Sussex Scrapbook
~
Nature walks throughout the year
Saturday
12th August 2006
Coldwaltham Brooks
We woke up to a horrible mornings weather. The sky was black, it was raining and
it was thoroughly miserable. The
thought of having to stay in all day really put us in a grumpy mood. In the end
we thought we would just chance it and we rode off through the rain to Coldwaltham
Brooks near Pulborough. As we left Crawley the weather started to improve and it
got better the further we
rode.
At Coldwaltham the clouds parted and the sun came out, which put us back into a
much happier frame of mind. This was the first time for several weeks that we
had been out in the country with our binoculars. It felt very good to be back.
We had come to the brooks to find a red backed shrike that had
been staying in the area for nearly a week. Miraculously it only took us about 15
minutes to find it and I got a few photos through the telescope.
When we rode home, the rain started again just as we entered the border of
Crawley. If we had decided to not brave the weather this morning, we wouldn't
have realised that it was only raining on our home.
Part of Coldwaltham Brooks. Notice the lack of rain!
The lack of rain has made the area very dry though. We
really need it to chuck it down for weeks!
Now, where's that shrike?
The male red backed shrike (Lanius collurio). I
took a small bit of video, although the wind blew me and the bird about a bit.
Take a look here. (3.9 mb)
Shrikes winter in tropical Africa and arrive back in
Europe in May. They are a reasonably rare bird in England. We saw several in
The Lot
region of France last May. Shrikes are infamous for being small predators that
are capable of killing small birds. They often impale their catch on the thorns
of a bush as a 'larder'. This has given them the nickname of Butcher Bird.
However, we happen to think they are very sweet looking birds that wear a
bandits mask.