Road to Nowhere (22-23 Oct)

click on the title! :)

I do now know what The Talking Heads were headily talking about...

This post contains insights into a journey that can only be described as long. So long it took two whole days!

Friday 22 Oct was an inset day from school, so it was today that completed the first leg of a journey from Sussex-Edinburgh. We stopped off in Lincoln overnight, to stay with my dad's cousin, wife and kids.

Before we left Seaford, I heard saw of my last migrants of the year going over. A House Martin was lazily going over the house, a Redpoll gave it's call a few times and two Meadow Pipits went over together calling. The Grey Wagtail from Blatchington pond also flew over in a high circuit, looking to drop down by the pond again. I also took a few photos of the Starlings on the rooftops. All looking rather resplendent.

The rest of the journey was dominated by nothing. I read a book, listened to my MP3 and occasionally took the headphones out if anything good was on Radio 4. The single animal worth noting was a Roe Deer seen by the roadside somewhere along the M11 near Cambridge. Somewhere near here, we also stopped at Drayton Fen RSPB, for a walk. The birdlife was tedious, with a small hint of boredom. Apart from a flock of 80 Fieldfare, actually quite a good record for October, birdlife consisted of 40+ Tufted Duck, 3 Great Crested Grebes, a few Cormorant, 4 Meadow Pipits and 2 Green Woodpeckers. Cue distant and crappy shots of Mute Swans, with a few Wigeon if you look hard enough...

I also saw a Peregrine from the A1 neat Peterborough. But that was all...

Stopping off for the night with family in Lincoln, I swapped camera stories with Dad's cousin, a profeesional photographer. I left with a lot more knowledge, which I decided to apply in the future with my camera. Whether the results are really any different, I'll have to wait and see.

Saturday 23 Oct- we went from Lincoln to Edinburgh. Can't describe it much more interestingly than that! However, the further north, the more avain interest, it seems. a scraggy looking Raven flew over the A1 near York, and on the A68 through the Pennines, I saw a few Golden Plovers in the fields, alongside countless Lapwings.

At Derwent Water, we stopped for a half hour. In the wood by the reservoir were Goldcrests, Siskins and Coal Tits, and a flock of Pink-footed Geese flew over calling. My second yeartick of the day (along with, ridiculously, Golden Plover!!)
Following that, we stopped for another walk, in Kieltner Forest, in Northumberland. we saw 4 Crossbills, and a few of all the commoner pine woodland birds.

And then, at about 19:00, we arrived in Edinburgh. At long, long last!

17 Oct-Ringing in the Hollow

Today, at long, long last, almost two months after returning from Long Point and vowing to try it out again, I went up to the ringing at Whitbread Hollow, Beachy Head!

Dad and I left the house at about 7.30 AM, arriving at 8.00. Driving the 15 miles, I counted 31 Magpies along the roads! Not exactly the most exciting thing in the world, I know, but I was wondering if the rhyme could be extended that far!...  ;)

The sun was just rising above the sea as we arrived, making a spectacular backdrop. However, I couldn't be faffed to take any photos.

As we walked the short distance from where we were parked to the Hollow, several Stock Doves passed overhead, among a few hundred Woodpigeon. Two Bramblings also passed over, one dropping down into the hollow, and we saw a single Wheatear, probably my last of the year.

Wheatear, Whitbread Hollow, 17 Oct 2010

In the Hollow itself, the first bird we saw was not what we expected. On the football fields, being harassed by several Magpies, was a single juvenile BRENT GOOSE! It had clearly become separated from its family, and had dropped into the fields to graze. No sooner had we seen the bird than we met up with Bob Edgar and Jacob Everitt, just back from a net round. With four people now here, they had a novel, if a tad optimistic, plan, involving the branta. It was feeding very near some football nets. If the four of us could drive it in to them, we would have a rather good bird to ring!

Sadly, the plan, as with all hastily set out plans, went awry. The bird was faster on the mark than us, and flew off about 50 yards, away from any football nets. Worse still, the coldappeared to have  mucked up my cameras batteries! Though after about half an hour in the relative warmth of the ringing hut, they were working again.

