On Saturday I went for a walk to Cissbury Ring with the Shoreham and District Ornithology Society (SDOS) (8.00-10.00) and the Gay Birders' Club (GBC) (10.30-14.00) - I enjoy membership of both. It was the first GBC trip for two years, because of covid; and it was my first ever SDOS trip, as I joined during the lockdown. It was a coincidence that both SDOS and the GBC had organised field trips to the same place on the same day. I enjoy social birding group field trips; I sometimes go on the RSPB Brighton and Hove Group trips.
For more details about the Shoreham and District Ornithological Society, see here: Shoreham District Ornithological Society - Home (sdos.org)
For more details about the Gay Birders' Club (an LGBT group despite its name), see here: Gay Birders' Club - Home (gbc-online.org.uk)
Birding groups are a great way to learn ore about birds, as the range of experience and knowdlge in birding groups is wide, so discussing sightings n trips is a great way of improving your bird knowdlge. Both SDOS and the GBC are both very welcoming to beginner birders.
Here is a map of my trips :SDOS - blue line; GBC - pink line. (map = screen shot from Google Maps)
SDOS Walk (toward Cissbury ring via Findon Gallops)
A Red Kite flying over the bottom of Findon Gallops
There were several 100 Swallows flying, foraging for insects close to the ground, and sitting on fences and in trees; presumably gathering and foraging before heading off to Airca for the winter.
A female Redwing; we also saw a Greater and Lesser Stonechat and a Whinchat
Swallows perched on railing on the gallops
A Wheatear (I think).
Juvenile Goldfinches on a water trough on the Gallops
GBC Walk (Cissbury Ring)
A Meadow Brown
Small Copper
Adonis Blue
A Pied Flycatcher (a first-time sighting for me)
A Treecreeper
Horses in the plantation at Cissbury; there as part of the National Trusts conservation grazing of Cissbury Ring.
A Whitethroat
