Trip reports

Pulborough Brooks

Goldfinch on seed feeder

Sunday, 10 December 2006

The day dawned with a crisp frost and a bright clear blue sky. Wrapping up warm we were delighted to see a willow tit before we had left the car park.
The feeders in the courtyard were exetremely busy with dozens of tits coming and going with great, blue, cole and marsh tit enjoying the free seeds and nuts with a nuthatch, robin and dunnock. On route through the fields we spotted a continental blackbird as well as song thrush, redwing and mistle thrush. At the view point we were surprised to find a small group of Bewick swans. The levels were also home to large numbers of teal. lapwing, canada goose and wigeon interspersed with mallard, gadwall, shoveler and several beautiful pintail . Searching carefully also revealed a ruff, 2 cormorants and three well hidden snipe. As we progressed from hide to hide the light gradually deteriaorated as the wind rose and rain clouds began to gather. Before we returned to the centre for a late lunch we added kestrel, sparrowhawk and a buzzard to our list. We browsed in the shop before returning. Our total count for the day reached 53 species.