Planet watching, Warren Hill

Venus, high and bright, with Mercury, lower and fainter. 

There was a surprisingly large number of people gathered to look.

A happy coincidence of clear skies, time and opportunity. Venus came out first, followed by Jupiter then Mars. After a long and anxious wait delicate Mercury was visible, a lifer for me. Perhaps even more remarkable was the Green Flash I saw along the topmost edge of the sun as it dipped below the horizon, something I have wanted to see for over 30 years.

Venus, lit as a crescent by the Sun

Jupiter, with three of the Gallilean moons just visible

 

Venus, Jevington Plantation

With a large number of planets in the evening sky, I was out after the dusk chorus in the wood. Distant Tawny Owls and Venus peeking through the trees, just above the high South Downs horizon.

Jupiter, mid-right.

Dusk Walk, Jevington Plantation

 This evening it was Blackbirds who dominated at dusk with their marvellous droll singing and clucking. The planets aligned, but rogue cloud obscured.

Venus 

Common Toad, Hill Road

 Out looking for a pond.

Dusk Walk, Jevington Plantation

After the rain, puddles and liquid-mud horror in the wood. The Song Thrush were really going for it as the light faded, giving a tremendous flourish before falling silent. There must be at least three territories at the Hill Road end of the wood. Tawny Owls were left to sing by themselves as the night set in.

Shooters Bottom

 Still quite bleak at Shooters.

Frog spawn, Hill Road

 Spring is definitely underway. Surreptitious movement whenever I go near the pond, as the Common Frogs dive, and the first batch of spawn.

Early Spring Dawn Chorus, Jevington Plantation

Beautiful morning with enough clear sky for a sunrise. The wood had dried out a little in the gusty breeze. The recently milder temperatures have started Spring in earnest.

Birds heard: Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Blackbird, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Wren, Stock Dove, Wood Pigeon, Magpie, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Green Woodpecker, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Buzzard, Herring Gull, Song Thrush, Robin and Buzzard.

 

West Rise Marsh

 Mild and overcast. A short visit with 29 species, the most notable being Great Spotted Woodpecker. Really good numbers (50+) of Shoveler.

Misty Jevington Plantation

Overnight rain just clearing, with the misty skirts of the weather system still trailing over the tops of the hills. The wood was full of dampness, mud and birdsong, with Wrens, Dunnocks and Song Thrushes to the fore. Not forgetting a tree with several cross Great Tits, though what they were scolding was not clear.

 

Dungeness: East Beach

A magical landscape of bleak beauty. Post industrial ephemera scattered and rusting across the shingle. Abandoned boats slowly disintegrate as successive storms, piling stones, move the sea away.

 Out to sea the drama of seabirds swarming over a shoal of fish. Cormorant, Gannet and Herring Gull swoop and dive with support from Kittiwakes, Common, Black-headed and Greater Black-backed Gulls.

Dungeness: Denge Marsh

Reindeer Lichen 

Windy but mild. Marsh Harriers (possibly 3), Wigeon, Shoveler, Lapwing, Coot, Great White Egret and Cattle Egret.

Marsh Harrier

Coot

Lapwing

Coot

Tabel Ghyll, Ashdown Forest

Wonderful weather and landscape at Ashdown Forest. From Lintons along the ridge to Coleman's Hatch cricket ground, then down into Tabel Ghyll. Back through The Park woodland, with a detour to look at the Iron Age ramparts of The Park Fort, which was being grazed by Exmoor ponies.

The Park Fort

Sweet Chestnut coppice, The Park