Spring and Autumn migration offer the best chance of finding something unusual on any of the sites in the Horsham district so extra effort is put in between the wardens and all of the regular visitors. Normally this all comes to nothing but as has been shown by the recent sightings at Warnham LNR even inland sites can produce some wonderful birds. The last couple of weeks Chesworth Farm has taken over the rarity mantle...
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| Redstart - Chesworth Farm (J. Everitt) |
Regular visitor Eddie Bew came up with the first surprise down at the Farm in the form of this stunning male Common Redstart. It spent the day feeding along the hedgelines between Jenny Bare Legs Field, Horsham Hill Field and Chambers Field. This is a less than annual visitor to any of the Horsham sites so really was a fantastic find.
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| Nightingale - Chesworth Farm (M. Munday) |
The best bird of the year at the Farm so far has to go to the stunning male Nightingale which was found by Michael Munday. Alerted by the wonderful flutey song eventually Michael managed to get a couple of pictures of the bird perched deep in cover. This sighting was in fact the first record of Nightingale on the Farm and was lucky it was singing as it could well have gone unnoticed otherwise. Well done Michael a fantastic find.
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| Nightingale - Chesworth Farm (M. Munday) |
Whilst making the most of watching the Common Redstart and hoping to get a slightly better picture that I got I managed to stumble across a rather lovely Red Fox which was hunting up and down Chambers Field an the allotments. I couldn't see what it was catching though I suspect it was earthworms.
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| Red Fox - Chesworth Farm (J. Everitt) |
