We were very excited to host a professional development day for Lizard Landscapes and Ecology, focussing on advancing bird identification skills.
We spent most of the day at Pulborough Brooks, where we got to grips with 56 species, including the two White-tailed Eagles (from the Isle of Wight scheme), a couple of Marsh Harriers, superb views of Peregrine Falcon, furtive Snipe, flocking Black-tailed Godwits, hordes of Pintail, Teal and Wigeon, and a mix of woodland birds including Nuthatches and Coal Tits.
Fieldfares, Redwings and Bullfinches put on a good show in the scrub too, but our favourite sighting was a Woodlark fluting away as it passed over the visitor centre and dropped into the adjacent field.
We moved on to The Burgh for an extra hour in the field, enjoying further views of Marsh Harrier and stooping Peregrine Falcon, and Red Kites galore, as well as a mammalian treat in the form of some Brown Hares! We finished the day on a respectable 60 species.
It was a superb way to sign off our guiding before Christmas and the team from Lizard really enjoyed a day out fine-tuning recognition of flight calls, distant ducks and flying raptors, among so much more!