Splash Point-24 April 2010

With SE winds from the off, and 25 birders keeping their eyes on the sea, this was always going to be a fantastic day. And so it proved to be.

The most constant feature of the 2.5 hours dad and I spent at Splash this morning were Terns. They were constantly streaming past, a never ending flow of dainty, persil white flying machines on loose, powerful wings. Commic terns were ab absolute constant, many coming very close. I would estimate we saw upwards of 400 during our stint. Most of the flocks went very close, allowing the short-billed, long-tailed Arctics to be picked out in good numbers, I identified at least 50, probably about 70 or 80 (it was a week ago, my memory has gone a bit fuzzy since then!), and there were almost certainly well over a hundred moving through. Sandwich Terns went through in three-figures too, and among the hundreds of these commoner terns were 8 Little Terns, which they really were among their big cousins, and 4 Black Terns, looking for all the world like huge swifts, plowing accross the sea in such a haphazard way I half-expected them to crash land into the water.

Skuas were a fairly big feature too. One Arctic Skua circled right over our heads before carrrying on east, and two went ENE towards Seaford Head Golf Course, being lost from sight as they vanished over the cliffs. Overall about 12 Arctic and 8 Great Skua went through, but sadly no Poms.

100 Little Gulls flew past, their very ability to actually fly without being blown about in the wind like a butterfly amazing me as much as anything else. Unsurpisingly though, a fairly strong SE wind did push a few inland. 40 went over our heads, including one spectacular flock of 30 birds, all heading towards Arlington Reservoir. No Bonaparte's were among them, though!

A fair few waders also went past. about 60 each of Whimbrela and Bar-tailed Godwit, the latter in tight compact flocks that zipped by so fast you could miss them if you blinked. Thankfully, one mixed flock did put down on the beach briefly, giving good views, but quickly flew off, passing us quite close in. Most bizarre of all, though, was a group of 4 Avocet. First picked up at a ridiculous distance of about 2 kilometres, they were sitting on the sea! After a few minutes, the unsure little group took off, flying past us in quite unsteady fashion (though that is normal for any Avocets). However, their nerves showed when they put down again, about 100 metres east of the groyne! They only stayed for a minute or two before finally finding their wings again, but I got a fairly good look at them, thanks to the birder who kindly let me use his scope.

Other than all that has been mentioned, their were a fair number of wildfowl. About 50 each of Common Scoter and Brent geese, including one Pale-bellied bird, and two Shoveler, two Pintail and 13 Shelduck.

A Brilliant day's seawatching!

Birding from last couple of weels

With exam revision preventing any reasoable amount of time in which to get a blog post together, I am afraid you will all have to make do with this rather poor attempt at a post, no pictures for now, I will add them at a later date.

To start this post, on 17 April, the last day of the holidays, I was travelling to an undisclosed location (for no reason other than what I discovered there) in central sussex, on a camping trip with the rest of the sussex wildlife trust youth council. My sussex list was, at the time, 130, with my british list slightly better at 134. The first interesting bird of the trip was a House Martin flying over the road by The University of Sussex. It was the briefest of views, but there isn't really anything else sparrow sized with navy-blue colouration and a striking white rump that would fit the bill! That was sussex year tick 131, and british year tick 135. As soon as we arrived at the location, it became clear this was an excellent wood small wood. I could hear Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Garden Warbler chattering away in the treetops, the latter another year tick. A Lesser Whitethroat revealed itself in one of the hedgerows, and commoner birds comprised plenty of Great-spots and Green Woodpeckers, plenty of singing Goldcrests, and lots of Nuthatches and Treecreepers(the latter a sussex year tick, my 133rd). three Fallow Deer were sene very briefly in the early-afternoon, and on a walk around the rest of the area we saw over 200 of them, along with 3 Buzzards and a drumming Great-spot, while butterflies included 2 Orange-Tips and plenty of Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells and Cabbage Whites. In the evening we saw 3 Roe Deer, and a pair of Tawny Owls were too-wit-too-wooing. We had set up some mammal traps, one of which produced a mouse, either Yellow-necked or Field, while we left the others out overnight.

During the night, sleeping accomodations were basic to say the least. A Tarpaulin, tied up between two trees, is hardly a five-star hotel, but sleeping out in the open was a nice experience, even if I barely slept! The benefit of this, though, was that at five o'clock in the morning, I was awake when the first Blackbird started singing in the Dawn Chorus. within two minutes he was joined by two more. A Robin and a Song Thrush followed suite soon after, and before you knew it the air was alive with these three songsters. a cawing Carrion Crow joined the furore, and then several more did. Two Wrens began tacking in the undergrowth, and once they had rubbed the sleep out of their eyes they were positively bellowing at one another. A Green Woodpecker soon yaffled in the background, while the first Chiffchaff of the morning began piping out its tunes. The Tawny Owls mustn't have got to sleep, because soon their strange, haunting cries echoed through the woods, silencing all birdkind for a few seconds before the mini-orchestra recovered its instruments. And soon a charismatic Nuthatch began his peculiar song, if you can call it that. A shrill Treecreeper just about squeezed its call into the range of human ears, and this seemed to trigger a great deal of reaction from five or six Chiffies, who suddenly decided to temporarily drown out all the other birdsong. This in turn invoked Blue Tits and Chaffinches to join the madness, and then I was out of my bed and I had to help making breakfast for the happy campers. This was done in true caveman style, cooking our food over an open fire, and doing Ray Winstone proud by avoiding burning anything other than my fingers. Oh, and a few Sausages! During this time, Blackcaps, Great Tits, Greenfinches and Goldcrests all joined the competition of 'who can sing loudest and wake all the b*s***ds who decided to camp in our wood!' but eventually, the last happy tired camper had to be dragged out of his sleeping bag! I soon heard some mysterious drumming, like a Great Spot but slower and pronounced, you could hear every individual knock on the tree if you listened carefully. I decided I was imagining it, but in the back of my mind I had plenty of suspicions. After breakfast, and packing everything away, these wre confirmed int the most glorious of ways!

