i actually went to have a look for the dipper today. it's too big a bird not to at least have a go. i walked the whole of the section of stream that looked right for dipper and it definitely wasn't there. nice spot tho and was a good excuse to explore an area of sussex i've never been to before. also had a brief look in ebernoe wood where there was oddly a barn owl flying around high over the wood then hunting along a ride at midday, and 3 chiffchaffs by the pond. at arlington in the evening 2 oystercatchers on the dam and the pipit still present. an argie was at newhaven west beach at dusk.

weather forecasts are meant to come from the same source, so how can they be so different?!

zero snow or v heavy snow take your pick

a bittern and 9 pintail at west rise. nothing of note down the cuckmere and the (scandinavian) rock pipits were being bastards behaving like water pipits. low tide is not the best time to be looking for these. ended the day at arlington where there was a white wag in with the shetland ponies and a nice example of scandinavian rock pipit on the dam. the gull roost was difficult to count cos the flock was constantly 'leap-frogging' but there were more than 20 lovely adult meds.

a scandinavian rock pipit at west quay.

the photos below are of two greylags showing rubrirostris characters that i saw on the iow about ten years ago. similar to the arundel birds.

visited a few spots in west sussex with nothing of note. ended up looking at geese. no sign of the beans but the two greylags showing rubrirostris characters were present. the geese alerted me to a red kite overhead which i otherwise would have missed.

haven't seen a scandinavian rock pipit since '04 so went to a spot i used to see them regular. only found one bird which was a bit of a cacker. slightly contrasting grey head, warmer breast and bit of white over the eye. when they're good i rate almost as much as water pipits.