Invigorating Cuckmere!!

 As we know from yesterday's post I've been a bit under the weather this week, bit of an understatement, would of killed a lesser man (obvs) and slightly inconvenienced a lesser woman😱😂, but birding has gotta been done. I was surprised when Margie was up and ready to go as she has been ill as well, but she's nearly as tough as me, so we were off!! We arrived at the Cuckmere car park at 8.54AM. I have now mastered the Ringo app, I'm a technological genius at times!!😀 This meant not having to fiddle about with the car park machine though it cost me 20pence extra!!😢

We had decided on the Cuckmere, firstly it was a bit windy and the coast is usually good in the wind secondly the long staying Long-billed Dowitcher was still being reported so would be handy getting it on me year list which is looking quite respectable so far. Obviously down the Cuckmere on a Sunday would be wall to wall dogs, which it was, but we set off with hope in our hearts and wind in our hair!! Well Margie did, obviously I'm more slipped streamed these days!!😂

The view down the valley by Margie

The meanders by Margie

The walk down was fairly quiet, windy but not cold, though we was thermalled up! There were some Little Grebes and the usual Swans on the Meanders, a couple of Pied Wagtails near the path, Skylarks singing and squabbling and the occasional flyover Little Egret. 

Mute Swan

Pied Wagtail

Little Egret

We arrived at the lagoons, a Kingfisher flew in, but didn't land and I didn't get a pic!! Surprisingly the Dowitcher was the nearest bird feeding with a Redshank!! Though trying to get a shot with it's head out of the water and the "Long-bill" on display was a bit of a challenge!!

The Lagoons by Margie

The Channel with the Dowitcher in it! By Margie

Long-billed Dowitcher (honest Guv!) It spent most of it's time like this!!

LBD with bill on display! Hurrah!

Common Redshank

LBD despite the light think these are better pics than I got when I saw it last year!

A Greenshank flew in but didn't hang around.

We hit the beach, now if I said to Margie, let's do a two hour Seawatch, looking for awesome birds flying by, she'd tell me to do one. But suggest  wandering about the beach for two hours looking at tat and she's all over it!!😂

Was pretty good on the beach mind, the light was quite good and Margie got some nice pics, mean moody and magnificent and the pics weren't bad either😀 

Margie in action, the bobble is for added stability apparently!!

Some of her pics below!

The cottages hanging on!

Seven Sisters and Belle Tout

Sun trying to break through

This is the sort of stuff she likes, stone in a stone😏

Crusty Pipe

And... wait for it... I give you.... Croc-a-log!! 😂😏

Birdwise, was fairly quiet, couple of distant Fulmars, what could have been a Diver zooming through, but miles out, were a few Gulls about, which are always good in the wind, a Rock Pipit which might be a Scandi one. A few Curlews came up the valley presumably to feed on the foreshore!

Herring Gull

Curlew

Rock Pipit quite white underneath so maybe a Scandi one

We headed back and scanned across the River a massive Gull roost in the distance, which seemed to be mainly Great Black-backed Gulls with a few Lesser Black-backed gulls and Herring Gulls in with em! I did suggest we go over and spend a couple of hours working through them looking for Caspos but she wasn't having it!!😁

About a third of the Gull roost!! To far away and no scope and no desire to walk the 3 miles to get around the river to em!!

The Dowitcher was still present, but a bit further away then before!

View up the valley by Margie

Egret at the end of the channel by Margie

Distant, thankfully, Ponies

Black-headed Gull

Long-billed Dowitcher

The Greenshank hanging with the Redshank gang!

At this point the Gull roost erupted, to distant to see what caused it but a spectacular sight with hundreds of Gulls in the air!! A few of them drifted across the river!

Gulls in the air

Great Black-backed Gull

Small flock of Wigeon

Couple of Shelduck, couple of Swans and a mixture of Black-headed Gulls and Common Gulls 

That was about it, although as we neared the road a Sparrowhawk put on a bit of a show, despite some rufous tones I'm pretty sure it's a female as it was large, dwarfing a male Kestrel it had a bit of interaction with! Though unfortunately I missed that shot!!😏

Sparrowhawk

A very nice walk, more about the scenery than the birds, though views of the LBD were good and Gulls are always great, though some people are not that keen!! 😃 The Sparrowhawk was  a very nice finish to proceedings!!