Brief Reports on Some Recent Field Trips
Six of us went to Birling Gap on a warm and sunny October day. We spent some time watching 3 black redstarts in a garden to the west of Birling Gap and also some clouded yellow butterflies on the bank. After lunch near the cliff edge we went to Horseshoe Plantation where there were a number of goldcrests (and a possible firecrest) then on to Belle Tout lighthouse where another black redstart showed well. We also had a close view of a Greenland wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe leucorrhoa) – a subspecies of the wheatear showing well in the sunshine. These northern sub-species are slightly bigger than the usual type; have a richer colouring; wings are just over a centimetre longer and a more upright stance. They make an amazing 30 hour, 2,400km non-stop migration from Greenland to western Europe on their way to Africa.

The highlight of the day for many of the nine members who came to Dungeness on 26th November was the kingfisher. Although not a rare bird, the view we had of it perched with the low afternoon sun on its back showing its iridescence was spectacular. The eight Bewick swans, the 2 female goldeneye and the drake smew and 4 redheads (female smew) were the first of the winter for most of us and as usual there were good views of marsh harrier.
Small birds were few and far between but a male reed bunting foraged in the grass by the path ahead of us and we saw a pair of stonechat.
Ducks were there in good numbers – including wigeon, teal, gadwall, shoveler, and geese included a large flock of greylag as well as a snow goose and 2 barnacle geese.  Lapwings were in abundance and there were good numbers of snipe and just one ruff. At least one of our party had close views of a water rail. Another good day.

The 13 members who visited Bedgebury in early January had an early but brief view of a hawfinch but later were delighted with the three hawfinches who sat for a long time at the top of a tree so that everyone had good views – for some a first . A siskin was among the 15 other species seen and the day ended with a flock of bramblings in a nearby oak.

Our visit to Elmley took place on the warmest imaginable February day and 7 of us enjoyed the birds in excellent light. Over 40 species were identified and included large flocks of golden plover, wigeon, pintail and shoveler and good views of marsh harrier. There were fewer small birds but they include skylark, meadow pipit, reedbunting and the ubiquitous stonechat, but two lucky members closely followed a short-eared owl as they drove out.

Easter Monday started bright and eleven of us set off near the Cuckmere River. We soon dwindled to eight and, after lunch to five. Those five enjoyed watching a hailstorm moving over the Seven Sisters as we walked back from Seaford Head and when the storm passed the grass was white too. Although we also got caught in the storm it did not spoil a day when 41 species were seen or heard. Some lucky people spotted the Scandinavian rock pipit early on and later we had close views of 2 rock pipits and at one stage we watched a kestrel perched on a fence post with a rock pipit perched a few posts away on one side and a meadow pipit on the other.
Walking on the cliffs towards Seaford Head we saw wheatear and stonechat with fulmars and kittiwakes flying around. Back down by the river the path was exceptionally muddy and the birds included redshank, oystercatcher, a few little egrets, one heron and a good number of wigeon. There was little on the sea other than a great crested grebe and some cormorants flying over and as we sat inside the tearoom at the end of the day (it was too cold for the garden) we felt we deserved our tea.

 

The six members who visited Pulborough Brooks on a warm day but with some heavy showers were delighted with the singing of the nightingales. Several were singing, some persistently, and one from the front of a tree where all the group had good views. Among the 50 species seen or heard another highlight was a peregrine sitting perched in a nearby tree and some saw a hobby. All four species of hirundine were seen and whitethroat were seen and heard. There were few waders but they included 2 distant greenshank and a bar-tailed godwit.

The seven of us who visited Stodmarsh on a sunny but breezy day were treated with good views of many marsh harriers, several of which were well-marked males, and hobbies including one perched in a tree near a hide. Swifts were abundant as were sand martins at the Grove Ferry end, but only one swallow and a few house martins were spotted. Garden warblers were heard, and one briefly seen, reed and sedge warblers and reed bunting were heard and occasionally spotted and among others seen by everyone was a perched yellow wagtail.
Waders were few as water levels at the various pools were low but a common sandpiper flew past us in front of a hide and a greenshank and a couple of ringed plovers were spotted. In all we saw or heard 58 species with a notable exception being cuckoo.
 

It was a pleasant day for our visit to the Old Lodge Reserve in Ashdown Forest when seven of us saw or heard a total of 36 species. It was a day when numbers were of lesser importance – it was the quality of the sightings which counted. Early on we all had good views of a male redstart preening on the overhead wires. Later we had prolonged views of a singing woodlark and a cuckoo, both also on the wires; a hobby flew overhead while we lunched; many more redstart were seen and a Dartford warbler was seen by a few of the group. Later a family of treecreepers were seen close by and we watched tree pipit singing from the top of a tree and taking its parachuting flight. A redpoll rounded off the day.
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Mallydams RSPCA Wildlife Hopsital
We visited Mallydams last year and I thought you might be interested in some recent news.
Large numbers of oiled birds are treated there, for example in February about 150 birds were treated – the majority being guillemots and razorbills but also including a gannet, 4 great crested grebe and some mute swans from Littlehampton. It is always good to have proof that birds survive well after treatment, and a young herring gull rescued from a roof in Maidstone, treated and ringed at Mallydams more than 3 years ago and recently found dead in Lithuania is a good example. Other gulls may venture no further than the Pebsham tip!  Illegally trapped finches are often rehabilitated and then released and one of these was trapped in the Pannel Valley 6 weeks later again providing useful proof of its survival.
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The High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)
We are lucky to live in the south east corner of the High Weald AONB, one of 50 AONBs in England, Wales and N Ireland, and at 570sq miles (1,457 sq kms) the fourth largest of these. Before about 1400, farmers from the North and South Downs and the coastal plain drove their pigs into the weald to feed on acorns. This method of feeding is known as pannage and is responsible for many of the sunken lanes. The areas where the pigs fed were known as dens and eventually became settlements, hence the large number of place names ending in den. Tenterden, for emample, was the den of the men of Thanet. By the beginning of the 15th century pannage had ceased and the present landscape of woods, heathy commons and small irregularly shaped fields was effectively in place.

