Of Birds & Cake the Blog of Paul: Clifftop Walk

First the exciting news on the weight loss front, after a brief flirtation back in the 14 stones I'm back on track with a 13st,12lb 2oz weigh in, although foolishly I made an Organic Cheesecake last night, which is now lurking in the fridge being all gooey and delicious, I am determined only to eat it under the terms of my diet, though I may have to cut out some unnecessary vegetables to balance things out!! 😏

At time of writing I've only had one bit for lunch!!

Today's Birding , as it so often does, started with a Seawatch at Splash Point Seaford, the weather was looking good , with a South Easterly and blue skies, trouble is it's still only February!!😏 I was hoping for a bit of early Brent and Med Gull action and to a certain extent I had some, however In the hour and 20 minutes I stuck it out for I had 23 Brents east one group of 19 and 2 pairs and one group of 4 Med Gulls through, a few Divers, 7 Common Scoter, (a group of 5 and a pair going east) a couple of Gannets, two flocks of Small Waders went through, very distant think they may have been Sanderling but awaiting confirmation from very dodgy pics! A couple of Great Crested Grebes on the sea, lots of Kittiwakes and Fulmars, quite a few Auks still knocking about, all that I could identify were Razorbills. There were several Rock Pipits including the blinged up individual from my last visit who it has to be said has a bit of an attitude problem ,chasing off a couple of Pied Wagtail and at least 3 other Rock Pipits!! I also had my first Shag of the year which was a result I usually have to wait til May!! Some pics of the action below they are predictably poor pics with most of the Seabirds distant, don't worry some better pics coming later!!

Also things have spiralled out of control, now at time of writing I have had 2 bits of Cheesecake😲😂!! Although it was pudding on the back of a healthy Haloumi/vegetable traybake courtesy of Margie!!

The Moon

Kittiwake

Blinged Up Rock pipit

Bolshy bugger

Newhaven with Brighton lit up behind it!!

Pale Waders any ID help appreciated!!

Brent Geese

Diver Sp

Great Crested Grebe

Black-headed Gull

First Shag of the year, Hurrah!!

Med Gull

Fulmar

Gulls

3rd Winter Herring Gull

With the Seawatch petering out, I made the frankly crazy decision to go up Seaford Head, now despite my well known mountaineering skills, who can forgot my assault on the east face of Wolstonbury Hill, With my dodgy lungs, knees and thighs it was mental, however I was motivated by the thought of the Cheesecake in the fridge, calories in the bank and the thought of being able to take a few pics of the Kittiwakes and Fulmars that were flying about the cliffs, which is always fun, I made it up to the plateau bit and was rewarded for my efforts with great views of the aforementioned Seabirds, it has to be said care is needed here several rock falls lately but there are several places where you can view without going to close to the edge! Some pics below bit better quality!

A different Rock Pipit hiding in the shadows

House Sparrow at the bottom of the cliff

Kittiwake

Herring Gull

Fulmar

Kittiwake

Fulmar

As you can tell I do like a Fulmar and a Kittiwake!!

At this point, as it was still early and feeling slightly cocky as I had made it up to this point without collapsing, I made the decision to push on to the top, should be remembered I had no Sherpas or pack mules😱!! So brave!! I of course strolled up no problem, no burning lungs and thighs for me, no sir😱😰 I reached the top, hurrah!! On recovery I headed towards Hope Bottom, I was hoping for some Skylark action and although I heard a couple I couldn't find them to take pics of, in fact the walk to Hope Bottom was extremely quiet with just Gulls, Jackdaws and a large Corvid present and more Rock Pipits obviously

Rock Pipit

The view from the top of the Head

Belle Tout

I reached Hope Bottom at this point I want to do a little shout out to the Stonechat when it's quiet these guys really do liven up the day proper little posers, there were three in Hope Bottom, two males and a female showed well and I took advantage!!

Male Stonechat

C'mon turnaround!

Robin

Female Stonechat

Not all Stonechats at Fulmars as well!

Rock Pipit with Grub

At this point I decided to head back, no not the call of the Cheesecake😁 The mighty Leeds Utd were live on BT so wanted to get home for it!! (in hindsight I wished I hadn't bothered another thrashing, troubled times MOT) The walk back is usually not as good as the way out but today has to be said it weren't bad with stonking views of what i think were two Male Peregrines having a right old ding dong!!

Signs of Spring

Peregrine

Not happy about all the Peregrine action

I reached the top of the cliff again, it's all downhill from here, the trouble is it's so steep and slippy that it is murder on the knees!! So get no benefit from it at all!! The Peregrines had caused havoc amongst the Jackdaws and Gulls and the Kittiwakes and Fulmars had disappeared presumably out to sea to safety!