Seaford Head

With reports of Pied Flycatchers, Whinchats and lots of Willow Warblers in Sussex thought it would be a good idea to head for Seaford Head to see what I could find, alarm set for 5AM, straight up quick wash and on me way, you will note that I am on my own, with Margie declining to come ,due to tiredness and having lot's to do, I tried to entice her with talk of the  extra dung that may be on the heap and the cute Bunnies that would no doubt be present , but to no avail apparently the Washing and Housework doesn't do itself? (who knew😆) well the bird-watching doesn't do itself either so good job I'm prepared to step up!!😊

After a safe journey in which I noticed a fine sunrise which unfortunately was more or less finished as I arrived in the carpark, although the sky was showing some interesting patterns, a large, threatening storm cloud to the east was worrying but the wind was from the other way, so went coatless, tooled up and was on my way, first port of call was the dung heap, which was birdless!! Lot's of Corvids and Gulls amongst the cows and sheep in the field behind the barn but not much else!!!😢

Storm Cloud

Last dregs of the Sunrise

Birdless Dung Heap

Skyscape

Decided to head down Hope Gap, as predicted lot's of Rabbits,(it's usually Margie's job to take the cute pics, I took a couple this time) more to the point there were more birds, with lots flitting from one side to the other and many landing on the path to feed, lot's of Robins, Dunnocks, Goldfinch, a few Chaffinch and a couple of  Greenfinch were about as well. There were a lot of  Common Whitethroats and a few Willow Warblers as well, best though was a family of Green Woodpeckers, one of which actually showed OK!!!!😲 

Rabbits, absolutely loads about probably more than I've ever seen there

Green Woodpecker

Common Whitethroat

Arriving at the bottom of the Gap there wasn't much about, a couple of Linnets, a young Song Thrush  single very young Stonechat not sure where all the Stonechats have gone, there were loads a couple of months ago, though I did find a couple of groups later on. 

Song Thrush

Linnet

Stonechat

With little evidence of any birds along the coast ,I decided to retrace my steps to play with the Woodpeckers again, checkout Harry's Bush then make my way along to the Cuckmere. This started  quite well with the Woodpeckers showing ok for the species (they're usually flighty bastards😏) ,Harry's Bush seemed deserted though more Green Woodpeckers were knocking around the field, at the bottom of the field I turned east and followed the path, the hedge/bushes here were quite productive, with Willow Warblers, Whitethroats and quite a bit of common stuff. One bird had me scratching my head, a Great Tit flew in with another Bird in tow both disappeared into the bush ,the Great Tit appeared at the top of the bush a couple of Willow Warblers and a Whitethroat were also in the area, the mystery bird also appeared at the top of the bush and showed well, I couldn't think what it was, rejecting all sorts of theories dark Willow Warbler, Reed Warbler something more exotic I didn't know the name of, eventually the bird flew off along the hedge with the Great Tit, luckily I had managed to get a few decent pics and when I got home  and had a look at them, it was a blooming Wheatear!!!, quickly confirmed on t'internet! Now I've seen loads of Wheatears in me time but never seen one behave like that, I also saw it fly into several bushes and never noticed a White Rump, just goes to show birds don't always do what they are supposed to, This was of course compounded by me spending most of the time viewing the bird through the camera, trying to get a picture rather than viewing the bird through the bins where the clearer view may well have saved a lot of angst!!! 

Green Woodpecker showing OK!

Belle Tout and the Seven Sisters

Great Tit and Friend

Great Tit

Wheatear

A very showy Willow Warbler was here,despite the white tummy I was able to rule out Wood Warbler all on my own 😃 A Greenfinch showed well here as well.

Willow Warbler

Greenfinch

I eventually reached the Cuckmere, the most obvious noticeable thing on view were the Little Egrets at least 40 in the roost and dotted around the valley with one close enough for some ok Pics

Little Egret

Small part of The Egret Roost with Grey Heron gate crasher

As I reached the river ,plenty of birds here, lots of Rock Pipits, Pied Wagtails and a couple of Wheatears doing what they are supposed, running around on the ground! In the bushes a couple of Reed Buntings showed ok, more Whitethroats and Goldfinches here as well!

Rock Pipit

Wheatear

Reed Bunting

Pied Wagtail

Reed Bunting

I headed North along the river a family of Shelducks on the water, I scanned the channels for Waders, now when other Sussex Birders find waders here ,it's Least this, Wood that, American Golden the other when I find them it's Dunlin!! Very nice Dunlin which gave pretty good views but still Dunlin, though I did find a Greenshank and a nice Summer Plumage Black-tailed Godwit, there were also some Curlew out on the grass but to far away for pictures.

Black-headed Gull

More Egrets

Greenshank

Dunlin

Dunlin

Black-tailed Godwit

I decided to retrace my steps as I was wilting in the heat and didn't fancy walking all the way round, pretty much the same all the way back with a few Blue Butterflies thrown in, pretty sure all the ones I saw well enough to ID were Common Blue

I bumped in to a couple of other birders at the river mouth who pointed out that the river was no longer running into the sea and just petering out which meant you could walk around to the east side, I've never known this before, they also said that there was very little on the scrape, I walked around anyway just to say I'd done it but like they said was sod all on the scrape although to be fair I didn't really look very hard😏 were a couple of Wheatears here as well though think they were the ones I'd seen earlier relocated to this side of the river.

Wheatear with yellow flower

Wheatear Missile

Another Whitethroat

I followed the cliff path back to Hope Gap, Linnets, Stonechat and the inevitable Whitethroats but the Green Woodpeckers had disappeared which wasn't really surprising as the dogwalkers were out in force by now, one woman had 7 dogs ,who needs 7 dogs! Getting hard to tell it's a nature reserve, signs clearly say dogs to be kept under control, most were off the leash in the bushes, fair bit of shit everywhere as well, which complimented the numerous wet wipes, blue gloves and a couple of disposable masks.😡

I believe the wildlife trust has opened up some of the scrub in an effort to help certain butterflies but for me all it has done is let the dogs penetrate further into the scrub meaning less places for birds to nest in peace although that said were still quite a few fledglings  about so not all bad. 

Last few pics 

Common Blue I think?

Stonechat

Linnet

Goldfinch

Another Whitethroat

Looks how I felt after 4 hours Hardcore birding 😀

View of Belle Tout from Seaford Head

Excellent morning, not the migration fest I was hoping, for though was probably over optimistic for the 1st of August😁 Nice to get reasonably close to Green Woodpeckers and always good to see Wheatears ,another couple of weeks and hopefully the place will be buzzing, hopefully the weather won't be as good and there will be less people!!