Water Pipit sketch

Hopefully this might come in handy with my description of the water pipit at cuckmere. The same sketch is on my description, minus the background, which I doodled on later. Hardly the work of a professional artist, but combined with the notes I took this should hopefully be enough to convince the local records comittee. I have decided the pipit was most likely in moult, hence the streaking on the breast and a lack of a pinkish flush on a bird which otherwise looked perfect for a summer-plumaged individual.

Red Kite etc, 10/4/2010

At an undisclosed location in Sussex, a pair of Displaying Lapwings, and two pairs of Little Egrets seen on nests. At Southease station and along the river from there-Glynde, 4 Cetti's warbler, 3 Blackcap and loads of Chiffchaff singing. A Red Kite and a Buzzard flew over the house, the former a year tick, and my 129th sussex species of 2010.

fantastically bonkers day in the Cuckmere, 9/4/2010

It didn't look like a good day for birds in the Cuckmere. The wind was light S/SW, and by the time I arrived the world and several distant relatives of its had trampled every square metre of my precious patch. Things didn't look very promising at all for the first half an hour, with a pair of Shelduck and a solitary phyllosc (probably a Willow Warbler) the highlights. Things picked up a tiny bit on the east side around the meanders, with this unusual escapee among the Canada Geese.

With the addition of the Bar-headed Goose, my spirits were lifted somewhat, and they went a notch higher with a distinctive wailing 'peeuw' call that I heard from the river. After two minutes of patience and some attempts to call it out (it was a call farly easy to mimic), I got a brief view of a Little Ringed Plover. However, a dog plundering through the saltmarsh sent it back out of view, and it didn't look like it would come out again. Around the back of the scrape, during my first look, I saw a Wheatear and a pair of Stonechats. 2 White Wagtails were feeding on the edge of the scrape, and a Swallow was hawking over the scrape and the surrounding fields. From here I went to check the sea, and I found this dot offshore.

believe it or not, this is indeed a Black-necked Grebe! It was so distant, I only managed to ID it after zooming in on the photos a huge amount, and even then I could only tell it apart from slav grebe by shape. It was a summer-plumaged bird, usually one of the finest sights in birding, but sadly, no matter what angle I tried to look at it from, it was constantly in Silhouette. After taking all these photos, my camera had run out of battery, I didn't think this would be a problem, as I doubted I would see anything much more interesting during the rest of the day.

However, by now it was about 3.00, and a lot of people had eft the Cuckmere. I walked back up to the scrape, and was looking at the White Wagtails again when I turned around and noticed something sitting on a fencepost about ten metres away. On my first look, I could see it was a Pipit, and an odd one at that, with a striking supercilium, an all-black beak and a greyish coloured head. It dived down into a ditch, but reappeared, and this time I got an excellent view for about 15 seconds. I noted that it had a browny-grey back and wings, long legs and a long tail, and a breast with a few pale streaks on the upper breast, but otherwise the breast and throat were very clean white. I had now narrowed it down to Water Pipit or Scandinavian Rock, but luckily I had the old Collins Field Guide with me. What I had seen ooked very much like a typical Water Pipit, but in the book was an illustartion of a rare variation of Scandinavian Rock which was very pale and grey. The illustartion showed it to have a dark malar patch, and when the Pipit appeared again, I checked, and it lacked that patch, leaving me with quite a clear cut Water Pipit! However, before long it flew off, showing white flanks to the tail, another good marker for this species. It called now as well, a sharp, explosive 'tseeeeep', very similar to Rock Pipit but subtly higher-pitched and more drawn out, giving a more evocative feel. Following this, I frantically searched all the small creeks and floodwater around the Scrape. The number of White Wagtails around was now at least six, the Swallow was hawking the fields again, there were plenty of Meadow Pipits, 5 Snipe were flushed from one of the islands on the scrape by a goose plondering through the grass, and a Little Ringed Plover showed well on the scrape. But in all this madness, I couldn't find the Water Pipit, and eventually gave up, heading back up the river towards Exceat Bridge. I heard the other Little Ringed Plover calling away from the river, but it wasn't immediately visible, and I couldn't be bothered searching for it again. However, at ht epoint were the meaders started, a pipit flew up from the bank of the river and landed on the shore of them, uttering exactly the same call as the Water Pipit I had heard earlier. It was indeed the same bird, and, at a happy distance and with no one else nearby, provided good views for five minutes, n the company of a Meadow Pipit and a Reed Bunting. There wasn't much else to look for now I had all the major details, but I piad more attention to its shape. It had proportionately longer legs and tail than the accompanying Meadow Pipit, and had a longer-necked, slender, more upright stance, similar to Richard's Pipit.

