Local birding (26 June-10 July)

Monday 26 June. On our usual Adur circuit with Megan and Cookie I saw 26 Great Black-backed and a Mediterranean Gull, a juvenile Moorhen, Skylark, 3 Swallows, 4 Reed Warblers and a Meadow Pipit. In the evening 2 Swifts from our garden.

Second-summer (3CY) Mediteranean Gull on the Adur

Shoreham Airport building site

Tuesday 27 June. I took Cookie up onto Steyning Round Hill and we walked around the Steyning Downland Scheme. It was not somewhere I'd really been before and I was pleasantly surprised, seeing 7 Swifts, Stock Dove, 2 Buzzards, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Marsh Tit, 4 Skylarks, 4 Swallows, 3 Chiffchaffs (+3 heard), Blackcap (heard), 5 Whitethroats, 2 Greenfinches, 9 Linnets, 4 Corn Buntings and 3 Yellowhammers. Marsh Tit was particularly welcome as it was my first within 10km of home, my revised definition of a local area.

looking east from Steyning Dowland Scheme

looking north from Steyning Dowland Scheme

Wednesday 28 June. Megan and I took Cookie up to Mill Hill seeing Red Kite, Buzzard, Kestrel, 3 Skylarks, a flock of 15 Long-tailed Tits (including many juveniles), Chiffchaff, 3 Whitethroats, 2 Linnets and a Goldfinch.

Gatekeeper on Mill Hill

Red Kite on Mill Hill

House Sparrow in our garden

Thursday 29 June. Megan and I took Cookie on our usual Adur walk seeing 2 Mediterranean Gulls, Little Egret, Kestrel, Skylark, 3 Meadow Pipits and 3 Goldfinches. A Stock Dove was in the garden before we left and 5 Swifts were seen over the garden in the evening, the highest number so far.

First-summer (2CY) Mediterranean Gull on the Adur, note the inner primaries are new. The second bird was probably that seen on 26th (photo above)

Friday 30 June. I took Cookie up to Steyning Round Hill and we walked across No Man's Land almost to Cissbury and back seeing 3 Stock Doves, 3 Red Kites, Buzzard, 14 Skylarks, 28 Swallows, 11 Whitethroats, Chaffinch, 16 Linnets, Goldfinch and 10 Corn Buntings.

Corn Bunting at No Man's Land

Saturday 01 July. Megan and I took Cookie to Lancing Ring and Steepdown seeing 3 Swifts, Buzzard, 19 Skylarks, Meadow Pipit, 17 Linnets and 11 Corn Buntings.

Corn Bunting at Steepdown

Megan and Cookie at Steepdown

Monday 03 July. Megan and I took Cookie to Dacre Gardens and walked to Bramber and back seeing 5 Swallows, 2 each of Whitethroat, Linnet and Goldfinch and 2 Reed Buntings.

Tuesday 04 July. I took Cookie to West Mill and we walked up the Downslink to Henfield Levels. We saw 2 Stock Doves, Red Kite, Great Spotted Woodpecker, 7 Long-tailed Tits, 3 Chiffchaffs, 2 Reed Warblers, 2 Stonechats, 3 Greenfinches, 2 Yellowhammers and 6 Reed Buntings. Later, cycling home from Worthing Hospital, there were 9 Mute Swan cygnets with their parents on Widewater. 

Stonechats at West Mill

Yellowhammer at West Mill

Reed Buntings at West Mill

Wednesday 05 July. Megan and I took Cookie to Brooklands where we saw 4 Swifts, many Coot, Common Sandpiper and 2 Reed Warblers.

young Coot at Brooklands

Thursday 06 July. Cookie and I visited the south section of Knepp. Little was calling although we did hear a Turtle Dove, for all of 5 seconds. We wandered around for 3 hours seeing 4 Stock Doves, Sparrowhawk, 2 Buzzards, Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers, Jay, 7 Swallows, Garden Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat. Six occupied White Stork nests were noted although not all appeared to have young. Not an easy bird to overlook making claims they were regular breeders in the Storrington area hard to credit. To my mind definitely an introduction rather than a legitimate reintroduction. Quite a nice bird though.

Two White Stork nests in the same tree, at least one chick in the lower nest but possibly none in the upper one

the upper nest

there had been four chicks in this nest when I'd last visited a month earlier (the ring codes suggested one was missing too)

a scrum at this nest as an adult comes in

its four young more easily counted from a different angle

Gatekeeper at Knepp

my first Painted Lady of the year

Friday 07 July 2023. I took Cookie to Lancing Ring, not making it as far as Steepdown due to the lack of shade. We saw 5 Skylarks, Whitethroat, 9 Linnets and 4 Corn Buntings. Still 5 Chiffchaffs singing although only saw one. Later 2 Stock Doves at the allotments and at dusk 3 Swifts over our garden.

Skylark between Lancing Ring and Steepdown

young Magpie between Lancing Ring and Steepdown showing some blue tones

Saturday 08 July 2023. We saw 3 Rock Pipits along the west side of Shoreham Harbour. Later 4 Swifts were over the garden at dusk.

 

Sunday 09 July 2023. Megan and I took Cookie to Arundel and walked around Swanbourne Lake before a brief visit to the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust, Cookie staying in the car. About 15 Sand Martins around the Sand Martin Hide, some visiting nest holes made the visit worthwhile  but otherwise it was very quiet with 3 Pochard and 23 Tufted Duck on the lake and a Peregrine overhead. A Hobby was seen over the A27 on our return, appearing to catch an insect but not easy to be sure from a moving vehicle. Later 3 Swifts from the garden at dusk. 

Monday 10 July 2023. We walked around the Adur seeing a Ringed Plover, 4 Whimbrel, 4 Common Sandpipers, 9 Mediterranean Gulls, 9 Little Egrets and a Reed Warbler on a clockwise circuit from the Red Lion. Back home and a quick turn around as I grabbed a telescope, ditched my heavy camera, and cycled back to have a better look at the gulls, if they were still there. They were with 10 Mediterranean Gulls in the flock - 7 adults, a second-summer (3CY) and 2 first-summers (2CYs). One of the second-summers was colour-ringed - Green R7UN and most likely a French bird ringed at Polder de Sebastopol, Barbâtre, Vendée, Pays de la Loire (on the Atlantic coast SW of Nantes). The Whimbrel were still present too, with a Curlew. Also present on the Adur was a juvenile Lesser Black-backed or Yellow-legged Gull. I digiscoped it but not for the first time struggled to identify it when back home, not helped by the images being poor. On reflection I suspect it was a Yellow-legged Gull, others being present at Beachy from this day and on the Adur and elsewhere along the coast subsequently. No Swifts on a couple of brief looks this evening.

Whimbrel on the Adur

Mullet below the Old Toll Bridge

juvenile Yellow-legged (or Lesser Black-backed) Gull on the Adur

it looked a bit small billed/headed but otherwise OK although I didn't see it fly

unringed first-summer (2CY) Mediterranean Gull on the Adur

second-summer and adult Mediterranean Gulls on the Adur

ringed first-summer Mediterranean Gull R7UN on the Adur. It was ringed as a pullus at Polder de Sebastopol; Barbâtre; Vendée; FRANCE in June 2022. In late July 2022 it was seen at Plage des trois Moutons; Lampaul-Ploudalmézeau; Finistère and during 14-21 June 2023 at Zeebrugge; Brugge; Flanders; BELGIUM