After spending the last 20 years in Lockdown, what's that you say it's only been a couple of months😲,I felt it would be good now restrictions have been lifted a bit, to head for the coast and do a bit of Sea-watching. Last night I got the scope out of hibernation and gave it a good clean, not used it this year yet 😢. All prepared, I was up at 5.30 and on why down to Splash Point Seaford (Sussex's Premier Sea-watching site😀😲 Controversial!!) Arriving as the light was beginning to break, by the time I'd layered up it was nearly sunrise!! With a brisk North Easterly I went full winter plumage, including Balaclava although no Long Johns (TMI), was on my own as Margie would rather watch paint dry than spend 6hrs staring out to sea!! I wasn't over confident as a North Easterly is not the most conducive for a watch and my fears were compounded with no members of the legendary Seaford Crew present, I'm hoping this was due their to reading of the weather conditions, using their immense wisdom and experience and going else where rather than anything more sinister, although with an average age of 112 you can never be sure!!😏 hopefully they are all ok!!
I decided to check out the Kittiwakes before commencing "the watch" mainly as it was still gloomy ,fair number milling about the cliffs, a couple of Feral Pigeons and several Rock Pipits about as well.
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| Feral Pigeon (even I'm not gonna string it into a Rock Dove!) |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Kittiwakes milling around |
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| Kittiwakes on the Sea |
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| Kittiwakes |
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| More Kittiwakes |
So to the Point, at this juncture I was going to wax lyrical about the joys of Sea-watching, the thrill of wondering what's coming next, of getting on a distant dot and finally I'ding it as!! But I won't cos it was basically pants, In just under an hour I had 4 Gannets, 3 Sandwich Terns every bird I got on was a Kittiwake (amazing how quickly they lose their appeal) or occasionally a Fulmar, I actually cheered when an Oystercatcher went by!!😂 It's probably worth noting that just because I didn't see anything it doesn't mean there wasn't anything to see, Sea-watching is a lot easier with 4 or 5 of Sussex's best birders spotting and IDing the birds, but with my limited ability I'm satisfied that it was crap💩
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| The Moon |
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| The famous Seaford Basket, seemed smaller than I remembered it |
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| Newhaven Lighthouse |
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| Bird Grinders 😢 |
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| You can tell how bad it was when I'm taking pics of Gulls, although conversely had I spent less time taking pics of Gulls I might have seen more!! |
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| Distant Gannet!! |
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| Cormorant |
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| One of the Rock Pipits popped up next to me! |
So what to do, I decided to climb up to Seaford Head, anyone who remembers my post concerning my assault on Wolstonbury Hill will know what a momentous decision this was, massively steep and me with my lungs!!😵 So I headed up, I had divested myself of one coat and left me scope in the car so wasn't that bad and I made it with only 2 or 3 stops to gasp desperately for breath, I was hoping to photograph the Kittiwakes on the cliffs but they remained stubbornly on the sea and anyway some Health & Safety maniac had reacted to the recent cliff fall by putting up a bit of rope, madness!! Did have a nice encounter with a couple of Herring Gulls, one of which gave me the full on "long call" from approx 8 feet away leaving me ears ringing somewhat, lots of Jackdaws and more Rock Pipits here as well.
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| Herring Gull, they do look fine at this time of year |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Long Call |
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| Looking quite pleased with himself |
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| Jackdaw |
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| The view from the top! |
Well having reached the top and got me breath back, I could here Skylarks singing, this is one of the best places to get pics of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits as they are quite tolerant of people, both present in good numbers so I did me best!!
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| Wheatear |
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| Wheatear in a bush |
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| Wheatear in Gorse |
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| Wheatear in Grass |
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| It's a slightly different picture!! |
So buoyed by this sighting I continued along the cliff path, more Skylarks, Pipits etc I reach the gate before the drop down into Hope Bottom when I spy a close pipit near the edge I climb up to it and it spooks off damn!! I'm admiring the view of Belle Tout from here when a Gull whooshes up from the cliff and flies about 10 feet from me head , I get my bearings and in an instant realise it's a White Winger😲😲😲 it is flying away from me now towards the Cuckmere, I get several pics most of em blurred, examining the back of the Camera shots I think it's a Glaucous Gull rather than an Iceland mainly going by the long bill, and overall bulk although this could have been deceptive due to the proximity and lack of anything to compare it with, If anyone thinks different happy to hear opinions!! Now confirmed as a Glaucous hurrah!!
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| Stonechat on Gorse |
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| Stonechat |
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| Mr Stonechat |
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| Fulmar |
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| Linnet |
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| Linnet |
I reached a point where I could overlook the Cuckmere valley, I bumped into another birder here and he joined me to scan, the last time I was here there were hundreds of Gulls not today, couple of Egrets some Canada Geese and that was about it. Saying my goodbyes (another birder I don't know the name of!! Note to self introduce yourself, Margie's social training wasted again😦) headed down to the beach scanning the foreshore the, the tide is way out, there is a small group of Gulls one of em looks interesting, I rue the decision to leave my scope in the car, suddenly they take to the air spooked by something unseen by me and the interesting Gull turns into a full on White Winger again Hurrah and good news the other guy has also seen it re-joining me on the beach ,where once again I fail to introduce myself (I'm consistent at least!) He had it in his scope and is confident it's a Glauc!! While we stand on the beach a couple of Hirundine appear Housemartins although not before I'd mis ID'd them as Swallows ,I tried to claim the 2 bird theory when the 2nd one appeared ,also a Housemartin 😎 let's be honest I have to have at least one mis-ID per outing and I got the Glauc right!!! Could have been a third bird bloody sure it didn't have a white rump!!
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| White Winger |
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| Housemartin |
Probably too many Pics of the Glauc there!! So time to retrace my steps ,had another play with the Stonechats at Hope Bottom, couple of showy Rock Pipits present now!
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| Not sure what this is but plenty of it about! |
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| Stonechat |
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| Stonechat |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Meadow Pipit |
Probably a few to many Stonechat/Pipit pics as well but give me a break first I've seen this year and they pose so nicely!! Don't worry nearly at the end now, many, many people trekking past don't think I've seen so many people up there before, though it's often busy ,suppose a combo of Lockdown and Bank Holiday bringing the crowds out, the Golf course was busy now as well, perhaps surprisingly the Wheatear was still present dodging the golf balls with a couple of Skylark outriders, had great views of a couple of Fulmars patrolling the cliffs as well, good thing about this walk fields on one side cliffs on the other so plenty of variety!! Whilst watching the Wheatear a bird flew over calling from the dim recesses of my memory I thought that's a Yellow Wagtail which the terrible picture seems to confirm!
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| Great Black-backed Gull |
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| Have a healthy respect/fear for these on high cliffs since one tried to kill me on Noup Head!!! |
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| Fulmars no rope was crossed in the taking o these pictures |
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| Fulmars |
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| Fulmar |
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| Fulmar |
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| Yellow Wagtail? |
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| Skylark |
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| At least it's a different Stonechat |
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| Wheatear |
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| Wheatear |
Headed down the slope towards Splash Point, hoped to have another crack at the Kittiwakes but no sign of any at all!! There was a final Gull flypast and a Rock Pipit said farewell and I was back at the car!!
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| The view from the top note the "barrier" to the cliffs!! |
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| Final Pipit |
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| Herring Gull |
Well first day out for months started slowly but improved massively. Well Happy with a self-found Glaucaus Gull and nice to see a few different birds to the locals around Hurstpierpoint!!!😁😁
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