WILDLIFE HIGHLIGHTS – 2000 WEEK 52 DEC 25 – 31 BIRDS: SUN 31 DEC It sounds as if Jason Crook was caught out in the appalling wind and rain that set in this afternoon and looks set to spoil many a birder’s New Year outing tomorrow – nevertheless Jason reports that he had a good but brief view of an adult or third winter Ring Billed Gull from the steps leading onto Budds Mound above the sewage outfall – possibly, though he does not suggest it, the same bird that was often seen from Broadmarsh slipway in I think two winters ending in March 1999. From the mound Jason saw the hybrid Ferruginous duck still on Budds Farm pools and a new comer – a first winter male Scaup – and out on the harbour the female Eider. At Farlington Marshes he saw a first winter Kittiwake (is this what Ian Thirlwell saw the other day?) and tells us that three (not four) Avocet have recently been seen on the lake. Among the usual good selection of info on the SOS website I see this evening that the first 16 Fulmar have arrived back at their nesting cliffs between Ovingdean and Saltdean immediately east of Brighton and that a Crane flew north east over Hastings – both reports from Dec 30. Weather driven arrivals in Sussex yesterday included up to seven Whooper Swans in the River Cuckmere valley (just west of Beachy Head) and two Bewick’s plus a Glaucous Gull at Rye where there are now 4 Bitterns and where four redhead Smew and 30+ Whitefront Geese were seen on Dec 29 (the single Waxwing is still in the Winchelsea area and a Green Winged Teal has been seen at the Pevensey Levels). Of more interest to those over the Hampshire border is news of three Twite in Pagham Harbour (seen on saltings between Church Norton and Sidlesham – but the report only says they were ‘possible’ Twite). Seawatchers at Selsey saw two Little Auks and an Arctic Skua fly west this morning, and at the mouth of Shoreham harbours a flock of 14 Pale Bellied Brent turned up. This morning I joined the party led by Cath Cooper for a short walk from Havant to Langstone and Warblington which found few birds on the Langstone shore which was exposed to a fresh, cold south east wind. A Nuthatch flew from one of the Southbrook Road gardens into Wade Court (where Cath Cooper had seen two of them yesterday, one Grey Wagtail gave close views as it worked the weeds of the Lymbourne stream and one Egret flew from from the stream at our approach but we did not see the Kingfisher at Langstone Mill nor the lone juvenile Brent on the Wade Court meadow. A very unexpected sight, seen from the Royal Oak through a telescope, was of a male Shoveler swimming on the choppy water of Sweare Deep close to two female Goldeneye. Well over 500 Brent flew from the shore fields at Warblington onto the shore and then back, standing their ground as we walked the path from the shore to the cemetery as if to prevent our right of way (some, but not all, of them did eventually give way). A couple of Fieldfare in the Castle grounds were the only unexpected birds of the day, but as we walked back down Pook Lane to return to Langstone I had my first sight this winter of the big flock of Lapwing (50+, maybe 100) on the Wade Court Farm field. Although I have seen no ice on Langstone Pond, nor Bedhampton Mill Pool, in the recent cold spell I guess many inland ponds are hard frozen forcing wildfowl to move to the coast, and today Trevor Carpenter tells me that a few Coot have appeared on Fareham Creek but the main interest of his message is that the Great Northern Diver can still be seen there. In a lighter vein he also tells me that he has this week seen up to seven Long Tailed Tits on his garden nut feeder all at the same time – can anyone beat this? SAT 30 DEC Paul Winter was at the Lower Test reserve today and heard the drumming of a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker as well as seeing one (are there still thought to be two?) Firecrest. Other birds on his list were 4 Water Pipits, 3 Stonechat, a Buzzard and 10 Song Thrushes, 6 Redwing and one or more Fieldfare. Fieldfare and Redwing are still visiting Gwynne Johnson’s Meon Valley garden at Soberton and a female Blackcap is in residence there, greatly enjoying the apple halves impaled on the cut stems of shrubs where they can be consumed with safety (no Squirrels to steal them in this garden). Large flocks of Brent use