We stayed for a few hours to watch the ringing. I didn't get to help out, unfortunately, but it was still good fun watching the ringing and holding the birds, and Bob and Jake, far more used to the early start than us, remained in upbeat moods! They banded about 40 birds, not a great tally, and nothing particularly rare either. However, seeing Goldcrest and Long-tailed Tit in the hand was new for me. They are both truly adorable little birds when you see them up so close! We also caught a few continental Song Thrushes, which Bob very well pointed out the ID features on. Other birds trapped were a male Blackcap, several Chiffchaffs and a little flock of Blue Tits, all of presumed dispersive origin.


male Goldcrest, Whitebread Hollow. sexed by the orange feathers on the crown







Whitbread Hollow, Beachy Head



Whitbread Hollow is a great place to see visible migration too, which was very visible. loads of Siskin were passing over, with smaller numbers of Goldfinch, and a handful of Redpoll and Brambling. A few of the latter were also in some of the bushs in the hollow. 1500+ Woodpigeon also went east, with 30+ Stock Doves among them. One leucistic Woodpigeon was also seen, it was with one flock that flew over and dropped into the hollow, and all four of us got a good look at it, agreeing we hadn't seen anything quite like it before! About 50 Swallows and a few House Martins went over, and thrushes included one Song Thrush, three Mistle Thrushes and four FIELDFARE, my first of  the winter. Meadow Pipit and Skylark were ubuquitiuos as always.

We left at about 11:30 AM. It had really quietened down, with the  last two net runs having returned about five birds!

After the Hollow, we had a brief stop at Belle Tout. I was hoping for third time lucky with the gorgeous Phyllosc, but it had had other ideas, and was believed to have cleared out overnight! There were a few Chiffchaffs around, and a group of Siskin passed overhead, while a Kestrel and several dragonflies kept the camera busy!

This Kestrel posed brilliantly



and while photographing it, I took the opportuity to photograph this male Ruddy Darter (?), who landed on my shoe!




another presumed male Ruddy Darter



while I believe these to both be females of the same species. If Jake, or anyone else, could confirm/correct me again I'd be grateful. Just a hint  (:

16 Oct-Arlington waders and Beachy warblers

Saturday was a day spent out going after two good birds, with a 50% success rate...

A Curlew Sandpiper had been seen at Arlington for a few days now, so today Dad and I made a quick visit early morning. After walking along to where the Buff-breast was seen, we found two waders along the water's edge. Looking through the scope, it was obvious they were a Dunlin and our target bird. But we were quite a way off, so we walked closer for a better view. And that was when it happened...

A Peregrine swooped down low over the reservoir. I felt sure it would have scared off the two waders. An initial scan seemed to confirm this, but after about two minutes we somehow found them again, in exactly yhe same spot! I can only assume We were so sure ther had gone we totally overlooked them! But anyway, we got fairly close, having some great views through the scope. The Dunlin looked odd, almost Broad-billed Sand-esque, but I'm fairly happy it was just the commonest calidris. I got some record shots of the two feeding together, but they were even more distant than the Buff-breast two weeks ago, so good quality photos were beyond me and my pentax. it is probably worth clicking to

Curlew Sand (left) and Dunlin (right)

Curlew Sandpiper



and finally, one showing the odd-looking Dunlin

After this success, it was off to Beachy, to look for that goddamn PALLAS'S WARBLER!

Around Belle Tout wood were 30+ observers. All scouring the bushes for this Sibe. Among them was Robin Stokes, who it was good to finally meet after 'knowing' him on the web for several months. Hopefully you saw the bird Rob, but sadly I failed miserably!

In the wood were about 20 Chiffchaff, and a handful of Goldcrests. Blue Tits were also pretty numerous, and I think they might have been atleast partly made up of migrants. 20+ House Martins and a few Swallows passed overhead, and two Kestrels and a Sparrowhawk were showing well, and there were a few dragoflies, Migrant Hawkers and Ruddy Darters. But this all got a bit boring, so I headed off to The Hangar, a bit of scrub on the clifftop, to see what I could find. I was hoping for Ring Ouzel and Dartford Warbler, but all I got was a few Stonechats.Walking unceremoniously back, dad greeted me with the horrific news that the bird had been seen while I was gone!

We waited around for another 20 minutes. In this time, the Pallas's was called a few tims, but if they were genuine, the bird moved back into the thick foliage before anyone bar the first obsever got a look at it. Dad said it had only been on view for about three seconds. And this was the first time it had been seen in over two hours!

Here are a few photographs from a pretty disheartening day

Migrant Hawker, Belle Tout

Kestrel, Belle Tout

Stonechat, The Hangar

15 Oct-Beachy Head

On thursday, 14 Oct, a PALLAS'S WARBLER was reported at Belle Tout Wood, Beachy Head. The following day Dad and I went for a look, but we arrived a few hours too late. No Pallas's Warbler, just a few Goldcrests and 15+ Chiffchaff. A huge flock of hirundines were overhead, including about 100 House Martin and 50 Swallow. In Belle Tout were loads of Blue Tits, a Kestrel and a Green Woodpecker. But no sign of the formerly regular Tawny Owls. I suspect there is now so much Ivy on the trees they can hide away undetected.

