Monday, 27 May 2024

Knepp Estate - 27th May 2024

 Today, Jayne and I went to the Knepp Estate, which is a large rewilding scheme, here in Sussex. We went to see the reintroduced White Storks (172), which now breed on the estate, as well as a couple of other key species: Turtle Dove (171) and Nightingale (173).

We walked around the 10km red route, and managed to see the three target birds. The first birds seen were the Turtle Doves. We managed to spot two birds, possibly a pair, sitting in a tree by the first treetop viewpoint, and I got a couple of half decent photos.

Turtle Doves (nearly!)

A bit better!

Shortly after these views, we saw our first White Storks, a distant view of a pair on a nest. We also saw another pair, with two young, and managed to get some photos (taken from a very safe distant and heavily cropped).



White Storks

The third species, Nightingale, wasn't so cooperative, but we did manage to hear at least 2 singing - a fantastic sound.

Whilst walking around the site, we also recorded many other species, including: Whitethroat, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Stock DoveSong Thrush, Wren, Jackdaws, CrowsBlackcap, ChiffchaffBlue and Great TitGreen and Great Spotted Woodpecker, Buzzard, Red Kite, Fallow and Red Deer, Grey Squirrel, a vole species, a grasshopper sp, 2 Small Heath butterflies, 2 Mother Shipton moths and a male Beautiful Demoiselle!!

Beautiful Demoiselle

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