Of Birds & Cake the Blog of Paul: Reflections on a Dowitcher!

The Long-billed Dowitcher , which has been loitering around the Cuckmere all week, did me the courtesy of hanging around, so that I could see it today, technically I could have gone yesterday, but the terrible weather put me off!! Yes I know not doing my hard-core birding credibility much good!! I wussed out and made a cake instead!! 😁

The cake, which was tasty, organic and Gluten Free!!!

It is the time of year, when Margie asks one of those awkward questions, "How cold is it, what should I wear?" This is a no-win question as she will either be too warm or too cold or probably both and it will obviously be my fault, I usually try to give a non-committal answer, mumbling something about layers, consequently Margie and I arrived at the Cuckmere at 9.30am glorious weather and not a breath of wind, this meant I spent most of the morning trying to get pictures of birds and their reflections with various degrees of success and by success I mean abject failure!!! Margie did get a few very good scenic ones though!!

Down the valley by Margie

There were lots of Robins, Dunnocks and Wrens throughout the walk and I suppose it's a sign of the times that we heard Skylarks singing on several occasions. The first meander had a Heron, a Greenshank and a Redshank, no sign of the Dowitcher!

Singing Robin

Wren

Reflective Heron

Cormorant drying off

Couple of Swans

The valley by Margie

Margie's take on the Heron

Fence reflection by Margie

The second meander had more Waders, Redshank, a couple of Knot and a few Dunlin, still no Dowitcher!

Knot Reflection

Redshank

A few of Margie's sky reflections below!!

At this point we saw a couple of birders who told us the LBD was showing well on the main channel, we headed that way, joining a small group of birders, who pointed out the bird, unfortunately it was tucked into the bank some distance down stream and although views were good, pictures were tricky!

Long-billed Dowitcher, no not those two, on the left!!!😂 Told you pics were difficult!! The two more distant birds are Bar-tailed Godwits!

While we waited hoping the bird would come closer/flyover to the sunlit other side we were entertained by the appearance of an Osprey, that didn't come very close either 😢

Osprey

Always a thrill to see em!!

We waited some more!!

Not sure what this Black-headed Gull was doing but it looked fun!

Plenty of Little Egrets about

More Hilda Ogden memories

The LBD eventually came a bit further out but this was about as good as it got while we were there!

Was interesting watching the Egret dance around catching fish

Knot, typically every other wader except the LBD flew over to the other bank and posed in the sun

Knot and Barwit plus reflections

Margie was still taking pics of sky reflections

Margie's take on the Egret!

We decided to head to the beach.

A different Egret, looking elegant

UH-OH

Think this maybe my best reflection shot

Stonechat, several of these spread out across the valley

(M)

At the beach I came up with a cunning plan to avoid walking through the admittedly very tame horses, we would walk along the beach til the end and go up the far side. !! This would also give us the opportunity to scan the scrape!

Redshank pretty much all we could find on the scape

Rock Pipit

So the plan was going quite well until we came round the scrap and saw the two biggest horses standing right in the path, bugger!!

These two weren't a problem, a family with dogs walked right past them, they didn't even blink, reassured we set off, though we hadn't reckoned on "psycho horse"😱😰😨😲 (imagine dramatic music at this point) for at this point we noticed that one of the horses from the gate was charging towards us at full pace(dramatic music should reach a crescendo about now!!)

Bizarrely the horse, joined the other two and seemed to settle down, we edged forward, (I had bravely refrained from throwing myself over the barbed wire fence!) Suddenly it reared up, (imagine neighing, whinnying possibly a bit of fire-breathing😲), before tearing off again back from whence it came re-joining it's mates at the gate!! Annoyingly whilst this was going on the Osprey reappeared and flew right over our heads!!!

Osprey

After what I think I can describe as a near death experience and being quite hot in the sun and sore-footed from our first walk in wellies for the year, we decided to head back to the car!!

Couple of Swans gave us a fly-past

Couple of Little Egrets flew past

Stonechat

Skylark

The car park was heaving, so think we left at the right time!!! At home whilst sorting the pics, a flock of Long-tailed Tits visited the garden, hopefully they are going to visit throughout the winter!! The pics taken from the sofa through the window, which possibly need a clean!!