Hastings Country Park (TQ81K)
30th March 2008, SundaySOS outing Saturday 29th March 2008
Late March isn’t the best time for birds in the Country Park Local Nature Reserve, and some areas were too exposed to the strong southerly winds, so the group of 8 concentrated on the Quarry and sheltered gills where birds could be more easily located by sound and then watched in comfort.
Even without too many birds, there’s plenty to see at Hastings Country Park in terms of the extensive management work aimed at enriching the terrain for wildlife. We looked at areas which have been scraped to expose sand for invertebrates and reptiles, at enclosures formerly dominated by Bracken, now grazed by Highland Cattle, at rough grassland grazed by Exmoor ponies and at the huge strips of birdfood which have been so successful at sustaining winter populations of buntings (no sign of them, of course).
We related our activities to the wonderful world of the soon-to-kick-off BTO Breeding Atlas, using birds we found to illustrate the ascending Categories of Breeding Evidence and introducing the group to the potential pitfalls of BTO Species Codes.
A thin stream of MPs and LIs were just F, speeding northwards with the following wind, though the latter should be on T in the gorse by now.
CHs were probably the most widespread species on the ground, with Ss and Ps, though I suspected that quite a few of them were just Ms too.
GTs were equally conspicuous when we got into woodland, more so than BT, even showing A, though I suspect that was as much a response to my low-quality pishing as to any nest.
GCs were at S & P level among the ivy-cloaked trees, but a fast-moving FC – though typical of Warren Glen – was most likely M, as were several CCs and a BC, even though they were H and S. And of course the same goes for a handsome LB on the fields of Place Fm even though the HGs it accompanied were local Ps.
A luminously red Fox, sniffing around an adjacent field was definitely H but doesn’t count.
We discussed the meaning of a male K hanging overhead in the robust updraught. It was H for sure, but was that in this tetrad or another one nearby? This status was elevated to P when it landed in an old Ash (next to JDs – definitely P) where it was joined by a female. But there was no D, unlike a pair of GSs which chased noisily through the rumbling treetops of Fairlight Glen.