A quarter of the High Weald is still wooded and three quarters of this wooded area is classified as Ancient Woodland ie wooded continuously since 1600. Nationally only about one fifth of woodland is classified as ancient, so our woods are a particularly important resource for all forms of flora and fauna.

Much heathland has disappeared but the High Weald is still an important stronghold, with Ashdown Forest being the largest and best-preserved area of heathland in the South East.

Although nationally 95% of wildflower meadows have been lost to intensive agriculture, the clay soil and steep slopes of much of the High Weald mean that there are still many ancient, undisturbed wildflower-rich hay meadows and pastures. These are vitally important habitats for wildlife conservation, supporting up to 100 kinds of grasses and wildflowers – which in turn support a wide variety of insects and birds.
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Whale watching in the Bay of Biscay
Three group members took a whale and bird watching holiday on the Portsmouth/Bilbao ferry early last September. We were blessed with sunshine and calm seas for the whole time which made seeing the cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) breaking the surface much easier than if there had been a lot of white horses. We were only unlucky in that easterly winds meant that numbers of seabirds were low, but there were many compensations.

We effectively had 2 full days and a half day at sea and a 4 hour walk in Spain and, while on the boat, we had exclusive access to the area above the Captain’s bridge which gave us 360 degree views unlike the majority of birdwatchers on deck 11.

Sightings from the boat included 469 cetaceans although I can’t personally claim to have seen them all! These included 13 fin whales, 4 Cuvier’s beaked whales, 3 long-finned pilot whales and 2 sperm whales, one of which went into a spectacular dive right in front of us. The 234 common dolphins included 3 calves and we also saw striped and bottle-nosed dolphins as well as harbour porpoise.

Many gannets came close to us and quite a few great skua were sighted. Sabine’s gulls were a first for me but a highlight of the outward journey were the migrating avian passengers which included garden warbler, redstart and Savi’s warbler (another first). From our vantage point we looked down on these birds on the bow.

The hillside near Bilbao was very productive and included good views of red-backed shrike and more distant views of hoopoe and melodious warbler. Butterflies included spectacular Cleopatras and a swallowtail.

A truly worthwhile trip.
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Skylarks
Everyone is familiar with the song of the skylark but, in the UK at least, few are familiar with its taste! For hundreds of years however it had been a delicacy and, in Victorian times, hundreds of thousands of larks a year were traded at London’s Leadenhall Market. Birds were also trapped on the Downs near Brighton which was a major centre for export to Paris. Trapping mainly took place in the winter months when the birds were heavier (about 2 oz) and they were regarded as a great delicacy. This trade had no apparent effect on the abundance of skylarks but recent decades have seen a rapid decline.

The reason for the decline is primarily the switch from spring-sown to autumn- sown cereals. Between 1968 and 1996 the area of spring-sown cereals grown in the UK dropped from 73% to just 16% of the UK’s total cereal area and during this time there was a decline of about 75% in the skylark population from about four million to one million birds and, because of the rapid decline, the skylark is now on the red list of birds of conservation concern.

The effect of the change in farming method was that the cereal crop was too high when skylarks began to nest so they were forced to nest on the perimeter of fields where they suffered higher rates of predation.  Some farmers have now taken the advice of the RSPB and left unsown squares of a few metres in the middle of the fields when sowing thus providing a safe nesting habitat and, although skylark numbers are still declining, the rate of decline has slowed.

This winter a shorelark among the skylarks at Rye Harbour aroused considerable interest.
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Garden Birdwatching
The number of people taking part in the RSPB’s annual Big Garden Birdwatch has increased from about 50,000 in 2001 to 500,000 last January. This only involves counting the birds in your garden for one hour on one day a year.

There is, however, a longer term survey run by the BTO, which entails counting birds at various times during every week of the year (most of my counting is done while washing up), and results from this survey give invaluable information on trends.  For example the increasing use made of gardens by goldfinches and long-tailed tits, and the decline of house sparrows and starlings.

The size of your garden does not matter, neither do you need actively to feed the birds. If you only have a small patch of lawn and a few plants some birds will visit, and ALL regular information is useful. Ten minutes watching every week for a year is actually MORE useful than an hour once a year.

The survey is self funding, and participants are asked to pay £12 a year. Initially you will provide information on the size and location of your garden, and then you will either send in information quarterly on a paper form, or weekly over the internet. You will receive a quarterly newsletter and you will be contributing greatly to the conservation of garden birds.

Do consider taking part in this survey. Take a form at meetings or speak to me about it. I think you will find it a fascinating exercise.
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Local Wildlife Websites There's an excellent website called Wild Rye, with lots of information about Rye Harbour Nature Reserve and the Rye Bay area.  Check it out at www.wildrye.info.

You should also visit www.wildhastings.org.uk for an insight into the remarkable wildlife that can be found in the coast and countryside of Hastings and St Leonards, and another website giving all the latest wildlife news & events from Hastings, Rye Bay, Dungeness & Romney Marsh is rxwildlife.org.uk , especially good for recent sightings.
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