West Sussex 4th February

We planned a trip to West Sussex today with a few target birds in mind

When we set of it was -4 degs our first stop was to see if we could see the Parrot Crossbill near Halsemere on arriving we walked out to the spot where there where already about 25 birders the bird had been seen at 9 o’clock no idea what the temperature was here but it was very cold we stayed a hour no sign of the Parrot Crossbill plenty of Common Crossbills, Siskins, Redwings and Fieldfare this was a stop we added to our planned day.

So back to the planed route we headed for West Dean looking for the Little Owl again no luck (wonder if the rest of the day was going to be like this) we did have Peregrine and 4 Common Buzzards other birds Stonechat, Blackbird, Rook, Jackdaw, Carrion crow

From here we headed to Thorny Island looking for the Great White Egret we had been told it was at the far side of the great deep so we walked along the sea wall to the security gate and scanned from here on route to the gate we had a Marsh Harrier, We spoke to a birder near the gate and he said he had a Greenshank back along the path which we located on our way back but no sound of Cetti’s Warbler or Bearded Tit other birds seen included Little Egret, Dunlin, Oystercatcher, Red Breasted Merganser, Wigeon, Curlew, Black Tailed Godwit. We then drove along the road towards the Gaurd House and parked to have a look at the great deep the other side of the road no sign of the GWE so we walked down to the gaurd house and scanned from there still no luck

Next stop was Fishbourne Creek we were looking for Little Stint which we found also had a Kingfisher sitting on one of the boats in the harbour other birds Dunlin, Oystercatcher, Cormorant, selection of Gulls Wigeon and lots of Pintail

We  now started to head for home and our last stop was at Burton Mill Pond we walked along the side of the pond to see if we could locate the Tawny Owl but a lot of the trees had been blown down in the recent storm so no luck, as it was getting colder again we decided to call it a day

If the weather had been a bit better would have seen more birds but I think the cold kept them well hidden out of the wind and cold, We did managed to see 2 of our target birds Greenshank and Little Stint still no Great White Egret will have to see what the weather is doing this weekend maybe back to Dungeness where there are 3 GWE