House Martins and Swallows passing over Beachy Head

photos of Belle Tout Wood, the last with my Dad in the foreground

a few days of autumn

on Saturday (9th October) I was around Seaford all day, mostly in the house (one of those lazy teenage days, ya know!) Over the garden I recorded good numbers of Meadow Pipit, Swallow, Golfinch and House Martin. A few Chiffchaff and Goldcrest were around, as I am now accustomed too. Robins, Dunnocks, Great Tits and Wrens are all starting to sing, marking out their winter territories...

On the night of the 9th, three Redwings and A Song Thrush were heard flying over.



The 10th began with a sussex year tick (no. 165), literally five minutes after I had woken up, when I heard the distinctive call of a Redpoll, flying over the house at about 10:30. During the morning I had plenty of Swallow and House Martin passing over, with small numbers of Meadow Pipit, Skylark and Goldfinch. Chiffchaff and Goldcrest were both in good numbers around Seaford, with larger than usual totals of Song Thrush, Blackbird and Robin. Interestingly, I have seen far more Goldcrest this autumn than I did last time round. It seems that this cold winter didn't affect them as badly as that of 2008/09, I hardly saw any the following autumn, and neither did anyone else on the South Coast to my knowledge...

At about 1.00, I headed off for Seaford Head, wondering what i might see. The answer was;
-a minimum of 70 each of Swallow and House Martin
-20+ Skylark, in the clifftop grazing fields
-30+ Meadow Pipits
-1 Siskin flew south, sussex year tick no. 166
-a small eastward movement of Woodpigeons, numbering about 50 birds
-20+ Chiffchaffs, 20+ Goldcrest, 2 Firecrest, 2-3 RING OUZEL and a single Blackcap in Hope Gap.

That night, three more Redwings and a single Song Thrush flew over the house calling.

these unidentified red dragonflies were everywhere

edit: ID'd as a Ruddy Darter



view out to ea from the top of Seaford Head



view out to sea from the top of Hope Gap

I'm fairly sure this dragonfly is a Broad-bodied Chaser

edit: Ruddy Darter again!

view of the Seven Sisters from Seaford Head Holf Course

 today (Oct 11th) was quiet around Seaford, with a few Goldcrest, Chiffchaff, Meadow Pipit and Swallow, but nothing like the numbers of the last week or so. However, a bird 'chacking' away in a bush near school sounded suspiciously like another RING OUZEL, sadly I never saw it, as I was in a bit of a rush to get to school. One that got away I guess!

Seaford on 07 Oct. Good vis-migging day!

from the title, you can gather what the theme of today was. I only had time to be looking up at the sky for about 1 1/2 hours today, walking to and from school, and keeping one eye/ear trained at the sky during lunch and break. My approximate totals were;

100 Meadow Pipits
70 Swallows
20 House Martins
2 Skylarks
1 Grey Wagtail
1 plover sp. by the laws of probability it was almost certainly a Euro Goldie but I didn't get a good enough view to rule out Grey Plover (or American/Pacific GP for that matter!) I presume it came from Cuckmere, as it flew over school, heading SW towards Splash Point. Interestingly, I saw a flock of 70 Golden Plover at Splash Point on 1 Sep last year, that followed almost exactly the same flight route, before flying out over the beach and east along the shore.

Dad saw a few Siskins and a Brambling flying over today too, but I didn't see any finches. An interesting observation though was that about 30 Meadow Pipits appeared to have been feeding on an allotment I walk past on the way to school. Not altogether unusual but I had never considered that it happened before.




AUTUMN IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

: )

Birds round town

24 Sep
A large westerly movement of birds today, with 230 House Martins, 120 Swallows, 4 Grey Wagtails, 2 HOBBIES and 20 Meadow Pipits. A few Chiffchaffs around too.

25 Sep
A few Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests present

27 Sep
A Grey Wagtail over the house, a few Chiffchaffs and some Swallows passing over. three our four Robins, singing subsongs in very close proximit to one another, were all continental migrants I believe.

28 Sep
Grey Wagtails near house and school today, I believe these are the returning wintering birds. A few Chiffchaffs and Swallows too. Meadow Pipits moving over in good numbers. A few presumed continental Robins too.

29 Sep
20+ Meadow Pipits going south today. Also a few Chiffchaffs, a Goldcrest and the Grey Wagtail near the house again. 50+ Jackdaws flew over the house this evening. a few presumed continental Robins too.

