With reports all week of Wheatears and other migrants hitting the coast was a no-brainer to head for Seaford Head yesterday morning. Margie agreed to walk to work, so the alarm was set for 5.15AM however my brain didn't agree with that and I either managed to sleep through it or had set it wrong, think my brain may have subconsciously sabotaged me!!😢😲 Still I managed to arrive at 6.45 and there were only 2 cars in the car park so all good!! Disappointingly the car park wasn't infested with Wheatears so I set off towards Hope Gap!!
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| Interesting crop planted near the dung heap, might bring in some Buntings in a couple of months |
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| Belle Tout always a good view |
Bird wise things picked up as I headed down Hope Gap, a Green Woodpecker flew down the path ahead of me and it became obvious there was quite a bit of action in the bushes, With lots of Common Whitethroats, Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs, I scoured hard with my bins but couldn't find anything more interesting!! Or so I thought!! Confession time, one of the small green things did look brighter than the others, however it was quite distant, was only seen briefly and to be honest I didn't really give it a second thought, thinking it was probably just a bright Willow Warbler, in my defence it is a mistake I've made before!!! Normally I look at my photos the same day, but distracted by the start of the Premier League and going out for dinner, I didn't get round to it until this morning!!!! First picture, damn that looks like a Wood Warbler !!! Though as said I've been wrong before, so I put it on Facebook where my knowledgeable friends confirmed my suspicions!!!! So not deliberate suppression!!!! I put it out as soon as the ID was confirmed a mere 25 hours after the sighting 😏😅 Lucky it wasn't a Mega!!Apologies to all!! Ironically I went to Wales in the spring where I heard several Wood Warblers but didn't get a glimpse!!!
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| Green Woodpecker |
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| Wood Warbler, I know it looks pretty obvious now but in my defence it was quite distant this is full zoom and cropped a lot and I never actually saw it in my bins, so only seen through the viewfinder of the camera. I know excuses, excuses I'm a bungling amateur😢!! |
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| Flyover Raven |
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| Blue Tit |
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| Common Whitethroat lots of these seen!! |
Looking back I should probably have given this area a bit more time, but do find it quite frustrating with everything I got on being a Whitethroat, a Dunnock or a Blue Tit, or so I thought and everything disappearing just as I got the camera on it!! I was also keen to get to the bottom in the hopes of Wheatear!! Some people think I'm obsessed by Wheatears!! Which is probably true!!😀😀
Hope Bottom was a bit of a disappointment, no Wheatears!! No anything with not even a Stonechat on view!! After a bit of humming and ahhing, I headed west towards the golf course as I hit the top the first Wheatear appeared, quickly followed by another four, hurrah, they lead me a dance along the cliff top but I got a few Ok pics which was good!! Although as a certain someone💗 quite often says , how many pics of wheatears do you need, you've got thousands!! But she wasn't there so I filled me boots!! Hurrah!!😁😂😂 A few below, think I've been very restrained!! 😂😂😂
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| Raven |
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| Kestrel |
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| First Wheatear |
At the corner where the Cliff path meets the Golf Course, I found where all the Stonechats were hiding, with a large family group zipping about the bushes, a few Goldfinch and Linnets about here as well and a Sparrowhawk did a bit of a fly around!
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| Stonechat |
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| Linnet |
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| Stonechat, this one posed nicely |
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| Sparrowhawk |
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| Goldfinch several seen about the place, including youngsters but no big flocks as yet!! |
I retraced my steps more Wheatears appeared difficult to know if these were the same ones from the Golf Course. There were also a few Pipits around and I saw a couple of Skylarks across the fields. No Yellow Wags in with the sheep yet though!
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| Rock Pipit, think maybe a juvenile |
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| Wheatear throwing some moves |
More Wheatear restraint shown there, I think you'll agree 😂 Trust me could of been a lot worse!!
As I walked along the cliff path, with one eye on the Wheatears I was scanning the sea, quite a few Gannets but they were a bit distant, a trio of Curlews went past and there were shed loads of Gulls. Nice to see Fulmars still flying the cliffs as well!!
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| Curlew |
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| Fulmar |
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| Gannet |
As I neared the western slope leading to Hope Bottom, I thought I heard some Whimbrel calling, sure enough two flew in and landed in the adjacent field!! Pretty chuffed with that I'm usually useless with calls!!
