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 Dove, Song Thrush, Wren, Jackdaws, Crows, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Blue and Great Tit, Green 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

RSPB Frampton Marsh

One year ago Jayne, Luke and I spent the day at RSPB Frampton Marsh in 23 degree heat, and gorgeous sunshine (see here). We were back again today, and the weather wasn't quite as kind (12 degrees, grey and overcast), but the birds more than made up for it. In the 5 hours that we were there, we got some fantastic views of the birds, including 2 "lifers" for Luke (Turtle Dove and Grasshopper Warbler, both heard, but not seen), and 13 "year ticks" for me.

We started off walking from the car park, where we had c.10 Swift overhead. We then heard Reed, Sedge and Cetti's Warbler, and a very close Cuckoo (glimpsed briefly by Jayne), before watching 2 breeding plumaged Spotted Redshank, 2 Wood Sandpiper, several Ruff, 1 Greenshank, Redshank, Avocet, Ringed and Little Ringed Plover, Dunlin (1 breeding plumaged bird), Lapwing, Whimbrel (1), Common Sandpiper (1), Little Egret, Grey Heron, Buzzard, Shelduck, Teal, Wigeon, Mallard, Garganey (one pair), Canada, Greylag and Barnacle Geese, Mute Swan, Brent Geese, Swallow, Sand and House Martin, Pied and Yellow Wagtail, Skylark, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Great Tit, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Lesser Whitethroat and Whitethroat!

Male Ruff

Phonescoped Garganey

Year List update:

160 – Swift
161 – Sedge Warbler
162 – Reed Warbler
163 – Spotted Redshank
164 – Wood Sandpiper
165 – Ruff
166 – Garganey
167 – Common Tern
168 – Turtle Dove
169 – Whimbrel
170 – Grasshopper Warbler
171 – Little Ringed Plover
172 – Yellow Wagtail

Son Real

Whilst in Mallorca, Jayne and I spent a few hours at the Son Real Nature Reserve.

Son Real

We went hoping to find the Balearic Warbler (details here). Obviously July isn't the best time of year to see this species, and, although we had a brief glimpse of a small warbler disappearing into the bushes, we couldn't be 100% sure it was this bird, so this tick will have to wait for another visit! We did, however, get great views of Red-legged Partridge, Kestrel, Thekla Lark, Nightjar (1 flew up from the ground about 1m away!), Turtle Dove (1 flew over), Serin and Woodchat Shrike (ssp badius).

Woodchat Shrike (juvenile)

Year List update:

180 – Woodchat Shrike

181 – Serin

Year List update and 2 "Lifers"

Yesterday I blogged about my recent trip to Menorca and promised to update the Year List, so here goes:

149- Zitting Cisticola (Fan-tailed Warbler)
150 – Turtle Dove
151 – European Bee-Eater
152 – Yellow-legged Gull
153 – Audouin’s Gull
154 – Scops Owl
155 – EGYPTIAN VULTURE (lifer)
156 – Blue Rock Thrush
157 – Booted Eagle
158 – Hoopoe
159 – THEKLA’S LARK (lifer)
160 – Cattle Egret
161 – Purple Heron
162 – Purple Gallinule
163 – Little Stint
164 – Green Sandpiper
165 – Sardinian Warbler
166 – Red-crested Pochard
167 – Night Heron
168 -Woodchat Shrike
169 - Rock Dove
170 – Stonechat
171 - Whinchat

Numbers 149 - 170 were all recorded in Menorca and the Whinchat was added following a trip to Big Moor yesterday.

As you can see, the two "lifers" were  Egyptian Vulture and Thekla's Lark. The vultures were seen on several days, mainly in the western end of the island around a place called Algendar Gorge, but we did get one flying over the swimming pool in Son Bou. Here's a link for a bit of information about this bird. Thekla's Larks were seen briefly at an area called Punta Nati. Here's some more information about the Thekla Lark.I'll blog more about these two sites later.

I didn't manage to get any photos of either of the lifers, so here are a couple of photos of a Scops Owl that fed around our apartment every night and a Turtle Dove that also came and fed on some bread crumbs outside the apartment!

Scops Owl

Turtle Dove

Menorcan Birds

Our family holiday this year took us to Menorca. This was our first visit to the Mediterranean island and we were very pleased with the 30+ degrees temperatures, a couple of new birds "lifers" and some lovely beaches.

Our base for the holiday was in the south coast resort of Son Bou where we had daily sightings of Yellow-legged and Audouin's Gulls.

Yellow-legged Gull

 

Audouin's Gull

 

We spotted 4 different colour-ringed Audouin's Gulls, details of which have been sent off, so I'll post about them as soon as I have the information back. Also seen from the beach were Shags.

Just behind the beach at Son Bou there is a large marsh, which isn't the easiest place to access, but it is possible to walk along the sand dunes and look over the marsh in different places. We had several sightings of Little Egret (maximum 7 coming into roost one evening), Purple Heron (maximum of 3 in flight) and Purple Gallinule (1 in flight on two occasions) over the marsh, and one evening we saw and heard two birds in silhouette, which, when we listened to the calls on the IPod, sounded a lot like Night Heron.

Other birds heard in and around the marsh included Zitting Cisticola (heard every day), Reed, Cetti's and Sardinian Warbler, Hoopoe (4 together) and a pair of Bee-eaters that spent most days hunting in the dunes.

Bee-Eater

House Sparrows were very common around the accommodation, as were Spotted Flycatchers, Turtle Doves (seen daily around the resort, even feeding on the lawn, just 5 feet away from me) and a very confiding juvenile male Blue Rock Thrush, which fed every day on the lawn in front of our apartment!

Blue Rock Thrush

 



As well as the birdlife around Son Bou, we also hired a car for a few days and travelled around the island to a few other birding spots. Details of these other sites, the 2 "lifers" and an update on the year list next time!