30 Sep
A YELLOW WAGTAIL flew over calling today, very late, as did 20+ Meadow Pipits. 7+ Chiffchaffs and two Goldcrests in town. A few presumed continental Robins too.

As well as these birds, Long-tailed Tits are getting ever more obvious, and I'm hearing their calls far more regularly from the garden and school. Blue Tit is becoming more obvious, although, as I noticed recently, I can't remember seeing a Blackbird in seaford since early July! I've seen Ring Ouzel more recently!

25 Sep, double score!

Late September is my favourite time of year. My first ever local comittee rarity, a Goshawk, was seen exactly one year and 364 days previously to today, in exactly the same area I was walking today. 362 days ago, I saw a Glossy Ibis in the Lower Cuckmere (although I wasn't the original finder that time). And today, I bagged two local rarities, and nice additions to my Self-found list too!

Having noted an execptional movement of birds throughout yesterday around Seaford (two Hobbies, four Grey Wagtails, 350+ Hirundines and 20+ Meadow Pipits) I thought today would be a good day to get out. With clear skies in the morning, it looked to be a good raptor day, although I wasn't too sure about grounded migrants. I opted to walk out to Firle Beacon, where there would be a good chance of seeing any raptors moving.

Along, Firle Road, Seaford, I heard my first migrants, a few Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests calling away in the gardens. There were also a handful of Swallows and House Martins overhead.

On Seaford Golf Course, I recorded a total of 14 Chiffchaffs, 7 Blackcaps and 4 Goldcrests. Single Yellow Wagtail and Meadow Pipit both flew south, and I got a brief view of a Redstart in flight. A flock of Long-tailed Tits, 15+ strong, passed along the pathside. There were also loads and loads of Speckled Woods, some posing very well for shots

A tatty Speckled Wood

While this one was almost pristine!

Hobbs Hawth and Five Lord's Burgh, the areas between the Golf Course and Firle Beacon, where almost devoid of migrants in the windswept weather. about 60 each of Swallow and House Martin were whizzing around, as were 20 Linnets and 30 Meadow Pipits. A Bullfinch called, but just 5 Chiffchaff and 2 Blackcap were recorded, the wind being at least partly to blame here.

The view from Firle Beacon was spectacular...

The birds were pretty good too.

They included 80 Meadow Pipit, 25 Chiffchaff, 15 Swallow, 5 House Martin, 2 Buzzard and single Yellow Wagtail, Sparrowhawk, Wheatear (shown below) and what I thought was a Redpoll, flying south calling. Suffice to say, I was to discover I was wrong, eventually...

a rather lovely Wheatear at Firle Beacon

However, by far and away the best bird I managed to see was over the wood at Bo-peep. A raptor was being blown in the wind. It flew over the wood, at treetop height, in view at a range of 30 metres for about 10 seconds. It wasn't a Marsh Harrier. It wasn't a Common Buzzard. It was a damn fine looking, dark-phase, fairtrade chocolate HONEY BUZZARD! Regrettably, I never got a good view of the tail, so I'm still weighing up whether it is worth a description. But even if not, it is my first self-found HB and I'm rather happy with it!

As I walked the 31/2 mile walk back to Seaford, still on cloud nine, I didn't see too many more birds. Greenway Bottom held a few Meadow Pipits and Linnets, and two Buzzards, a nice comparison with the Honey Buzz. Goig back through Seaford GC, I found this (very!) recently deceased Red Admiral.



R.I.P, the one that didn't make it to hibernate again.

Back Home, about 6.00 PM

what I thought was a Redpoll, flying south calling. Suffice to say, I was to discover I was wrong, eventually...

I had heard a mysterious bird flying south calling earlier today. It bore some resemblance to a Linnet call, but was at the same time distinctive, and having heard plenty of Linnets, I knew this sounded different. Stuck for ideas, I took my next fallback, a Redpoll.

But, being nosy, I decided to check Redpoll calls on Xeno-canto when I got home. And it became apparent I was wrong in my ID. It wasn't a Redpoll. Or a Siskin. Or a Linnet, or any other finch. However, when I came accross this page, my queries were happily resolved!

That's right, a second brilliant self-found bird, a LAPLAND BUNTING! With so many around at the moment, it isn't too surprising. I saw one less than two weeks ago, in fact. But as a self-found bird, they don't come much better.


As I said before, I love late September!


