Well, last night trying to decide where to go, weather forecast was pretty poor with heavy cloud, and the possibility of Thunder and Lightning with heavy showers so didn't want to go far⛈ With Pied Flycatchers being seen at Seaford Head, it was there or the Patch, reports of Wheatears and Whinchats on the Downs and waking up half an hour before my alarm decided me, Seaford it is!! Once again I'm alone😢, with Margie deciding the thought of getting soaked and possibly struck by Lightning wasn't really her cup of Tea and she had the washing and housework to do, my "thought you done that last week" comment wasn't well received😆!! I don't know good job I'm around to get the Birding done if it was up to her it just wouldn't get done at all!😀
So I hit the road about 5.10AM ,grey cloud as predicted but not to bad , get down the road to the A27 and it starts to rain ,great!! However I press on getting to Seaford Head about ten to six,the rain has stopped but it's looking threatening so I put the waterproof on under me camera harness, this turns out to be a fairly large mistake as it doesn't rain at all ,but I'm drenched in sweat pretty much all the way round TMI i know!!
So thick heavy cloud ,no wind, showers through the night migration underway, I'm expecting the bushes to be dripping in Warblers and Flycatchers and the ground to be carpeted in Wheatears and Wrynecks!! Wrong!! It starts badly the Dung Heap is devoid of life not even a single Pied Wag!! Uh-oh!! Head down Hope Gap very little couple of Willow Warblers, but even the local birds seem to have gone, Two weeks ago on my last visit there were Whitethroats everywhere with plenty of local stuff such as Wrens ,Robins, Tits etc but even these had vanished as well, although some Twat was flying a Drone about ,I'm not sure what the rules are about these things ,but I'm pretty sure you ain't suppose to fly them at nature reserves and you are supposed to stay close to them no sign of anyone flying it so must have been a fair distance away! Anyway it was bloody irritating, but luckily only went on for a few minutes before it disappeared towards the Cuckmere!!
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Drone Oh for a Shotgun!!
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So no birds and irritated by people, nothing new there to be fair ,I get to hope bottom, not even any Stonechats or Linnets what is going on has there been a mass alien bird abduction although there are a abnormally large amount of Rabbits perhaps with a shortage of grass ,most of which seems to have turned to dust maybe they've turned carnivore and eaten them all🐇!! I head up the west side thinking there maybe a Whinchat up there but constant scanning shows nothing moving so I make the decision to abandon this plan and head to the Cuckmere!! I turn about face and head back down into the valley, not sure which of us was more surprised when I nearly trod on a Wheatear as it walked out of the entrance to a Rabbit hole. Luckily I reacted first and managed to get several reasonable shots off, despite the gloom, before it moved away to a more sensible distance, where it was joined by another less brightly plumaged member of it's species!!
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Scruffy Stonechat
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Turned out it wasn't, the walk along the cliff top was again largely birdless except for a couple of Whitethroats which disappeared into the bushes, although the Seven Sisters did look kind of cool in the mist!
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| Misty Seven Sisters |
I dropped down into the Cuckmere ,no Egrets in the trees, no Rock Pipits along the river, no Skylarks or Mipits in the grass ,damn things are looking bad ,an Egret was standing on the banks of a pool though and several more were dotted about in the distance then my first Common Sandpiper of the year flew in and was immediately chased off by my second Common Sandpiper of the year before I could get a picture, typical!!
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Little Egret
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At this point I bumped into another Birder ,walking in along the Cuckmere who confirmed the dire nature of the situation ,although he did point out the large flock of Curlew foraging in the grass and he had seen a Kingfisher.
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| Part of the Curlew Flock |
So we decided to team up, cross the Cuckmere and try to find a Wood Sandpiper on the scrape, as one had been reported a couple of days ago, considering the day so far this was wildly optimistic😲!! And so it proved although on the circuit of the pools from the farm track we did find a couple of Dunlin, they're always Dunlin when I find them, but also another Common Sandpiper, though no sign of the hoped for Wood! However walking back along the river we did come a cross a small flock of birds, Reed Bunting, couple of Whitethroat, a few Stonechats and the best a couple of Whinchats! We also had good views of a Cormorant struggling to eat a Flatfish!
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| Heron |
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Whinchat
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Cormorant Vs Fish
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Whinchats
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We recrossed the Cuckmere with the intention of heading to Harry's Bush to search for the Pied Fly's reported yesterday, good news there were several Rock Pipits back at the river mouth and several Egrets back roosting in the trees! ,another birder later told me he'd counted 59!! A small snake which I thought was probably a Grass Snake rather than an Adder, must have been a young one was only about 5 inches long, slithered across the path, spotted by the other birder, (note to self ,ask people their names when you meet them in future!!), A few Juvenile Goldfinch and Linnets were about as well! We eventually reached Harry's Bush having seen very little on route,(quel surprise!) although a couple of Green Woodpeckers livened up proceedings, predictably quiet with a few birds about ,couple of Chaffinches about the best, we eventually picked out a bird near the cattle feeders, which turned out to be a constantly calling Redstart ,but didn't hang around for pictures, and despite some serious scanning there was no sign of any Pied Flys 😢 the other chap at this point, probably thinking I was a bit of a jinx decided to head back down the hill whilst I,sucker for punishment that I am decided to try Hope Gap again. On the way to the stile a few Willow Warblers flitted about in the Gorse, one of which at least had the decency to pose ok.
Then I noticed the Peregrine flying along the cliff edge, the wheatears must have been reacting to him rather than any bad fieldcraft on my part😀 though they must have some kind of sixth sense as they spooked before the Peg appeared!!
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Male Linnet
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Not exactly sure what he is upto here
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Wheatear showing "white arse" they are named after!
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Wheatear
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Another scruffy Stonie
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Different Wheatear
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Raven
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Peregrine Falcon by small size think it's a male
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Peregrine Falcon
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| Peregrine Falcon |
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| Peregrine Falcon |
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| Peregrine Falcon |
And that was about it, I walked the cliff top to the Golf course along the Golf Course checked out the Beacon place where I had Pied Fly last year and then did another tour of the Dung Heap and saw in total one Whitethroat! (not including Corvids and Gulls) hard bloody work! The day saved by some quality views of some good birds ,but certainly not the migration fest I was hoping for!! Can't help but think what might of been at the Patch!!
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