Cold weather has impacted insects and the only bird of note, whilst queuing for a panini from the local take-out, was a Sparrowhawk pursued eastwards by irate, squawky Starlings
Thursday was a write-off with pain levels too high for anything.
Friday's patch walk was pretty minimal with the cold wind keeping things down and, despite other sites seeing an influx of typical spring migrants, no evidence of change here. A couple of Med Gulls were drifting off to the north before Herring Gulls alerted to two soaring raptor one a Buzzard but the other, larger and longer winged, showed itself to be a fine 'patch tick' Osprey - not quite as good as an IOW eagle but very pleasing nonetheless. Downside was losing the Papilio rain guard on only it's second outing!!
A Naturetrek live broadcast after lunch from Ecuador showed some nice birds including Plate-billed Mountain Toucan, a nice reminder of 2003's visit.
Elsewhere, the unthinkable happened with Devon's Northern Mockingbird disappearing and rocking up at Pulborough of all places - what are the odds of it landing in the garden of a birder who knew what it was and who was able to get the news out. No sign of it on day 2 though. And the White-throated Sparrow also popped up in Sussex again.
