In beginning this blog I had every intention of writing regular updates of the birds I was going to be enjoying around the grounds of Ashburnham Place. Yes, I had just stared a new, full-time job, and yes, our daughter had just been born - almost two years to the day after her brother - but still, I was going to carve out time on a regular basis to write up my avian findings, and in a way that was going to be winsome and interesting. To my credit, I started strongly(ish), but it soon became apparent that enthusiasm alone was not going to be enough to ensure I kept up with my writing. Plus, I wasn’t really able to get out and enjoy the birds of Ashburnham nearly as much as I thought I might.
And so here we are, or at least - not wanting to be presumptuous - here I am. It has been months since my last post, and one might assume that I have nothing of note to share. But the truth is, both the Spring and the Autumn at Ashburnham have afforded me with some decent birding, and I have had some seriously good fortune further afield too, across the wider East Sussex area. Not wanting to deny the rare reader of this blog - and what a gem you are - the opportunity to celebrate with me those avian specimens from beyond the local vicinity, this blog will hence forth be known as ‘Birds of Ashburnham and beyond:’ how very original. Furthermore, in my quest to update the blog title, I also learnt a little more about how to add additional pages and content, and so there is now a page listing all of the species so far personally recorded by yours truly. Lastly, whilst I enjoy a convoluted sentence and the challenge of attempting to write in a charming and descriptive fashion, if I’m going to have any chance of posting semi-regular updates I had best lose the verbosity. Consider the last two paragraphs above my final homage to extended prose.
Without further ado here is my brief and to-the-point update from the best part of the last year:
With high pressure and un-seasonally warm conditions throughout Lockdown 1.0, many of the migrant species I had hoped to track down during my first Spring at Ash, simply didn’t appear. Presumably the unusual conditions meant that many birds passed unnoticed up above. With that said, a particularly hot day in the middle of May brought with it a male Marsh Harrier, seen high up above Broadwater in the late afternoon. Earlier on in the day, I had the extreme fortune of connecting with an extremely rare bird which drifted languidly over Hastings Country Park. My first ever sighting of a Black Kite on British soil, temporarily put me in the East Sussex birding hall of fame, for all of an afternoon. Presumably I connected with the same bird that was spotted the day before as it flew over Beachy Head, further West down the coast.
Black Kite - Hastings Country Park Marsh Harrier - Ashburnham Place
With summer well and truly established, at Ash we began our bird ringing project. Led by the steady hands of David Campbell, we enjoyed a wonderful first session, and were overjoyed to be able to ring a Marsh Tit, several Siskin, a Willow Warbler (the first one I had seen on site this year), as well as the usual spattering of Tits and Goldfinch. But it wasn’t just the birds around the feeding station that caught our attention; two Spotted Flycatchers, heard initially and then seen atop one of the trees close to Target Lodge, proved to be an unexpected surprise. Furthermore, the highlight of the day was tracking down a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, which gave itself away with its piping call as it foraged high up in the canopy close to the sewage area. It was extremely encouraging to add this increasingly rare species to the Ashburnham tally, and I shall have to make some time early next Spring, when these birds are at their most conspicuous, to look for any clues of breeding activity.
G.S. Woodpecker (Juv) Willow Warbler Marsh Tit
A very productive first ringing session at Ashburnham Place.
As summer slowly merged into Autumn, my hopes of locating some of the species I’d missed in the Spring were slowly realised. During the first week of September, a Wheatear courteously dropped in, right in front of my office, atop one of the Birch Trees that fringe Target field. Additionally, three Yellow Wagtails were seen in the same field a few days later. A walk around Broad Water on the morning of the 2nd September, with my friend and local birding legend Cliff Dean, proved to be one of the most fruitful birding sessions of my time at Ash so far. Not only where we graced with two Spotted Flycatchers, seen flitting between trees at the bottom of Ladyspring Meadow, but I was lucky enough to spot both my first Whitethroat, and Common Redstart for the site; the latter species recorded as it skulked in the vegetation lining the front terraces.
The highlight of the Autumn at Ashburnham had to be my discovery of a Yellow-browed Warbler. This has been a bird that has, over the years, continued to elude me despite my numerous attempts to track one down. I still find it remarkable that a bird that spends the breeding season as far east as China and Japan, should turn up in the UK in Autumn. Whilst sightings of this diminutive species have increased over the years, particularly around southern and easterly locations during migration, estimates put the number of birds passing through the UK at no more then a few thousand each year. Given their scarcity, you can well imagine the jolt of excitement I felt when I came across my own bird, flitting amongst the trees in true sprite like fashion, down near the Lower Slip. A period of inclement weather throughout the latter half of October, and a strong Easterly wind, likely pushed this bird further in-land and on the afternoon of the 23rd October, I was able to add this elusive species to my Ashburnham list.
Other highlights toward the end of Autumn and into Winter included, a Great Egret, which courteously popped in for a skulk around the edge of Broad Water, on the 21st November. Two Yellowhammers were seen briefly darting over the back track, adding a splash of colour to an otherwise dreary and drab January afternoon. The deluge of rainfall throughout January meant that a number of the fields surrounding the river Ash Bourne were heavily flooded. Whilst this made for slightly wetter birding, it did enable me to add two wader species to my Ashburnham tally: a small flurry of Snipe spotted on the 16th January, and then, following Storm Darcy, a flock of around 30 Lapwing seen on the 12th February.
With Spring now just around the corner, and with my growing penchant for punchier prose, here’s to more regular birding updates ahead.