Walking back up the river, over the bridge and up Chyngton Farm, I saw the Bar-headed Goose on the meadners, with another Swallow and two Sand Martins hawking above. Two juvenile gulls n the meanders proved to be a Great Blackback and a Yellow-legged, with a nice comparison between the two easy. Finally, I saw two more Swallows over Chyngton Farm, and a group of 7 Shelduck feeding together in the fields below, before heading home pretty much on cloud nine!

Blatchington Gof Course and The Downs, 8/4/2010

on the 8th Apri, a family walk on the downs above Seaford wasn't hugely productive, but did produce four species of warblers and a few Butterflies.

On the Golf Course between Seaford and Denton, singing Chiffchaffs were in abundance, with at least 20 singing males. There were also a few greyer coloured Warblers with different calls, Willow Warblers, and four of them, and I heard a singing Whitethroat and a Bullfinch. Among the butterflies, both Comma and Peacock were common and I got a few photos of each.

In Greenway Bottom, on the south downs, 5 singing Chiffchaffs, 2 more migrant Willow Warblers and a singing Blackcap finished off a good walk, in which I got one year tick (Whitethroat)

*note-I also heard a Coal Tit on Firle Road, Seaford, my first record from in town, and perhaps a continental bird

warblers from the back garden

yesterday, Blackcap and Chiffchaff were singing from gardens backing onto ours. A small Phyllosc just appeared on a brief fycatching sortie, but disappeared before I could ID it.

Willow Warbler

while lounging about in my room, enjoying the teenagers privelige of being incredibly lazy, I saw a phyllosc flitting about in one of the trees I can see from my back window. It was quite jumpy, flicked its wings constantly, and not once could it be seen to dip its tail. A Willow Warbler, a year tick, and which takes my sussex list up to 121, and my british to 125. Sometimes, I really, really like year-listing!

Splash Point, seaford

in an two and a half hours of seawatching at Splash Point today, SE winds looked promising, and we saw some good birds, but it wasn't a classic day.

Dad and I started at 7.00, with the first bird we saw being...

a White Wagtail!
It was walking in the middle of the road, 30 yards back from the carpark at Splash Point, as we drove along. First priority, don't run it over(!), second priority, have a closer look at the pied wagtail, which is now deeply indebted to us, and realise it is in fact the Pied's much scarcer cousin! Sharifin Gardiner and Dick Gilmore were alreadt at Splash, and had seen an Arctic Skua and a few other things without us. During an hor and a half until 9.30, To start with, we saw mainly Common Scoter (we saw about 150 overall), and they were by far the most numerous species during the moring. We also saw 25 Sandwich terns, a similar number of Brent Geese, 5 Red-breasted Merganser, 2 Mediterraena Gulls, 2 Teals and a Velvet Scoter, along with 2 Meadow Pipits, amd presumably the White Wagtail, coming in off the sea. Some o the Common Scoter were close in, and I managed to separate males and females within the flocks that were reasonably close in, the male/female ratio was approximately 3/1, though I don't remember very specifically. One flock of 10 Common Scoter settled 100 yards offshore, giving excellent views throgh the scope, with the males yellow bills very noticeable. Another flock of about 15, flying high above the sea a dn also about 100 yards out, had a female Velvet scoter in it, the first time I have seen this species locally and only the second time I have managed to pick one out in a scoter flock. the two Mediterranean Gulls were passign with 5 Sandwich Terns, which went through in small groups of 4-10 througout the morning. One flock of Brent Geese, seen from the car as we were leaving, were flying directly over the beach, and it looked like they would go directly over the groyne and the watching Dick Gilmore and Matt Eade, but taking one look at the two men with binoculars they came to their senses, and dramatically swerved around the groyne at the last possible moment. However, despite their impressive flight co-ordination and escape manouveres, Matt still managed a photograph, see here.

photos from the past few days

on the cliffs of Seaford Head on 1 April 2010, there were, as usual, plenty of crows, some being very photogenic, as you can see below

This Carrion Crow was just taking off when I got the photot

a Jackdaw that must have seen something interesting

'wotcher lookin'at?'

I can't think of a caption that suits this better than the previous one, wonder if anyone else can?

this particular crow was fantastically tame, it was approachable up to just two metres...

pulling up grass, presumably for nest lining, without a care in the world for the kid with the camera

I realise you're probably all fed up of Crow photos now, but they are one of my favourite bird families, and one more photo won't do anyone any harm!