My totals for today were
Meadow Pipit-120+
Linnet-100+
Swallow-90+
House Martin-70+
Chiffchaff-55
Long-tailed Tit-30+
Blackcap-9
Goldcrest-6
Buzzard-4
Yellow Wagtail-2
Bullfinch-1
Sparrowhawk-1
Wheatear-1
Redstart-1
HONEY BUZZARD-1
LAPLAND BUNTING-1

Arlington Reservoir

Amongst plenty of Pied Wagtail at Arlington today, at least two White Wag's, an adult and a juvenile. The only other birds of note were 100+ House Martin, 20+ Great crested Grebes, 21 Cormorants, a few Wigeon (my first of the winter), a Wheatear* and a Muscovy! No Little Stint, nor a wader of any description!

Muscovy Duck















An adult White Wagtail





Pied or White?? I think Pied but not entirely sure.



The water level was incredibly low!!

At High and Over, just a few Chiffchaffs and a Blackcap, though a Reed Warbler and four Spotted Flycatchers were reported here on the SOS. The Crane my dad and a few others saw in the Cuckmere early morning was nowhere around.

On a sadder note, yesterdays White Stork was found moribund and taken into care by the RSPCA.Hopefully it will recover but its not looking too good for it.


* edit-The Wheatear I saw at Arlington looked kind of odd at the time. It was a female type bird, and had a very rich peachy breast, with the colour extending down more than usual. It also had an unusually brown back, and pretty obvious Supercilium. I didn't take in much detail of its posture, and there were no other Wheatears for size comparison, but I am now fairly confident it was a Leucorrhoa, or Greenland Wheatear. I've seen them in the spring, but this was my first autumn record. I'm not sure if it is good enough to record as such, but morally I feel happy enough about this birds identity.

Clawing one back!

16 Sep 2010

Unpertubed by previous failure in any attempt at connecting with Lapland Bunting, White Stork or Pied Flycatcher this afternoon, me and Dad tried again in the early evening. We got one, and missed the other two, but who really cares about a Pied Flycatcher when you can see a Lapland Bunting?

Our first stop was at High and Over, for a scan of the Cuckmere, and one last attmpt to see the White Stork. we peered over the entire valley from Exceat to Litlington, but saw just a handful of Little Egrets. However, a constant stream of Meadow Pipits was going south. Due to our elevated position most were going either level with or below us, while Swallows and House Martins were flowing down the river in good numbers. The bushes of High and Over held a few Chiffchaffs and a Blackcap, doing a canny little subsong, while a Redstart/Willow warbler was heard.

We then  drove down to Seaford Head again. Matt Eade, Jake Everitt and Marc Read were all looking for the Lapland Bunting in the little muddy field west of South Hill Barn. Dad and I were just going over to ask if they'd seen it when the Bunting appeared from nowhere, disappearing into some long grass on the edge of the field.

All five of us then slowly snuck up on it, and after about a minute it showed brilliantly, allowing us to see every single little detail of that adorable little bird. It flew off after about 30 seconds, into a tussock of grass about 50 yards away. Here, it remained invisible for not much more than a minute, til inevitably a dog-walker strolled by, flushing it into the muddy field, where the restless little longspur stayed for about 10 seconds before going off again into the tussocky grass, now slightly more safe from accidental flushing.

Having seen this brilliantly, Dad and I opted to give the Pied Flycatcher another go. But Harry's Bush was deathly quiet, and the grand total of 15 minutes searching every single bush, tree and shrub in the area was one little Chiffchaff. It was a very nice Chiffchaff indeed. But it was still just one measly Chiffchaff.

We then did the sensible thing, and traipsed back to admire the Lappie, in he company of two Wheatears. Together with Jake and a few other birders, we got even better views of this fantastic bird, through the scope for about 15 minutes, before we left the rest of them to it and answered the calls of our stomachs.

Success? I think so!

the best photo I could get of a great bird, click here for a better photo, or here, here and here for what we dipped

catch up

this blog has now gotten incredibly out of date, so here is what has been happening in the past few weeks of my life wildlife-wise.

Since 5 May, Swifts have been around Seaford daily, filling the skies with their wonderful calls.

at Newhaven Tide Mills on 9 May I saw 2 Sandwich Terns offshire,  Common Sandpipers on the river mouth and a Hobby flying overhead.

A futile attempt to see the Red-rumped Swallows at Arlington Res on 10 May failed miserably, thanks to the freezing NE winds, the only creatures of note a Greater Spotted Orchid and a Common Sandpiper

on 12 May, a slightly better day at Arlington, with glorious weather, produced plenty of Swallows and House Martins, 3 Sand Martins, perhaps the same Common Sandpiper, a nice summer-plumed Dunlin and a fantastic Temminck's Stint.

will upload a few pics taken recently soon.