THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — the Findon Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and contain great stories from her home village of FINDON, West Sussex, U.K.    Everyday tales about real people...... in fact, a potted history of the village.

THE RING OUZELS OF CISSBURY

Copyright Valerie Martin 2005

Early on the morning of 26th October 2005 Owen Burnham of Farnborough in Hampshire went to Cissbury Ring to look for the Ring Ouzels — and discovered six in the bushes not far from where he parked his car.

I returned with him and looked out for them half an hour later during my dog walk.  

I only saw one female Ring Ouzel  ..... her first winter en route over the Iron Age Fort to north-west Africa ..... but then I'm not a twitcher and I have two bounding dogs with me.     It doesn't account for much when you consider that 48 were sighted on the morning of 18th October 2005 and 60+ were counted on Cissbury Ring in the morning of 19th October 2005.

Each October, these rare birds are on migration and stop off to rest on grassy areas as at Cissbury Ring near the coast with dense cover nearby.   There has been a progressive decline of them over the years..... and a much further decline of more than 50% in the past ten years...... so I was lucky to see just one.

So if you see what you think is a common garden Blackbird sized bird wearing a white bib.... it's a Ring Ouzel. 

I guess there is something different on Cissbury Ring each morning.... it is just a case of being in the right place at the correct time and knowing where to look.

Forty of these birds were found to be roosting at Cissbury Ring between 27th October and 8th November 1968 and this was the largest number recorded to that date.

There were reports that the Ring Ouzels on the Iron Age Fort of Cissbury Ring were really showing well on 1st November 2005 with all ages groups of birds being seen. They were gorging themselves on the sloe berries before their migration.    It was said that it was best to view them on the west side of the Ring in the area of the Neolithic flint mines around the southernmost yew tree.

The Ring Ouzels were flushed out of the bushes on the Lower Tank Road (where they had been eating berries) by Suzie and Katie on 7th November 2005, and they kept a few yards ahead of us for the whole track..... intermingled with a delightful flock of distinctive Goldfinches eating seed heads along the way.

There were beautiful sightings of a male clearly showing his white bib..... unmistakable Ouzel calls coming from the scrub.... pity about the barking which was slightly off putting.   However, perhaps the birds are now used to Shetland Sheepdogs on the Ring and will drop in another year.

In September 2008, a couple of Ring Ouzels arrived early at Cissbury Ring...... one being in the Rifle Range area.

In mid-October 2009 one or two Ring Ouzels were both seen and heard at the top of the Lower Tank Road (Prehistoric Track) and also in the Rifle Butts area.

If you want to spot a Ring Ouzel on Cissbury.... look out for a blackish bird, bigger than a common Blackbird..... with a large dirty white bib.

Continue if you would like to read a bit more about Cissbury in Gun Emplacement?

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.