Of Birds & Cake the Blog of Paul: Seaford Head

Lockdown is eased, Hurrah! at last we can get out further afield but where to go? I decided against my better judgement to head for Seaford Head this is my go to place for spring migration but as we are in the middle of May ,it’s probably to late for many species, and reports from other coastal locations are not that encouraging but once again hope triumphs over experience so Seaford it is. As it’s our first time out out in a while, (Margie ain’t been in the car for 7 weeks), “we” decided to go early, so we had “the conversation”.

Margie “What time we going tomorrow”

Me “Early”

Margie “How Early”

(now it should be noted that there are 2 definitions of early there is “Paul Early” set the alarm for 4 ,bound out of bed magnificently, quick wash and brush up ,on site for Sunrise listen to the Dawn Chorus whilst the sky bleeds red in the background .Then there is “Margie Early” set the alarm for 6, get up about half past ,have a shower, cup of tea, toast spend 10 minutes deciding what coat to put on hit the road about 8, arrive on site about 9 just as all the birds disappear!!)

As it’s the first time proper out for a while I plead my case and the alarm is set for 4.30, now usually this would mean Margie would wake up ,I would say “you coming” there would be some sort of muttering, she’d roll over and I would bugger off on my own !! However not today she was up like a young gazelle straight into the bathroom, anyway, to cut a long story short we were on the road 15 minutes later!! Magnificent!! Unfortunately, Seaford hadn’t read the script and low cloud meant the spectacular Sunrise was reduced to a pinkish tinge and the Dawn Chorus weren’t that great either!! Bugger! Although the crescent Moon is some compensation.

On arrival we decide to check out the dung heap , this is quite often productive but not today not even a Pied Wag ,my fears are being realised it’s very quiet, still we press on regardless and head down Hope Gap, things pick up a little with Whitethroat and Blackcap singing away, with a Wren and Song Thrush also joining in with the Chiffchaffs, Blackbirds, Robins and Dunnocks , a nice male Linnet shows well and as we near the bottom it was nice to hear and see a couple of male Greenfinch, the light is terrible as are the pictures, at Hope Bottom Margie disappears down the stairs in search of something arty to photograph whilst I stare out to Sea ,now I’m using Margie’s Bins which are Ok (Come on Zeiss pull ya fingers out I need my Conquests back how long does it take to completely take apart and rebuild a pair of bins!!) but not up to seawatching so it’s lucky there’s bugger all out there although 2 distant specs might have been Divers they could also have been dust on the lens and a fervent imagination!!

We take some pics of the abundant Rabbits, pretty sure mines the cuter pic? Most rabbits I’ve seen here for a long time they are everywhere, we head east along the cliffs ,no sign of any Fulmars which is worrying, Skylarks aplenty though belting out their song and a couple of displaying Meadow Pipits the best along this stretch. We drop down past the coastguard cottages and head to the Cuckmere , plenty of Little Egrets in Channels and a couple of Grey Herons , more Skylarks and Mippits and another vocal Greenfinch ,we walk along the river but again it’s quiet the only wader is an Oystercatcher ,a couple of Shelducks and a group of Swans, probably last year’s Youngsters, are about the best of it, we are already knackered so decided to head back rather than walk all the way round ,it’s a good decision as we head back to the beach a few Woodies flush up from the other bank, I’m thinking predator I scan the beach and sure enough sitting on the ridge of the beach is a Falcon ,I'm thinking that’s a small peregrine then my brain kicks in ,Hobby!!! It flies up and perches on a bush ,displaying a fine pair of orange trousers confirming the ID , before flipping over the ridge and disappearing behind a bush not to be seen again, I speculate that it could be fresh in off the sea and now resting up, record shots below ,not good was a fair distance away and only on show about 30 seconds!!

By now we are both flagging, I’m assuming this unusual tiredness is a legacy of our encounter with the Covid 19 it’s a barstard and no mistake!! We retrace our steps ,with the same results although the top of Hope Gap produces great views of a Song Thrush in full song and I find a Stonechat on my second tour of the dung heap although Margie has already retired to the car by now.

Well it wasn’t the most bird filled of trips, but enjoyable none the less, the hoped for Hoopoe ,Black Kite or more realistic late Spot Fly were not forth coming but it was great to be out somewhere you can have those kind of hopes, Nice to see my first Hobby of the year and to see a fair amount of Greenfinch a once common bird that is becoming increasingly hard to see, hopefully a resurgence is on the way!!

We left the Car Park at about 8.15 there were only a few cars and we saw very few people out and about, the advantage of an early start, so social distancing was no problem at all!

Photos below, they are all a bit dark and gloomy, the light was not kind today, but we did our best, all by me unless otherwise stated.