Seaford Surprise

 Decided to head down to Seaford Head this morning, unsurprisingly a Wryneck had turned up while I've been at work, not reported for a couple of days, but I felt there was a chance it was still about so worth a try. I arrived nice an early, although was a bit worried as it was pretty foggy down the A26, but cleared as I arrived in Seaford, Phew!! Very quiet to start with, until I got to the  bottom of Hope Gap a few Blackcaps, Chiffies, and  Whitethroats both Common & Lesser about, but in the gloom they were too quick for pics, the Stonechats however posed ok!

Clouds were doing some funky things

Stonechat

Common Whitethroat

Stonechat

Rock Pipit on the cliffs

I scoured the scrub, looking in all the likely Wryneck hidey holes but no luck, I bumped into a birder here who told me he had seen some Wheatears between the Gap and the Coastguard Cottages, I investigated and found one Whoop!! Obviously took far to many pics some below!

I walked down to the beach, lovely charm of Goldfinches feeding on Teasel. I'm not allowed to have Teasel in the garden, Margie rules with an Iron Fist, something about treading on em when hanging the washing out!! She's heard of shoes but refuses to wear em😂 not that I'm bitter about it!! So anyway I filled me boots!! Few Greenfinches, Blackcaps and a Reed Warbler also in the mix!

Charming, difficult to know how many altogether but well over 50 could have been many more.

Juvenile Goldfinch on Teasel

Blackcap

Greenfinch

Greenfinch

Reed Warbler

I decided not to walk the Cuckmere, multiple scans, revealed very little, although several groups of Curlew flew out from the fields to the foreshore!

Curlew, Note the clarity of these pics of a bird in flight which was on me in seconds, it may become significant later😀?

I skirted along the bottom of the field containing Harry's Bush but it was very quiet, as was Harry' Bush and the wood opposite although that might have been something to do with the 2 Kestrels sat on top of it! Couldn't even find a Yellow Wagtail in and around the sheep!

Kestrel

I was back at the top of Hope Gap, still early, I considered calling it a day, but decided to do the Gap again then walk around to the Golf Course. Was a good decision, bumped into the guy from earlier who was taking pics of Warblers, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a Spotted Flycatcher, which posed ok!

Spot Fly

Spot Fly

Spot Fly

 I headed down to the bottom of Hope Gap (again😀) Bumped into a couple of local birders down here, Nick & Brian they'd seen a couple of Redstarts and there was certainly a lot more going on with a couple of Wheatears and several Lesser Whitethroats one of which actually posed a bit!

Lesser Whitethroat

Stonechat

Goldfinch on Teasel again

Linnet

Stonechat

I headed west back up the hill,  I went up to the highest bench in the hope the the Wryneck would be there, it wasn't!! This is quite a good viewpoint and I scanned the cliff edge, a commotion to my left a bird being harassed by 2 crows, quick glance in the bins, Hoopoe!! WTF!!!! Scramble for the camera fired off a few pics!! Sadly the results can be seen below, the Autofocus not quite as quick as my reactions!

What a picture this could of been😢

Slightly better!

I followed the flight of the bird and it seemed to turn into Hope Gap and appeared to be descending, I put the news out on the Twitter and headed down to try and find it!! 

I was joined in my search by a couple other birders, Neil and a guy whose name I either don't know or can't remember (sorry but I'm getting on a bit) we searched in vain, the other guy headed up Hope Gap, whilst Neil and I headed back west in the hope the bird had returned to it's original place, it hadn't but Neil found a nice Whinchat and there were 4 Wheatears which was nice!

Herring Gull, several big groups of Gulls flew along the cliffs

Common Whitethroat

Wheatear

Common Whitethroat & Whinchat

Whinchat

At this point the news came through that the Hoopoe had been seen again at Harry's Bush, so we followed the top path, on arrival we found Nick and Brian who had pretty much had the same Hoopoe experience as me, in that at it flew past and didn't stop, hopefully Brian's pics are better than mine, the bird is now lurking somewhere in the Cuckmere Valley, hopefully will be refound. They had also seen a Pied Flycatcher, a bird I hadn't seen this year, although initially all we could find was a couple of Redstarts and a couple of Blackcaps in Harry's Bush!

Male Common Redstart

I headed off time to go, one final scan of the area and boom! Pied Flycatcher right where they said it was, talk about elusive!

Not exactly glamour shots but you can see it!

So not the day I was hoping for, but 30 seconds of Hoopoe makes it worthwhile and some good birds seen as well!! The Wryneck will have to wait, think there has been one seen in Burgess Hill so might try for that tomorrow!!