The joy of birding is that you never quite know what to expect next and yesterday the 'what's gonna be next' question was answered when an American Robin was found in Eastbourne although not reported until 3.45pm so we didn't have time to travel but I quickly agreed with the Jims that we'd go today in the hope that it would stay overnight. We arrived for first light to find around forty birders on site and somebody had already reported the bird having been present although nobody on site knew of the report but with the help of a thermal imager somebody had the bird or what they thought was the bird in a bush between the garages. It's fair to say the information coming our way was a bit mixed however within ten minutes the American Robin had slipped out of the bush in question and dropped to the floor before flying out of sight behind the garages. The bird remained hidden feeding on berries before flying to the fields behind the houses where it would be seen on and off for the next couple of hours to the relief of the guys arriving throughout.
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| American Robin |
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| The twitch |
It was great to meet lot's of old pals and some new ones and the locals were a delight too with their polite requests to move so they could come and go. There wasn't a cross word all morning from any quarter but I'm sure this will be tested should the bird linger a while and I guess the weekend will see higher numbers of visitors if it's still there.
We moved on and with info from Geoff K. we visited the golden arches at Polegate where the Hooded Crow gave us a bonus year tick. We then wasted a bit of time in Eastbourne before taking the short trip across to Iford where we managed to scope the Tundra Beans with the White-fronts in a distant field.
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| Hooded Crow |
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| Eastbourne beach |
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| Hooded Crow |
American Robin was right up there with my most wanted birds and it didn't disappoint.
Great bird, good crowd and friendly residents and all that less than two hours from home, what's not to like.
Year list now 156
Life list now 427
Well done and I am sure great excitement in the area. I also had a good day spotting my first Brambling in the garden, not just one, but 2 males and 2 females.
ReplyDeleteKeep safe and have a good day Diane