This Skylark was on Seaford Golf Course. Although there were many singing, this bird looked tired, and only flew off when one of the golfers came incredibly close and flushed it, grrrr! Because of this, I think it was a migrant

A Magpie seen in my back garden

a Ramshorn Snail, found in our pond(don't worry, I pt it back straight afterwards!)

Gropper and Crest

With winds SW mostly today, my initial plans to go to Splash Point were hampered, but, still determined to see something interesting today, I went up to Seaford Head today, whcih prived an inspired decision.

Along the cliffs between Splash Point and Seaford Golf Course were loads of Kittiwake, several Fulmars and 3 territorial Rock Pipits. As I was walking past Seaford Golf Course, along the clifftop, something flew up from the long-grass on the cliff-top side of the path, flew accross the path, and landed in some long grass on the opposite side. I had flushed up a few Meadow Pipits already, but I immediately knew this wasn't one. It was smaller than a mipit, with a longer tail. Its wings were shorter and it had a less direct flight. In flight, it also had its head bowed forward, rather than holding it straight like a mipit. As it flew away from me, I could see it had an olive-brown coloured back, with some streaking just about visible. I already had my suspicions, and they were happily confirmed when, the millisecond before it landed and disappeared for good, it fanned its tail out, revealing a row of white spots. I may not have seen it brilliantly, but this was a fairly typical view of a Grasshopper Warbler! It is very early for Groppers (the colloqiual south-east nickname for Grasshopper Warbler), to be back, but the earliest ever sussex record was on 2 April 2002, and last year one was seen at Selsey Bill and 4 April, so it does happen! However, aside from 50+ Meadow Pipits scattered accross the head, this looked like the only migrant. I did manage to see a fantastic sight in a Peregrine dive-bombing the pair of Ravens and 20 or so Jackdaws, which had seemingly come along to egg on their big cousins. However, the Peregrine won quite easily, and soon all the crows, even those double the falcon's size, had scarpered away over the cliff, leaving the Peregrine to lazily flap around in a victory parade.
I met a few other birders around Hope Gap, all of whom had seemingly had no luck whatsoever, seeing nothing in the gap. A tiny bit dissuaded, I carried on with my regular walk of the patch nontheless, and near the top of Hope Gap, in the small trees on the west side of the path, heard a tiny, shrill song, just on the edge of hearing range. It sounded like a Goldcrest, but lacked its jingly, melodic feel, leaving only one real alternative, a Firecrest, which showed incredibly well! I have only seen one well once(though I have seen plenty not very well at all!), and that was in a slightly worn plumage, being present on Seaford Head last October. However, this bird was immaculate, with an incredibly bright crest he was puffing up (not the right term I know but erecting just sounds wrong!), a crisp black and white facial pattern, lime-green wings and back and a slight orange tinge to its upper breast. I would have got a photo but sadly my camera point-blank refused to focus on it when there were so many branches to intercept its focus, and the bird's attempts at staying still for longer than a microsecond were absolutely pathetic.

Finally, walking back along the path on the western side of Hope Gap, I saw two gamebirds running accross the field to my right. For a brief, heart-stopping moment, I thought they were Quails, but looking on closer inspection they turned into the inplexably bizzarre and avant-garde plumes of two Red-legged Partridges. Where they had come from, I have no idea, they are probably the result of one of the farmers releasing them nearby, but maybe, just maybe these two had decided to cross the channel, and turned up on my patch!

photos from recently

Robin seen in my back garden-27/3/10

This rather curious Goldfinch was in the garden on the same date

while there are also now a good number of Toads in the pond, Dad introduced* them back into the pond about seven years ago, and since then they have spread into much of the surrounding area

* They are not introduced in the same way as pheasant/little owl or other such wildlife, rather we have just established a small, self-sustaining population of them, where they would most likely have been anyway before a town was built here, and hopefully they will continue to do well, since (when we first put toadspawn in the pond) they were quite a rare sight locally, although they may be recovering now, I'm not sure. They are, as far as I'm aware, the only population of Toads in Seaford, with the nearest presumably being in the river valleys or the pond on Seaford Head.

a close up of one of the toads firey, umber-coloured eyes.

One of the Stonechats I saw on 27 March on Camp Hill

I also found this eggshell at the foot of Camp Hill. I'm not sure what bird layed it, is anyone out there good at ID'ing eggs? It was in the same area as the Stonehchats, though since both male and female were out in the open, displaying, singing and mobile I very much doubt they have made a nest yet. However, it was about the size of egg a Stonechat-sezed bird would make. Does anyone have any ideas?

Finally, I have no idea what this beetle is, but I'm probably just a magpie who is drawn to anything shiny and metallic!