Around Pett
20th December 2009, Sunday
The cold weather has driven masses of Redwings into the village where, urgently plundering Holly berries, they resemble an RSPB Christmas card, or a page from the wonderful Ladybird “What To Look For In Winter”. Lapwings too have moved away from the marsh, perhaps to profit from the thaw on southfacing slopes. Just south of Pett church, at least 30 were on a field where I’ve never previously seen them, accompanied by 2 Golden Plovers.
Lapwings which had ventured further inland were returning at dusk down the river valleys below the routine waves of Common Gulls which have spent their day up in the Weald. Crossing this stream, local Jackdaws were heading off for their traditional roost at Udimore, heading into undulating lines of Fieldfares arriving from the orchards for a night among the reeds, currently patrolled by an agile Sparrowhawk. Oddly, no Redwings were with the Fieldfares, suggesting that they stay in the hedges.
In the dusk, hoarse calls emerge from the darkness: agonized Water Rails, rasping Snipe breaking up from frozen rushes and a throaty Fox barking from the old cliff-line. Teal and Green Sandpiper rise up from the canal, visible only briefly against the reflective water.
