Beachy & Cuckmere (01 Sept 2013)

Sunday 1 September.  Woke at 05:15 feeling somewhat better and decided to go out.  Spent 4.5 hours at Beachy covering Birling, Chat Vale, Old Trapping Area and the Rides with John King and others.  Good numbers of common migrants with my first Whinchats and flycatchers of the year.  I recorded Hobby, 45 Yellow Wagtails, 6 Redstarts, 3 Whinchats, 15 Stonechats, 2 Wheatears, 42 Whitethroats, 2 Lessers, 2 Garden Warblers, 2 Blackcaps, 70 Willow Warblers, 3 Spotted and a Pied Flycatcher.  Called in at the Cuckmere on the way back seeing the 3 Curlew Sandpipers and 2 more Wheatears.  A Lancaster, 2 Spitfires, 2 Hurricanes and 2 ME109s over the allotment in the afternoon were part of Shoreham Airshow.  Lots of White butterlies with many caterpillars on our sprouts!  My mum called in the evening to say my dad had had another fall and had been taken to hospital.  I'd seen them at lunchtime, my dad was comfortable in bed.  My feeling better quickly turned into an illusion with back pains and coughing fits throughout the day.  Still glad to have got out though.

Dunlin and Curlew Sandpiper just south of Exceat Bridge

they were not asleep all the time

Saturday 31 August.  Still coughing and back pains so did little apart from visit my parents where my dad was sleeping peacefully.  Decided to rest tomorrow too.

Friday 30 August.  Still coughing and back pains. Visited my parents on the way home.  My dad was in a lot of pain and hadn't got up.  He's really showing his age.  Peregrine on Southwick Power Station.

Wednesday 28 August.  Back at work, coughing and back no better.  Peregrine on Southwick Power Station on the way.

Tuesday 27 August.  Got home at 9.30pm after what seemed like two days of non-stop travelling from Wamena.  My cold, which I thought I'd got rid of, seems to have come back while my bruised ribs, from slipping on a fallen tree, seem to have developed into a bad back.  Irian Jaya in 1993 was the toughest trip I've ever done.  West Papua 2013 might have been a bit easier but at 59 rather than 39 it didn't feel it. Just as well it was successful, although not for photography, as I can't see myself returning to the Arfaks or Lake Habbema.  A report will be added in sections to this blog over the next couple of weeks.