moorhen flushed at the marina at first light.

quick visit to west rise at the end of the day. loads of gulls coming in with a few hundred adult lesser black-backs. these seem to be a good indication of migration and are a carrier species, they always make me feel more confident in finding rarer ones, but in the end was a bit disappointing with 4 ylg's and 10 argies, still very nice to see such large numbers of lessers.

have finally got round to putting my sound recordings of sibe chiff from 3 years ago onto youtube.

on 3rd i found a first-winter caspian gull on the sand at the west beach at low tide. it was colour-ringed (seems to originate from poland). next day i returned in the morning and was surprised to see the bird was still present! hit reverse and burned it to the nearest shop to buy a loaf. managed to pull in most of the gulls in the area but the caspo stubbornly remained at the waters edge. looked a bit ill actually, or maybe just depressed cos it had landed in newhaven.

first caspo in sussex - and it had to be colour ringed!