the Portsmouth University playing fields at Milton (south east corner of Langstone Harbour) to feed, and today Ian Thirlwell had a good view from his bedroom window of a single Pale Bellied Brent among them. Sheila Burton today came up the Hayling Billy track along the Hayling west shore and saw the large and impressive flock of Shelduck at the Oysterbeds, then found a separate group of seven Shelduck near the bridges (not sure if they were in the northern pools or in ‘Texaco Bay’) among which was, in her words, >> something very reddish << and she asks if it was a Ruddy Shelduck. Not much of a description to go on, but if it was similar in size and shape to the Shelduck I guess there is a good chance that it was one. Also in the Stoke Common area were at least six Redwing, and further down the track she found the ‘Aston Villa’ shore field dead tree, which Little Owls and Egrets have used as a perch, has blown down. FRI 29 DEC Walking past Wade Court at Langstone this morning on my way to the Hayling Oysterbeds I noticed some 25 Moorhen in the ‘wet meadow’ south of Wade Court but as I watched a scuffle broke out in mid-field as a Crow atttacked one of the Moorhens which was knocked over onto its back. Three other Crows flew in to join the attack (or get in the queue for hot Moorhen flesh) but as they did so the victim struggled to its feet and flew off, dashing for cover hard on the heels of a group of 15 Moorhens which had seen the attack and bolted into the brambles. Brian Fellows was quite impressed with the sight of 20 or more Moorhens in this field when he walked past it recently, but I have memories of up to 40 Moorhens feeding in the field not many years back (two sides of the field are closely bordered by Langstone Pond and the Lynbourne Stream which feeds it, and the original course of the stream was across this meadow until the flow was diverted into a straight channel to work the mill wheel and into Langstone Pond which acted as a header tank for the mill, so there is a lot of good Moorhen habitat around the field). Maybe the decline in the number of Moorhens which show themselves in the field is related to an increase in attacks by Crows and possibly be Grey Herons. I was interested to see the single juvenile Brent was still in the meadow, feeding strongly on the grass. ......Turning my eyes from the meadow to the shore off Langstone Pond I found a good selection of waders present as the tide began to rise, and prominent near the Dunlin linging the water’s edge were around 200 Knot. 70 or so Teal were in the shallow water with 18 Shelduck with 200+ Brent off Warblington, and both Grey Plover and Redshank were well represented but I could only find 10 Black Tailed Godwit (no Barwits or Oystercatcher) and a similar number of visible Lapwing. 12 Merganser and 6 Goldeneye were out on the water and a few Herons, Egrets and Oystercatcher were on the Northney saltings – another 15 Shelduck were on the Northney shore. ......Reaching Hayling I found a couple of Redwing working the meadow immediately east of the Texaco garage in the company of Blackbirds, a couple of Mistle Thrushes and two Song Thrushes, while what was probably a lone Fieldfare was perched on a distant tree showing a grey rump and having a characteristic ‘looping’ flight as it headed off out of sight (later I found two more Song Thrushes around the edge of the Oysterbeds so I assume a mixed bag of Thrushes had fled here from hard weather elsewhere) ......Reaching Stoke Bay south of the Oysterbeds I found two Rock Pipits on the shore – their plump stature, very dark plumage above and below, and their calls left no doubt of their identity but a good close look at one gave me a bit of a surprise when I saw its legs were distinctly pinkish rather than black but I see that the books do say that the legs are a reddish-brown, not black when seen in the hand. The best sight of the day came at the Oysterbeds where the main pool held a flock of 146 Shelduck, and with two in Stoke Bay and another seven in the ‘finger pools’ of the Oysterbeds a total of over 150 was very good news (but was the Little Binness area south of Farlington Marshes, where the main winter flock can usually be seen, deserted?). Heading home I was pleased to see 22 Wigeon off the mouth of the Langbrook stream after finding only four there on my last visit.