18th January 2019 - Heading East again!

An early start today had me arriving in Burwash at 07:00 to meet up with Max. Upon arrival at Max's signs were good with the first bird of the day being a Mistle Thrush in Max's garden. We got our gear ready and headed straight to Penhurst Lane in Netherfield (only 5 minutes from Max's) where the previous day there had been 14 Hawfinches. We arrived at Penhurst Lane around 07:30 and had around a 20 minute wait before any birds showed. In the waiting period there was plenty to keep us occupied with several Great and Blue Tits as well as singles of Nuthatch, Goldcrest, Coal Tit and Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Sunrise at Penhurst Lane, Netherfield, East Sussex.

Bang on cue at 07:50 we saw our first Hawfinch of the morning this being a single bird flying over and then another two and then another singleton. After we then had a flock of six perch up on the trees very briefly before seemingly being spooked by a Kestrel. We watched the birds until around 08:10 after which we didn't see anymore. Also whilst watching the Hawfinches, we also had five Common Crossbill fly over and a single Common Buzzard.

Hawfinch at Penhurst Lane, Netherfield, East Sussex.

After an exciting start to the day we headed to Pett Level where we added 4 White-fronted Geese, 2 Great White Egrets, 2 Marsh Harriers, 2 Black-tailed Godwit and a single Ruff as well as lots of Lapwing and Curlew and a handful of Turnstone and Skylark.

White-fronted Geese at Pett Level, East Sussex.

2 Great White Egrets at Pett Level, East Sussex.

On Pett Pools, there was a nice selection of wildfowl these included Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Pochard, Shoveler, Shelduck, Mallard and Little Grebe also a lone Grey Heron was hiding away in the reed beds. A quick look out to sea was productive with 16 Common Scoter, 200+ Great Crested Grebes, 3 Red-throated Divers and a trickle of Auks and Gannets flying past and surprisingly 3 Avocet which flew east.

After an enjoyable hour or so at Pett Level we headed to Rye Harbour. Upon arrival in the town of Rye we were greeted with a Peregrine flying over the car. Once we got to the harbour we had fantastic views of a female Kingfisher only a few metres away.

Female Kingfisher at Rye Harbour, East Sussex.

After great views of the Kingfisher, the main objective was to try and see the Twite however despite a 3 hour search around the John Gooders Hide we could not locate them. Although out on the flat beach there were lots of Dunlin and several Grey and Ringed Plovers as well as Gadwall and Pintail.

Max scanning the Flat Beach at Rye Harbour, East Sussex

Cutting our losses with the Twite we decided to head for the Long Pool in search of the Black-necked Grebe, on route we found 2 female Goldeneye on the Farm Pool West. As we arrived at the Long Pool we couldn't locate the Black-necked Grebe and decided to walk to the far end where we would be able to see down the entire pool, this proved successful and within about 5 minutes we had found the bird. A walk back to the car park from the Long Pool was quiet and didn't produce much apart from a few Linnets and a single Rock Pipit. 

Black-necked Grebe, Long Pool, Rye Harbour, East Sussex.

The time was now around 14:00 and we headed down to Scotney Gravel Pits, this proved disappointing as we failed to locate the Whooper Swans or the Pink-footed Geese. However we had some compensation with a single Great White Egret being seen in flight out the back of the farm and also 2 Marsh Harriers as well as a nice flock of Golden Plover. Other birds seen included the feral flock of Barnacle Geese and 2 Egyptian Geese.

Sunset at Scotney Gravel Pits

A great day out with Max albeit extremely tiring and 83 species recorded all together!