The last post was way back in mid August, so an update is long over due and there is a lot to cover looking back at what is peak migration time for summer visitors departing our shores. Late August and the whole of September are very exciting times and as the sunny settled weather continued there was plenty of opportunities to get out in the field.
Our local downland and coastal sites are key refuelling points for migrating birds and great places to find Whinchats, Wheatears, Redstarts and Flycatchers, which for a few weeks can almost be expected daily on bird watching outings. More of these species are in the next update, but what really gets the local patch worker excited is the thought of finding a scarcity such as Red-backed Shrike, Wryneck or something even rarer.
To be fair there was very little in the way of “Scarcities or Rarities” during this period except for within the space of a few days when Ollie Davies dug out the two best birds of the autumn so far.
Wryneck
Firstly on the afternoon of 9th September Ollie found a Wryneck in the hawthorn scrub on the slope above Steyning Rifle Range. Richard Phillips then relocated it that evening and it was still present early morning on Thursday 10th September but promptly vanished and wasn’t reported again after about 08:30. It’s been a poor year for Wrynecks locally and the only other West Sussex record was of a bird seen briefly at the Severals, Pagham on 12th September, whilst nearby in East Sussex birds were at Sheepcote Valley, Brighton, on 26th August and Southease on 3rd October.
Pallid Harrier
If finding a Wryneck wasn’t cool enough, less than a week later Ollie struck again this time finding a superb Pallid Harrier hunting over fields north of a Monarch’s Way near Cissbury mid afternoon on Monday 14th September. The Pallid Harrier was still present early the following morning and local birders who were quick off the mark enjoyed great views until the weather closed in and the bird disappeared to the west late morning. It was reported slightly further north away from public rights of way that afternoon, but sadly despite excellent feeding areas it wasn’t seen again.
Intriguingly a ring-tailed harrier species was glimpsed very briefly at No Man’s Land on Saturday 12th September and also over Steep Down on the Sunday so it appears the Pallid Harrier was present for a couple of days at least before Ollie nailed it.
Congratulations to Ollie for two superb finds and many thanks for getting the news out quickly enabling at least some of the local birders to catch up with these great birds.
