Dave, Roger, Ken and I set off
at 05:30 to the Ashdown Forest in East Sussex hoping to see a Short-toed Snake
Eagle that had been present for a few days.
The journey down was uneventful and we arrived at about 08:20 having
driven just over 160 miles.
As we parked the car we heard
a Turtle Dove calling before we walked along Kidd’s Hill to journey a group of
other birders scoping to the northeast. The
bird was still present and could be seen perched in a distant tree but the view
were pretty awful and so we walked down Chuck Hatch Road to join another group
of birders. The bird had flown when we
joined them but was still on view and a little closer. We then spent well over an hour watching the
bird either perched or hunting along the ridge and we saw it take two
snakes. During our visit it came a little
closer and I got a couple of pretty awful records shots. It disappeared on a couple occasions but was
in view most of the time whilst we were there.
There were several Tree Pipits in the area and we also saw two Woodlarks
and one rather well as it perched in the top of a birch. As we walked back to the car for lunch we saw
a male and immature Stonechat and a Buzzard was observed as we had lunch.
Short-toed Snake Eagle
After lunch we went just down
the road to a Sussex reserve at Top Lodge and from the car park walked down the
hill to view several ponds. I saw
another male Stonechat briefly and we also had a couple female Redstarts. There was a good selection of dragonflies
around the ponds and we saw Large Red Damselfly, Emperor Dragonfly,
Golden-ringed Dragonfly, Four-spotted Chaser, Broad-bodied Chaser and Keeled
Skimmer. The Keeled Skimmer was a first
for me and the Golden-ringed Dragonfly was only my second sighting, the first
being in Cot Valley, Cornwall in 2006.
Keeled Skimmer
With a long drive back we left
just after 14:00 and arrived back home at 17:30.
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