Of Birds & Cake the Blog of Paul: Morning Seawatch at Seaford

With a day off work, I decided a Seawatch down at Seaford would be a good idea. Arrived at first light having woken up before the alarm!! Unheard of!!😂 The wind was a North Easterly, so I was kitted up in thermal everything and Balaclava, Started slowly although the first birds of note through were probably the highlight, a pair of Garganey, result! Close in the male's Eye Stripe obvious, didn't get a picture as they went through flat out and I was to slow! Was joined by another birder, PD, things sort of picked up on his arrival, as he was putting his scope up a big flock of Med Gulls went through!! The main action though was waders, with over 200 Bar-tailed Godwits through and about 60 Whimbrel, Sandwich Terns went through in groups of 5 or 6 fairly regularly, totalling about 50, We also had 2 Arctic Terns through reasonably close in and after PD left a single Common Tern went through again close enough to ID comfortably! They were the only Commic Terns I saw! Full Log below, totals are approximate as I forgot my pencil!!😏

Garganey 2 (M&F East)

Teal 2 (Ms East)

Common Scoter 20+ (East) though a couple landed on the sea. Flocks of 7, 5 and 3 with a few pairs.

Canada Goose 1 (West)

Shoveller 1(M) (East)

Shelduck 1 (East)

Red-breasted Merganser 2 (Ms) (East together)

Bar-tailed Godwit 200+ (East) Went through in flocks ranging from 10 to 40 some mixed with Whimbrel

Whimbrel 60+ (East)Went through in flocks of about 10

Oystercatcher 8 flew in from East and landed near the basket

Gannet 30+ Think these were blogging about rather than migrating mostly adults, but some 3rd and 4th Calendar Years as well.

Sandwich Tern 50+ (East) went through close in throughout in groups ranging from 2 to 6 difficult for exact figure!

Arctic Tern 2 (East) went through together reasonably annoyed I didn't get a pic but by the time I'd got on them realised what they were they were passed!

Common Tern 1 flew in from far out then headed East

Red-throated Diver 2 flew in and landed on the sea, separately about an 2 hours apart!

Kittiwakes and Fulmars multiple sightings of the local birds

Med Gull 15 (East) one flock of 13 and a flock of 2

Black-headed Gull 30+ biggest group went West but most went East, so some could be that group heading back!

Auks 30+ sightings birds flying about in ones and twos landing on the sea, At least 10 Guiellimots and 4 Razorbills of those close enough to ID

Swallow 4 in off

So not a bad variety, but no Skuas, Little Gulls or Black Terns😢 But can't win em all! Some photos of the action below, as ever with Seawatching birds are distant and don't hang around, so I done me best!!

Newhaven in the gloom

Great Black-backed Gull

Local Kittiwakes have a pre-sunrise laze about!

Cormorants, couldn't get a Shag

Kittiwakes waking up!!

Sunrise has let itself go!!

Black-headed Gull 2nd CY

GBBG on the basket, someone has straightened it up since my last visit

Med Gulls past the Basket

Med Gulls

Oystercatcher

Whimbrel, most went through low against the sea but this lot went high so got some pics!

Whimbrel

Oystercatcher

Bar-tailed Godwits

Canada Goose

Gannet

Common Scoter

Gannets

Sandwich Tern

Common Scoter

Common Scoter trying to fool me that they are Velvets!

Red-breasted Merganser

Sandwich Tern

Great Black-backed Gull looking mean!

Barwits and Whimbrels

Sunny Newhaven

At about 10.30 with things slowing down and tired of trying to get pics of distant birds in dodgy light, I had a wander up the cliff to play with the Kittiwakes and Fulmars, bit dodgy with the quite strong wind at me back, what with the crumbly edge of the cliff and the 100 foot drop, but nothing ventured nothing gained!! A few pics below!

Starling look lovely in the sunshine

Kittiwake

Fulmar

Very enjoyable half an hour!!

With the day still young I had a drive round to the barn and had a walk around Seaford Head, couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, but the regulars performed ok with a very showy Blackcap and an equally uninhibited Common Whitethroat probably the standout performers!