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| Incoming Whmbrel |
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| Whimbrel |
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| Whimbrel |
As I walked down the slope, the Whimbrel relocated to right in front of me, which was a bit weird!!😲They didn't stay long as they flew right at me I thought "hmm what a strange way to go impaled by a Whimbrel", however they swerved at the last minute missing me by a couple of feet!! phew!!😂
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| Whimbrel |
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| Last minute evasion!! |
I headed through Hope Bottom towards the Cuckmere Valley, pretty uneventful, few more Linnets and Whitethroat but generally quiet. Arriving at the Cuckmere I was impressed with the roost of Little Egrets with over 30 and 5 Grey Herons in the trees, I scanned this area intensely in the hope of something more exotic, but couldn't find any Spoonbills, Cattle of Great Egrets let alone a Night Heron but there you go can't win em all!
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| Common Whitethroat |
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| Little Egret |
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| A few of the roosting birds! |
The mouth of the river was quiet, so I headed north along the bank, a few Pipits and Wagtails seen and as I approached the hedge that crosses the valley a bird perched on top turned out to be a Whinchat, I like these almost as much as Wheatears so was pleased to see it and soon realised there was a couple of them!
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| Black-headed Gull |
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| Meadow Pipit |
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| This one lead me along the path for ages! |
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| Pied Wagtail |
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Whinchat |
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| Not quite as obliging as the Wheatear but pretty posy, although patience required! |
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| Family group of Shelduck flew across the river |
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| Whinchat |
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| Whinchat |
Was good fun watching the Pipits and Wagtails chasing each other about and Whinchats are always quality!! A big flock of Hirundines appeared over the river briefly but as soon as it appeared it was gone! The only wader I saw was a distant Common Sandpiper, though another birder I bumped into later said there had been a flock of Dunlin with a Purple Sandpiper with em. There was a small Gull on the mudflats with the Black-headed Gulls, but disappointingly as I got closer turned out to be just a small BHG sitting at a funny angle, denied😢
I decided to go and have a look at Harry's Bush, mainly because I could see there were no cows in the field hurrah!! The walk from the beach to the bottom field was filled with butterflies, a lot of Blue ones which are always a favourite, though I made no attempt to ID them, just enjoyed them amongst the myriad flowers!!
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| Some Kayakers with Belle Tout in the background |
Arriving at the bottom of the field containing Harry's Bush, I remembered why I always walk down to it!! It's blooming steep when you've already got 10000 steps in ya legs!!! 😱😂 Luckily there were loads of Swallows swooping around the field to take my mind off the climb and even luckier they started landing on a fence, meaning I didn't have to do my back in trying to get pics of them flying, hurrah!!😂
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| Swallow |
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| I'm presuming this is a Sandmartin, though was not getting Sandmartiny vibes from it, maybe because it was the only one with the Swallows! |
I could hear a loud persistent call coming from Harry's Bush, so tore myself away from the Swallow action, a flash of red as the bird dropped to the ground from a Hawthorn Bush confirmed my suspicions Redstart!!!! My second successful ID from calls of the day, no app involved!! So began an epic battle of wits as I tried to get pics of the bird and it tried not to let me!! It was calling continuously, but as I moved around the bush it always seemed to be the other side, buried in the darkest recesses of tree, I even roped in a couple of passing birders, on the premise that three sets of eyes were better than one, eventually the bird gave itself up, but that's forty minutes of my life I'll never get back, even more ironic considering in Wales in the spring we had one singing in a tree 10 feet away, of which I got hundreds of pics and in the end got bored of it and left!! It's all about the context!!!😂😂😂On the plus side, putting such effort in was rewarded with stonking views of a Garden Warbler, though that stayed so buried in an Elderberry Tree that pics were impossible, though looked great in the bins and a couple of immaculate Lesser Whitethroats which were too quick for pics, also the Redstart was a lifer for one of the other birders which is always good!!
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| Common Redstart |
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| Getting a little better |
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| Finally a bit more out in the open, though I missed the shot when the mickey taking barsteward 😡 landed on a sun drenched log for about 5 seconds!! 😁😂 |
By now time was marching on, lots of people arriving and I was pretty knackered in the rising temperatures, always difficult as to what to wear this time of year as was a pretty cool breeze most of the way round but pretty hot in the sun!!! The trip back to the car park was pretty uneventful apart from a mahusive caterpillar, crossing my path!!! No idea what it's going to turn into but don't think I've seen one before!
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| Another view of Belle Tout lots of people enjoying the sunshine |
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| Pretty awesome Caterpillar |
An excellent day of Autumn migration, I'm hopeful I've got through another Summer without dying of heatstroke😂😱, better than I thought with the armchair tick of a Wood Warbler. Whinchat and Redstart great to see, Swallows doing their thing before they leave is always cool and of course my favs the Wheatears!! Great start to Autumn, hope I haven't peaked too early!!!!😂😂😂
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