NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

I arrived at the Washington 'South Downs Way' car park at 06.30hrs, immediately heading up the hill towards Chanctonbury Ring. This section of the Sussex hills are well served with footpaths which criss-cross the open farmland. This is big sky country, blessed of set-aside fields, hedgerows, copses and, most importantly, birds. Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps were already calling and an early Common Redstart and Spotted Flycatcher boded well for the day ahead. Chanctonbury Ring the site of a prehistoric hill-fort (the grove of trees is an 18th-century folly). Both times that I've birded here there has been little on offer within the 'ring', all the action taking place along the fence-line and northern slope between the dew-pond and 400m east of the grove, (this eastern end characterised by a graveyard of ash die-back victims). The morning visit was bright enough, with Whinchat, Wheatear and plenty of commoner warblers, but my return visit (at about 15.30hrs) was ...

Dungeness. A smart male Red-backed Shrike stole today’s avian honours. It was found in the moat during the early morning and, apart from going AWOL in the middle of the day, was site faithful well into the evening. But did it win my coveted ‘sighting of the day’ award? No. This did: Crimson Clover (Trifolium incarnatum ssp molinerii), a rarely seen cultivated subspecies of Long-headed Clover. Two plants are now in flower close to the bird observatory, being found by warden Dave Walker. I think it’s quite a looker. The clover that is, although Dave has his fine points. Want to see a piss-poor back-of-camera shot of the shrike? Really? Oh alright then...