Autumnal Birds.

 During the Autumn and early Winter I have had a few nice encounters with birds, both locally and on a few trips within the Sussex border.

Very close to home, we had 2 Black Redstart in our Close for a single day. This is not that unusual, as most years we do get these birds visiting and sometimes they stay around for several days.

Black Redstart.

A few days later Lisa and I headed to Warnham Nature Reserve near Horsham. It's quite a distance from Seaford, so it's not a reserve that I often get to, but it can be very good sometimes with woodland feeders and lakes, so there is a good diversity of species here. We did hit luck with one of the local Kingfishers that came quite close to the hide.

Kingfisher.

A Heron also posed well as it rested on a perch in the water.

Heron.

Two visits to Rye Harbour brought the regular over wintering Spotted Redshank, a bird that has always avoided me over the past couple of years. The first visit was with David, where we also got lucky with the Spoonbill. This bird is normally asleep, but for once it woke up and looked a bit more interesting.

 The 2nd visit with Lisa wasn't quite as good as the Spoonbill was asleep, and the Spotted Redshank only showed late on in the visit. However, we did see a Dartford Warbler. We also had better views of 2 Goosander.

Spotted Redshank.

Spoonbill.

Goosanders.

On the local downland I found the Stonechats that I photographed several times last Spring. Once again, the female was quite approachable. I daresay I will be heading back soon for another session with these birds.

Female Stonechat.

A visit to Arundel turned out to be a very wet session, even sitting in the hide was cold and miserable, although the Common Snipe helped cheer us up a little.

Common Snipe.

We also had a hopeful hunt for Jack Snipe locally, but only saw more Common Snipe. Although another Heron did show well.

Heron.

Great Grey Shrike.

 On the 12th November I was sitting at the computer wondering what to do with the day, when I had a text from Lisa asking if I would be willing to drive over to Shoreham as she was desperate for a power lead for her laptop. Her spare one was here in Seaford, and her Shoreham one had gone wrong. As she had a full day of teaching she couldn't get over. Well, as I had no plans, I decided I might as well head over there with the spare lead and to go for a walk along the River Adur to look for owls.

It was around 3 oclock when I parked up at Beeding and a slow walk along the river followed. At just before 3.30 I saw a black and white bird drop down into a reedbed some distance away. I thought it looked a little bit like a Great Grey Shrike, but with the distance it could also well have been something much more common.

I kept the binoculars focessed on the area as I waited and hoped it would fly again. When it did less than a minute later, it was very clear that it was indeed a Great Grey Shrike. It landed at the far end of a hedgerow, but quickly flew again to the other end of that hedgerow which was right where I was standing. I didn't have time to change the camera settings, as it was now straight up with sky behind it, so it was just a silhoette. After 5 very quick shots the bird flew again to a fencepost some distance away. I tried getting closer, but it soon flew over the river, where I only had more distant views of the bird on the top of bushes. My last sighting of it was 15 minutes after I had first seen the bird, and it very quickly went into hiding as a Barn Owl flew over it.

I contacted Matt up in Scotland, and he quickly got the news out, but by now it was getting dark, so no-one else was going to get there in time. Fortunately though, the bird did hang around for another 6 or 7 days, albeit generally very distant.

It was very much a case of being in the right place at the right time!!

Great Grey Shrike. Photoshop certainly helped to rescue an awful photo!!

Great Grey Shrike.

Barn Owl. Even the Shrike hid from this!!

Fungus Foray.

 Shortly after returning from our Scotland trip I decided on a walk in Friston Forest. I started off hoping for some good views of Goldcrest, as there seemed to have been a bit of an influx of them recently. However, it wasn't long before I came across a lovely display of Porcelain Fungus. This is a species I have seen a few times, but they have always been high up in the trees, so I hadn't managed to get any decent photos of them before. They are a delightful looking fungus, being pure white with well defined gills underneath.

Porcelain Fungus.

This was quite near the start of my long walk through the forest and onto Lullington Heath. Just before I got to the heath I found a beautiful fungus which I believe is Yellowing Curtain Crust.

Yellowing Curtain Crust.

Once on Lullington Heath I stumbled upon a small group of Blackening Waxcap. The one photographed was very fresh. As they age they apparently turn black.

Blackening Waxcap complete with fly.

Blackening Waxcap.

A little further on a Fibrous Waxcap caught my eye. 

Fibrous Waxcap.

Finally, another group of Waxcaps partly hidden in the grasses gave a lovely bit of colour. These were Scarlet Waxcaps.

Scarlet Waxcap.

It's not often I have a walk dominated by funguses, but it turned out to be an unexpectedly enjoyable walk. I even went back to see the Porcelain Fungus again on the return to the carpark.