the Norfolk and Old Toll Bridges seeing a Grey Plover and 13 Redshank. While out I saw a message about a possible Radde's Warbler at Newhaven which had firmed up when we returned. A third message suggesting it was showing well on and off and a convincing photo on Twitter had me heading over there and I arrived on site just before 2pm. The bird had been seen 10-15 minutes before I arrived but observers who had been around for an hour or more (CB, JK, SL) hadn't seen it particularly well. In the next 90 minutes I saw it five or six times but never particularly close or for very long. After about an hour I saw it through my telescope which seemed to back up the impressions the photo I'd seen had given me - a colourful bird with an apricot undertail and a stubby bill. I then concentrated on trying to photograph it but was too slow with all but my last view when I managed to obtain a few images. I left thinking I'd seen a Radde's, albeit not great views but well enough to believe it had a stubby bill and peachy vent. I was disappointed to never hear it call although others did so when I was nearby. My hearing aid picked up the waves breaking behind me which drowned out most other noises and later, when I thought to take it out, an 'observer' was continually talking loudly so I still couldn't (despite me moving 50m away). As Radde's call is softer than typical Dusky that sort of fitted too. I was quite shocked when reviewing my few images in the evening to see it had a thin dark-tipped bill. Its more uniform (Dusky like) plumage could be explained by the poorer light but it was hard to see how light could affect impressions of bill shape which on my images definitely fitted Dusky. Had I not noted the dark tip in my field views giving it the impression of a stubby Radde's like bill? Revisiting the photo I'd seen on Twitter showed it holding a caterpillar which didn't help. Was this the original bird? Was it possible that both species were present? Very unlikely but both had been at Beachy Head on 18 October 1974, albeit at Hodcombe and in Whitbread Hollow. I decided to sleep on it. 

what I thought while watching it was a Radde'sWarbler finally gave itself up for my camera

                             

seeing this image in the evening rang very loud alarm bells, surely not a Radde's with a bill like that. It legs looked a bit weak too suggesting Dusky. If only I'd heard it call ...

Lesser Black-backed Gull at Newhaven West Beach