We had made several rounds from the campsite to the cars, and this was the last one, taking the last of the limited gear we had taken for camping back. I was walking along through one of the glades in the wood, with a sleeping bag and tonnes of my stuff on my back and my Binoculars and Camera firmly packed away. It was then that a small bird decided to fly accross the path. My immediate thought, based on the size, was a Nuthatch, but it was mainly bacl with some white spotty specklingy things faintly visible. Woodpecker, I thought, but it was absolutely tiny, Great Tit-sized and no bigger! However, Woodepcker turned out to be right, as it landed vertically on a tree about 20 metres away in the wood, before climbing round to the other side of the tree. However, before it went I saw the black and white colouration of its back, and a fairly obvious red crown. A basic view to the extreme, but I was delighted, I had seen a LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER! I didn't bother hanging around for it, having had a good enough view and knowing it would vanish when I unpacked my Bins/Camera. with this, treecreeper, lesser whitethoat, house martin, tawny owl and garden warbler, my sussex year list had suddenly become135, and my british 138.

Next stop, on the return journey back to Seaford, was Pulborough Brooks. Here, I got excellent views of Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Whitehtroat and Blackcap almost immediately, laong with a singing Lesser Whitethroat. From the Hangar, there were plenty of wildfowl, with several Wigeon, Teal and Shoveler remaining, 2 Pintail and 2 escapee Snow Geese. at the Hangar dad and I heard a Nightingale, but it remianed elusive. However, the next one, over at Jupp's Viewpoint, was much more showy, rather happily we saw it very well, and thanks to the birder (Dave Smith) who let me borrow his scope to get  good look at it. however, we repayed our debts in a small way slightly later on!

Having seen the Nightingales rather well, we set off for West Mead hide, along the path where we hoped to see Adder. It was at this point that Matt Eade aclled with some brilliant news, a Bonaparte's Gull ar Arlington Reservoir! Fantastic, a bird never before seen in the local area, drat, we are 60 miles away! No worries though, a frantic rush back to the car was in order, in which we ran into Dave Smith and the other birders he was with in the car park, and bestowed them the important news. I never saw them at Arlington, but I hope they did manage to get over to see what was a fantastic bird.

The Gods were with us that day, and as we drove madly along the roads back towards home, we encountered not a single line of traffic, a true miracle in sussex on a sunday! When we arrived, about 30 birders were enjoying the bird. It was at close quarters for now, but before long it had drifted way over to the other side of the reservoir, showing snowy-white underings, a chocolate-brown head and an all-black bill as it went. this, along with the Nightingale, not only made me very happy, but boosted year lists further, 137 for sussex, and 140 in britain. The Bonaparte's Gull was still visible, and those beautifully clean underwings stuck out like a sore thumb from the 30 or so Little Gulls keeping it company. During a brief stay before we left, a pair of Great Crested Grebes were displaying and two Lesser Whitethroats and a Willow Warbler were singing.

That is the first part of my round-up, for a small amount of birind in the week and a brilliant day at Splash Point today, you will all have to keep a look out for when I can next squeeze in the time!

24th Jan 2010-Splash Point

got down to Splash for an hour and a halfs seawatching. Throughout there was a constant stream of gulls hading West close inshore, mainly Herring, Black-headed and Common but including a Mediterranean, my 90th species of 2010. 91 and 92 were provided by Fulmar(10 or so cruising the cliffs) and Kittiwake(a raft of 200+ offshore presumably returning from their winter in the oceans early). Also seen moving offshore during the time were Gannet(8 fishing offshore and 3 West), Red-throated Diver (1E), unidentified diver species (15W and 4E), Unidentified Auk species(6W), a Little Gull(1E) and a Brent Goose(1W). Also present were several Rock Pipits on the boulders and beach. Also of interest was a Fulmar inland over Seaford, flying over the houses on Southdown Road. I have seen then over the town annually or the past few years, though usually they turn up in Spring and Summer(seen in Aug 07, Jun 08 and May 09).

8 Jan 2010-Splash Point and Seaford

at Splash Point today, smaller numbers of passerines overhead, although one flock of 50 Fieldfares was notable. on the sea were 2 Common Scoter, while a Guillemot flew West, with a Little Gull East and a Woodlark overhead passing East. a few Gannets were also offshore again. My yearlist now stands at 45 Species.