Saturday 15 August 2020

Ferring Rife, Kingston Gorse and Worthing

The beach at the end of Ferring Rife had a Dunlin, a Ringed Plover and 10 Turnstones first thing. Two Garden Warblers, a Lesser Whitethroat, five Willow Warblers, three Reed Warblers, five Whitethroats, a Reed Bunting, a Goldcrest, three Little Egrets, two Grey Herons and a Sparrowhawk were among the birds encountered on my way upstream.

I returned via Kingston Gorse, which added a Wheatear, a Willow Warbler, a Coal Tit and two Buzzards, plus boosted counts of 16 Turnstones and 19 Ringed Plovers on the beach.

Quite unexpectedly, this afternoon was my best ringing session in the garden yet. I opened the net in the hope that the Whitethroat I'd just seen - a garden tick - would fly into it. It did not, but four Willow Warblers went in, not tape-lured I might add, along with two Starlings (though one got out), two Magpies (one of these scrambled out before I could help it, too!) and four House Sparrows. Interestingly, three of the Willows were 2cy+. I can't recall any adults so far during Cissbury sessions.

I could easily have missed the Whitethroat but if the net was up already it would definitely have gone in. And if it wasn't for the net then being up, I don't think I'd have registered any of the afternoon's Willow Warblers, which were probably just skipping through the gardens. It just goes to show the potential for one net to reveal so much more of what goes through... Now that it's in a good position in the garden, who knows what might blunder into it while I've got it open when doing household chores, etc.