CROYDON RSPB MEMBERS' GROUP - TRIP REPORT

For much of the day, on our final weekend outing of the year (and possibly of the decade, century and millennium, too - although that could be in December 2000?) it looked as though the dismal weather was going to prove more memorable than the birding. There was an unusual reluctance to leave the vehicles at our first stop, Bewl Water, but when we did so we found that it was really quite mild outside, if more than a little damp and very windy. Sparrowhawk, stock dove and great spotted woodpecker were soon noted but small passerines, usually plentiful in the trees and bushes around the secluded car park, had no doubt taken cover from the elements and went unseen. Sussex Wildlife Trust's elevated hide gave us welcome shelter from which to scan over part of the vast Bewl Water Reservoir and we were able to identify wigeon, gadwall, tufted duck and pochard. A flock of fifty or so lapwings flew in to join a forlorn grey heron and a dozen cormorants braving the driving rain at the water's edge, while two little grebes were showing briefly on the surface between dives. A walk along the edge of the reservoir produced few more birds, but the extensive beds of scentless mayweed in bloom and a pristine clump of candlesnuff fungus attracted attention.

Although we drove on to Bedgebury Pinetum and ate our sandwiches amidst the Xmas tree sale in its carpark, there seemed little likelihood that our target hawfinches would show themselves in the prevailing rain and wind. We therefore decided to head homewards, passing Bough Beech Reservoir on the way in case the weather might have improved. And it had! From the causeway at BB, there was blue sky in the distance and conditions were quite amenable for scoping. Up to ten great crested grebes were in sight out on the water, together with a variety of ducks amongst which a drake goosander stood out. On towards the visitor centre, and nuthatch, marsh tit and two great-spotted woodpeckers joined numerous great and blue tits around a jumbo-size nut-feeder in the orchard. A stream of fieldfares was passing through, together with the odd redwing. A water rail feeding in the open by the bridge was a nice find, particularly as it allowed everyone the chance of a scope view. As the light began to fade, small flocks of finches began to assemble above the wood and at least one brambling, showing a yellow-orange breast above pale belly, was identified among chaffinches as they paused briefly in treetops before plummetting down into the rhododendron shrubbery to roost. Large numbers of gulls had gathered out over the reservoir, presumably to spend the night on the water. A noisy crowd of corvids (a mixture of rooks and jackdaws) also appeared, swooping down to land on the shore near the water's edge. Even in the gathering gloom, we could see that many of these began to drink soon after alighting, but whether this was the purpose of their visit we could not tell. A dark smudge of crows along the water's edge could still be made out when we finally left the scene, so perhaps they had decided to brave the risk of patrolling foxes - we had seen one pass by only minutes earlier - and spend the night on terra firma in preference to an uncomfortable roost in wind-swept tree tops.