Sunday, 5 April 2015

Water pipit still at west rise, 3 little egrets new in, naff all migrant passerines. Quiet now the winter birds are gone and the summer birds are yet to arrive. There was a conspicuous westerly movement of immature black-headed gulls in flocks of up to 150, something I normally associate with May

Monday, 23 March 2015

lovely spring afternoon at west rise. 2 scand rock pipits still, 3-4 (pink) water pipits, 2 jack snipe, 1 white wag, c.55 shoveler and a fine drake garganey.

Tuesday, 17 March 2015

some recent bits: ouse valley 10 jack snipe. cuckmere valley great grey shrike, whitefront, 2 ylg, 15+ scand rock pipits, 17 pintail. cuckmere is looking best i've seen it between exceat-litlington, so many ducks. west rise 2 scand rock pipits, 2 water pipits, marsh harrier, 12 pintail. bittern was seen, not by me, but first i've heard of for couple of years. splash point seawatch in one hour trickle of stuff including 8 little gulls and over 300 brent.

the northeast winds have got great black-backs on the go and not surprisingly a few argentatus are associating with 'em, below is a selection of pics taken at west rise. not used to seeing white heads and bright bills. some wing-tips caspo-like save for eg no black on p5. the bird taking off shows the thayeri pattern on p10.

extreme change of course for the river at cuckmere haven

Monday, 16 March 2015

Wednesday, 25 February 2015

5 (possibly 6) water pipits at west rise is the most I've had there. the grey goose flock has moved on but been replaced by the ridgways canada goose from the cuckmere. no sign of the barnacle that was here 2 days ago.

Wednesday, 18 February 2015

little bunting was the first i've seen since 1996 (sussex&scilly). had to work for this bird but sometimes that's a good thing. the whitefront has been at west rise along with 3 water pipits.


Monday, 2 February 2015

one of the male blackcaps has finally found my apples. another first was an audi r8 in morrisons car park