CROYDON RSPB MEMBERS' GROUP - TRIP REPORT

At 8am in Croydon, the weather was abysmal and no great improvement was forecast. The programmed walk along the beach at Climping held little appeal in the circumstances, so plans were changed and we made instead for the RSPB Reserve at Pulborough Brooks, where there would be hides to give some shelter from the elements. Arriving at Pulborough before opening time, we had to use the 'out of hours' gate to enter, but then had the reserve to ourselves for most of the morning. The rain had now become intermittent, but the weather was far from spring-like and even avian migration seemed confused - house martins and swallows were already active out over the Brooks but a small flock of fieldfares had still not departed. The highlight of the morning was a peregrine, sighted from Winpenny Hide - sitting out in the grass and facing us, so that only the pale upper breast and near-black head were visible, this bird gave a pied appearance and its identity was not immediately obvious. Several groups of deer were seen, one party of about a dozen at the Winpenny Hide being particularly close. Our group on the day lacked a mammals expert, but subsequent checks suggest that these were fallow deer, in winter coats still and so lacking the familiar pale spots.

After lunch, clouds were still shrouding the tops of the Downs and so rather than venture up there as intended, we headed west to the Sussex Wildlife Trust Reserve at Burton Mill Pond. On the pond itself there were nice views of a great crested grebe on a nest, but otherwise little was showing. The woodland section of the reserve was also rather quiet, but an adjoining pasture, recently manured and slurried, had attracted a small covey of red-legged partridges (two of them fighting furiously while we watched), as well as a few greenfinches, linnets and yellowhammers. When we walking on into Burton Park, a pair of kestrels caught our attention, squabbling with jackdaws around the branches of ancient chestnut trees, possibly disputing the property rights to nesting holes up among the huge boughs.

We moved on again in mid-afternoon, to Sutton Common, where considerable clearance work has taken place recently in an effort to restore heathland habitat. The disturbed ground had attracted at least a hundred chaffinches and we followed their mobile flock for a while, checking whether other species might be tagging along. We eventually found several goldfinches and a siskin and also managed half a dozen sightings of male brambling, although we could not be sure whether more than one of this latter species were present. There had been less disturbance towards the northern end of the Common, though the ground was sparsely vegetated in places near some stands of conifers. With a little patience, we were able to approach a pair of woodlarks here and watch them for several minutes as they fed on a small hummock, so close that we could clearly hear their low warbling contact calls. While making our way back to the cars, we saw another single woodlark in flight and then a further group of three, which landed and gave good scope views. Finally, as were enjoying a pre-departure snack, a kestrel swooped and flushed an unexpected snipe from wet ground nearby.