garden rbfly

with the autumn seawatching having been so bad this year i wasn't keen to get out early today despite the good forecast of southerly winds. wish i'd not had that lie in tho! got to holywell at 08.30 and stuff was on the go straight away. i dont count anything these days but there would have been some good numbers, will just have a look at what dunge gets today for some idea?? having flocks of 4 species in the fov at the same time was a novelty for autumn, felt like a spring watch. dunlin were relentless, i've never seen anything like it even in spring, it was a case of as soon as one flock flew out my fov another came in. brents also on the go, must've been pushing a thousand, then in descending order wigeon, common scoter, teal, red-breasted merganser, shelduck, shoveler and pintail. oddities were 2 eider and 1 goldeneye. a handful of sanderling and a few small flocks of grey plover were mixed in with the dunlin, plus 1 common snipe! other bits included 2 fulmars, 2 great crested grebes, 4 red-throated divers, and my latest arctic tern, a juvenile. gannets were mostly going east and there were 2 or 3 distant skuas east which looked like poms. no little gulls but i left just before the main event, would've needed to be out on the head to see anything going east, then it really would have been a french style seawatch.

shelduck, wigeon, brent and eider

dropped into arlington. a walk along the dam produced... drum roll...... 1 swallow. the amount of times i've walked out on that dam in the pissing rain this year thinking the weather's gonna bring summink in and not seen anything. but then on my way back i spotted a flock of 14 little gulls flying straight towards me. as they did a fly by along the dam i just had to risk getting my little camera out in the rain for a shot of these beauties. after milling around in the middle for a bit they headed back towards the sea. got soaked for nothing in the lower cuckmere, just an argie (first of winter), and nothing at newhaven harbour either.