Right now one Yellow Wagtail landed for 5 seconds in car park in Shoreham and then flew off 😉

Could this be a young female Ring Ouzel? Advice welcomed please.

The Ring Ouzels again provided most of the interest (and exercise) on Black Down today. I thought I’d got a pretty clear idea of how many there were fairly early on with 7 birds at the north end, and apparently, none to the south. But as happened yesterday, I found more on my walk back north with a flock of 11 half-way up the west side. I checked the Boarden Door Bottom valley again, and couldn’t relocate the original birds, so it seems likely that they were included in the eleven...or possibly not! Other notables included 70+ Redwings, 1-2 Fieldfares and one or two Lesser Redpolls heard calling overhead.

More pic's at https://sussexrambler.blogspot.com/

This morning I walked the scarp slope of Truleigh Hill and, from about TQ229112 saw six Ring Ouzel, mostly hidden inside hawthorn bushes, sometimes moving from bush to bush, mostly quiet.

At Shooters' Bottom just after first light and there were at least 5-6 Ring Ouzels still calling and flying around - one of which put in an excellent show. Unfortunately it was difficult to be certain of numbers in the showery and very windy conditions. On to the Old Trapping area where another one (possibly two) were seen briefly and then finished with a quick walk down Hope Gap in equally unpropitious conditions which produced a very brief view of yet another Ring Ouzel. (Phil Whitfield & Bob Self).

At least a dozen late House Martins were flying over the reserve yesterday. Also had a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in a mixed tit flock at the straight boardwalk. On the heath a mixed flock of 20+ Linnets and Meadow Pipits were seen as well as 2 Snipe on the wet flushes.

This morning, before nearly 2 hours of heavy rain, there were many Ring Ouzels very evident around the whole length of Shooter's Bottom, the most satisfactory count I managed was of a minimum of 14 individuals, at times there were 5 or 6 sat out on the tops of bushes, with others flying around and much of that lovely hollow sounding, flinty chacking. Later at the Old Trapping Area (Z bends) 8 more Ouzels flew out towards Shooters'. I came across another single elsewhere on the headland, so comfortably more than 20 present. Later morning after the rain eased and finally stopped I returned to Shooters', there were still Ouzels present but they were much more elusive. A quick look around Horseshoe Plantation around lunchtime found many Chiffchaffs & Goldcrests inside the wood, also a single Firecrest was flitting amongst the other crests.

A walk today from Arundel to Amberley over The Burgh produced endless raptor sightings, Red Kites appearing to think I was lunch. The closest encounter of all was a juvenile Hobby that sat perched on a branch no more than 10 yards away. It was completely unconcerned at my presence and after several minutes of obsevation (of each other) it was I that had to surrender and move on. In addition were 1 Treecreeper, 1 Cetti's Warbler, 1 male Blackcap, several Chiffchaffs, 4 Stonechat, several large Linnet flocks, 1 Peregrine, male and female Sparrowhawk and large movements of Swallows including two waves of House Martins.

I must admit that I was sceptical about the wisdom of swapping a week of peak ouzel time on Black Down for seven days-worth of strimming and painting in France - although that did have different ornithological compensations. So having returned home and sat out the rain yesterday, I was actually quite happy to be standing in the fog on Black Down this morning! The visibility came and went for the first hour or so, but the north end held between 1 and 3 Ring Ouzels, small numbers of Meadow Pipits and the first of 7+ Blackbirds, 3+ Song Thrushes, 3 Dartford Warblers, 8+ Stonechats and 70+ Redwings. I headed down to the south end, hoping for more ouzels there but drew a blank. However on the way back north, there was a flock of seven ouzels and a lone Mistle Thrush half-way down the west side, so a cautious estimate of 8-10 Ring Ouzels in total today. I heard the first of two Woodlarks here too, and then bumped into the Chichester RSPB Group on the reservoir track on the west side of the Boarden Door Bottom valley. The second Woodlark was here, as were flyover Siskins, at least 7 Skylarks over (a good total for here) and both a Kestrel and a Buzzard drip-drying after the Monday’s deluge. The south-westerly Chaffinch passage was more obvious in the clearer conditions, and probably involved low hundreds of birds. The sun was breaking through properly now, so I made for a vantage point on the west side, catching up with the second group of ouzels again and seeing at least 7 more Buzzards and a Red Kite. At almost one o’clock on the dot, a first-winter female Goshawk rose up above the woods at the south end and circled around for a few minutes, before inconveniently disappearing just as folks were between the ouzels and me. There were also at least 12+ Bullfinches, and one or two summer migrants still hanging on in the form of 2+ Chiffchaffs and 4 House Martins, as well as small numbers of Red Admirals and Peacocks.