Last night an idyllic evening down the cuckmere with the constant calls of green and common sand and lrp filling the air as the sun set. totals 1 greenshank, 2 ringed plovers, 4 lrp, 7 common sands and 11 dunlin on the east side and at least 2 each of green and common sand calling from west side. a flock of swifts flew out to sea.
This morning down the cuckmere again, totals 1 turnstone, 1 greenshank, 1 redshank, 2 lrp, 3 common sands, 5 whimbrel, 9 ringed plovers and 19 dunlin.
End of July i saw the long staying 5 garganey at rodmell

JURASSIC PARK!

i never have my camera in my hand. i'd only dropped down off the embankment to photograph some dunlin on the edge of the meander, and when i climbed back up the bank this thing flew up from in front of me. initial snap reaction - green sand, but call wrong and the shape was kerrrazy - fuck it's a black-winged pratincole!!!! there was no hesitation with this bird, it was clearly on a mission and towered off strongly to the northwest over dymock farm and watched until lost from view. just one of those crazy moments... when can you ever prepare yourself for finding a pratincole, not least roosting above the high water mark on a narrow river bank... who gets to find and identify to species a pratincole with the naked eye?!... i hadn't originally planned to go down the cuckmere that morning, and if i'd been 2 mins late it would've been flushed by the first dog walker and seen by no one. wrong camera settings of course but i fired off a few and was happy i got one that was reasonable