With reports of Wheatears arriving along the South Coast, I headed down to Seaford Head to see if I could find one!! I made it down to Splash Point by 6.30am, good effort I thought!! My plan to walk from the point to the Cuckmere, it was surprisingly warm and sunny and I felt slight over dressed in my thermal trousers, might regret that later!!😱 I decided to have a look for the Black Redstart that's been reported on and off for the last couple of weeks, today was off😢 There was a friendly Rock Pipit on the slipway though which posed nicely.
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| Rock Pipit |
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| Rock pipit |
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| Herring Gull |
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| Cormorants |
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| 2nd Winter Great Black-backed Gull (I think) |
I headed up the Head!! It's rather steep but I made it up to the first level. Fun here shooting the Kittiwakes, with the added thrill of almost certain death should you fall or the cliff collapses, life on the edge!!😱😲 Well about 10ft back from the edge, landward side of the large crack in the ground that the tourists don't seem to notice😂
It's early in the season, but quite a few Kittiwakes about first thing, but not particularly active, but I got a few shots.
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| Kittiwake |
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| Nice view of Brighton |
So I headed on up to the top, skipping up without a care in the world!!😂 Though the pounding in my ears and the gasping for breath were just for dramatic effect😢!! Was serenaded on the slog up by displaying Pipits both Meadow and Rock and Skylarks, lots of Skylarks!
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| Meadow Pipit |
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| Same view from higher up |
I made it!!! This is one of the best places for getting pics of Skylarks and Pipits, possibly the amount of walkers means they are more used to people than most!
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| Meadow Pipit |
At this point, having been glancing out to Sea every now and then in the hope of a passing flock of Brent Geese, lots been reported last few days, I picked up a Peregrine going like the clappers as they do!!! Pics are poor
I walked on, Skylarks were literally everywhere and a Raven made a brief appearance had a whinge and disappeared!!
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| Raven |
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| Sentinel on the cliff, Rock Pipit |
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| Plenty of Lambs in the field behind the Barn |
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| Ahhhhhhhh! |
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| Skylark |
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| Belle Tout in nice light! |
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| Another Rock Pipit, there was loads along this stretch doing there ascending and descending display |
At this point I spotted a Wheatear, whoop, success!! trouble was I was walking into the sun, I came up with a cunning plan to leave the cliff edge and loop around to get the sun behind me, getting awesome pics of a stunning male Wheatear!! Only the by the time I'd gotten around, it had flown to exactly where I'd been standing!! Dagnabit!!!
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| Distant Wheatear |
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| The bird relocated to the fence |
With the bird on the fence post, I went full stalk mode! This involves me bending over slightly and walking even more slowly than usual! However by the time I got to the fence post the Wheatear was gone!!! I've no idea how he did it, he just disappeared, could of been aliens as I never saw him move!!
Luckily I was distracted when a pair of Skylark chasing each other and landed right in front of me!!!
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| Skylark |
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| A Rock Pipit decided to apply for the most posy bird of the walk trophy, but think the Skylark shaded it |
At this point the Raven came back, they are pretty impressive beasts up close!
Continuing the Corvid theme, a noisy Carrion Crow sat on a fence post!
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| Carrion Crow |
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| The light was nice today |
I walked down through Hope Bottom, a few Stonechats, but not a lot else, then along the cliff to the Cuckmere, lots more Skylarks and Pipits.
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| Male Stonechat |
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| Female Stonechat |
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Singing male Chaffinch nice to see, not many finches today, a few Goldies but no Linnets or Greenfinches
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I walked along the river, the path was very muddy and slippery, as we know I'm as agile as a Gazelle and as sure-footed as a Mountain Goat but I still manage to go arse over tit!!!😂😱😱 luckily I saved the camera and the bins from the mud!!! Not much damage, except to my dignity and I ain't got much of that anyway!! The annoying thing was I saw hardly anything either!! A Greenshank on the river and more Larks and Pipits. The peace was shattered by three powered hang gliders that flew around the mouth of the river and over the grassland, far to low they put pretty much everything up, with Gulls and Wildfowl everywhere!!
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| Greenshank |
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| Wigeon |
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| River Mouth |
I spotted the Peregrine on the cliff, watching the world come by, I realised if I went to the next headland I would be reasonably close, left the cliff and looped around, edged in again, got to a point where I could see it, it had gone!!!! It was one of those days!!
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| Distant Peregrine |
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| I consoled myself with yet another Skylark |
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| Stonechat |
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| Back to the top of the Head |
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| Skylark |
In terms of people it had been pretty quiet, but numbers of walkers were building up, I headed down the slope, the annoying thing about this is that the walk down is just as hard as the walk up!! You have to be so careful not to fall, it's so slippy. About halfway down I was having a rest, to admire the view you understand not through being absolutely knackered, when a large flock of Jackdaws erupted over the cliffs! Yes the Peregrine had finally relented and put on a great show above my head attacking the corvids, don't think he was trying to catch one as they were a big as him and presumably he would need to take them by surprise to make a kill, this seemed more like he was just showing them who's the boss!! Fantastic to watch!!
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| Having a Poop |
He, by size I'm pretty sure it was a he, drifted off and I headed down the cliff, another quick look around for the Black Redstart, but no luck.😢 I had been scanning the, flat calm sea from the cliff top regularly on the walk but had seen very little, a single Auk sp and a Great Crested Grebe the only notable sightings, a quick final scan and a large flock of Brent Geese came into view!
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| Brent Geese I count 52, this was the whole flock! |
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| Recent Rock Fall at the base of the cliff!!! |
Very pleasant 5 hours, a typical early spring walk nice to see a Wheatear and Skylarks and Pipits singing is always a joy!! Hopefully I will get some more opportunities, for a few Wheatear pics!!!
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