| 30
July 2012
It was still breezy with a steady Force 5 throughout the day making conditions inimical to photography. One interesting picture was a family of a drake Mallard and her eight chicks in the drainage ditch on the northern border of the New Monks Farm spoil dumping area, east Lancing (west of the Withy Gap).
The mother called out in alarm at my approach and the chicks paddled rapidly to shelter. |
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The ditch has been recently constructed and filled with water after the recent rain. It has always been an area that flooded regularly in winter.
2 May
2012
A
male Hen Harrier,
Circus
cyaneus, made an impressive display when it visited the open space
over New Monks Farm, Lancing.
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Hen Harrier
(Click
on the image to view the video)
"It
stayed for about an hour, constantly diving down, presumably after mice
or other small animals. It attracted quite a large flock of gulls
and crows that
were trying to mob it, although it didn’t seem too concerned."
The
display was captured on a video
film. This bird of prey is a scarce
(winter visitor and passage migrant) visitor to Sussex.
#25 25
February 2010
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The photograph (above) shows the gulls settling on the flooded New Monks Farm (private land) at the northern end just west of Withy Gap.
 |
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The low lying land to the north-west of New Monks Farm was flooded after the recent rain.
2008 - 2009
Most of this Private Property is now closed off to the public for dumping of piles of soil and building rubble.
15
January 2007
I
took a walk across the fields to the west of Shoreham Airport (New Monks
Farm) in the afternoon in the glorious winter sunshine and managed to get
a reasonable photograph
of a beautiful Short-eared Owl
doing the rounds along the drainage ditches. I also caught sight of one
of the Barn Owls
hunting close to the airport.
Excellent
Photograph