Sunday 22nd March

Started today in Chichester on leaving my flat we had a look to see if we could see the Peregrine on the cathedral after a quick scan I found the male sitting on one of the lower turrets.

Our next stop was The WWT at Arundel on arriving at the car park one of the party picked up on a Common Buzzard flying over head, We then walked around the reserve birds seen included Shell Duck, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Marsh Tit, Chiffchaff, Reed Bunting, Black Headed Gull, Common Gull, Herring Gull, Coot, Moorhen, Mallard, Cetti’s Warbler heard only, while we had lunch in one of the hides we had a Sparrowhawk No water vole or Kingfisher on this trip.  Just as we where about to leave we had 4 Common Buzzards over head.

We then decided to show one of the party the Wild Daffodils up on the south downs on arriving at the spot where we parked after a short walk along the the path I spotted a bird of prey over the trees to our right this turned out to be a Goshawk, We then continued along the path and we found a few daffodils by the side of the path as we got further along the path we had more flowers in the woods and at a clearing we found some more not as many as we have had in the past I think we might have been a week early to see the big display that you get there 

Here are a few pictures of the Daffodils 

Saturday 21st March

Spent the afternoon having a short wander around part of Pagham Harbour first stop was the ferry pool not a lot of waders as the water level was high did find 2 Avocets and a female Garganey, Our next stop was Church Norton where we had a walk round through the fields to the shore line where we found a Red Necked Grebe and a Sandwich Tern, In the harbour we had Curlew, Black Tailed Godwits, Dunlin, Grey Plover, Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher, Turnstone.

Other birds seen included Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Robin, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Green Woodpecker, Rook, Jackdaw, shellduck,  lapwing, Mallard, Teal, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Great Tit, Blue tit, Black Headed Gull, Herring Gull, Common Gull, Great Crested Grebe, and 3 Chiffchaff  singing

All finished of with a nice meal and a few pints

Sunday 15th March

Spent a very pleasant day at Rainham marshes (RSPB Reserve) The main object was to see if we could see the Iceland Gull that had been about for the past week, We did a complete circuit of the reserve and a very pleasant day was had plenty of ducks still about a few waders and lots of gulls which after a long search we did find the Iceland Gull.

This is a reserve that I will be visiting again and hope it turns up some goodies in the spring and autumn

This trip was by car but it does look easy to do  by public transport

Saturday 28th Feb Forest Of Dean / Slimbridge / Frampton

Today 28th Feb 2009 was our trip to the Forest of Dean we had arranged to leave my mates at 7 o,clock at about 1/4 to our other fried phoned to say they where feeling unwell so we set off just the two of us we had a plane for the day and we stuck to it and what a day we had

Our first port of call was The New Fancy Watch Point in the forest of Dean we arrived and climbed up to the watch point for Goshawk our target bird for the day after a short while we had Raven, Crossbill, then one of the other people looking said I have have a Goshawk sitting in a tree and what a view the best I have seen Goshawk in a long time, We then had 4 more birds in the air displaying what a start to our day we also had Common buzzard.

We then had a look at the feeders in the car park where we had Brambling we then had a short stroll looking for Willow Tit but with no luck then it was back to the car and as we passed the feeders a willow Tit flew of.

Our next stop was Cannop Ponds where we had Grey Wagtail, Mandarine Duck, Goosander, we also had a look at the bridge for Dipper but no Luck but we had been told of another site which was our next stop where we did find Dipper thanks to a screaming child who moved it from under the bridge now has we had seen most of the species in the forest we then headed for Slimbridge where a American Wigeon had been seen we then had a look to see if we could find my mate a Water Rail this is a god site to see them but no luck, I did have Spotted Redshank. we also had a nice Sparrowhawk sitting on a post very close, Our next stop was Frampton for the Long Eared Owl that had been present for most of the winter as we where driving into Framptom we came upon a group of people watching something at the side of the road this turned out to be 22 Waxwings very nice indeed then it was onto the spot for the Owl, when we arrived we where the only people there but after a short while some one else turned up and said you need to walk past the reed bed and look back (this turned out to be information from the previous day) while we where watching for the Owl  my mate finally got his water rail after a short while  a local turned up and said your looking in the wrong place and put us on the bird after watching the Owl for a while we then had a short walk where we found a distant Short Eared Owl 

So all in all a very pleasant birding day

21 Feb 2009

Bit late updating my blog been a bit busy over the last couple of weeks

report for Sat 21 Feb 2009

My mate gave me a call on Friday night and said do you want to do some birding in Sussex tomorrow as I had decided yo stay in Chichester for the weekend I said yes 

We arranged a meet up just north of Chichester on the Saturday our first stop was Goring

to see if we could see the Waxwings that where there we only had to wait about 20 minutes 

and the 10 birds showed well this was a new Sussex bird for me, Our next stop was Widewater at Shoreham to see if we could see the Black Rerdstart that had been there in the week but no luck, Our next stop was the East arm of Shoreham Harbour for Purple Sandpiper but no luck here either we then stopped at the power station to have a look and see if we could see a Peregrine we found the Female sitting on the rail at the top, Next we headed for the Pannel Valley in seach of the Great Grey Shrike this is a site that we had not been to before we where quite impreesed with this site and we will be visiting again we had a good selection of duck Marsh Harrier but no Shrike by now the light was fading so time to call it a day