Red Kite etc, 10/4/2010

At an undisclosed location in Sussex, a pair of Displaying Lapwings, and two pairs of Little Egrets seen on nests. At Southease station and along the river from there-Glynde, 4 Cetti's warbler, 3 Blackcap and loads of Chiffchaff singing. A Red Kite and a Buzzard flew over the house, the former a year tick, and my 129th sussex species of 2010.

Arundel WWT

Dad went to Arundel today to buy a new scope, happy news for me as I can now inherit his battered old one for seawatching this spring! (hardly perfect but a good scope would cost about £600 at the very least.) Seeing as he was going to the WWT reserve anyway, I decided to go along and see what was around. Wild birds were hard to come by, 2 Buzzards displaying over the wooded hill by the car park, 3 Snipe from one of the hides and a few Reed Bunting in the reedbed were among the best, while two singing Cetti's Warblers from in here were at long, long last a year tick, my first since 17 Feb(!!!) and taking my sussex year list up to 107. While many 'real birders' may not be too interested in visiting Arundel just for the wildfowl collections, I personally don't care if they have their wings clipped, it was still brilliant to see adult male Spectatcled Eider, Harlequin Duck, Scaly-sided Merganser, Red-breasted Goose, Nene Goose, Phillipine Duck and many others, while the seaduck enclosure gives brilliant views of the afromentioned Harlequins and Mergansers, along with a rare chance to see Common Scoter and Long-tailed Duck up close.