Very quiet in Sussex (20-25 October)

Wednesday 25 October. An early visit to Mill Hill with Cookie produced 2 Goldcrests, 7 Long-tailed Tits and about a dozen Blackbirds in very dull conditions. Later when the weather had greatly improved Megan and I walked Cookie from Widewater to Beach Green Lancing seeing a Wheatear and single Meadow Pipit on the beach.

Little Grebe at Widewater, I've very rarely seen one standing up

one of my first bird books illustrated grebes standing up. At the time I thought it an impossible pose. Clearly not but still very misleading.

Wheatear on a groyne at Widewater

one always hopes a late Wheatear is going to be a rare one but ours are often almost as nice

 

as it turned its back on me I was struck that it would probably be the last I see this year. Safe journey and see hopefully see you again in five months time

Sunday 22 October. Megan, Ruth and I took Cookie to Crowlink and walked along half of the Seven Sisters to Birling and Belle Tout and back. A nice clear sunny day made for a lovely walk despite a strong westerly wind. I saw one each of Chiffchaff, Buzzard, Stock Dove and Corn Bunting and about 30 Goldfinches making it possibly my quietest ever visit to Beachy.

Saturday 21 October. Very rough weather with some very heavy showers, one which caught Cookie and me on the Adur while checking the gulls at low tide. One of the 62 roosting Great Black-backed Gulls was colour-ringed making it worthwhile.

Great Black-backed Gull 50H on the Adur. A bird I'd previously seen here on 30/12/15. It was a female, hatched Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, Normandie on 27/05/10 and seen at Dives-sur-Mer, Calvados on 15/07/12, Cricqueville-en-Bessi, Calvados on 04/10/13, Dawlish Warren, Devon on 14/09/14 and in a car park in Shoreham-by-Sea on 17/07/17

Friday 20 October. A short seawatch during a visit to Shoreham Fort in a very strong westerly wind produced 4 Gannets and an adult Mediterranean Gull flying west while a Rock Pipit and 2 Greenfinches were on the beach. Hopes of finding a Grey Phalarope were soon dashed and Widewater was no more successful. Later Megan and I took Cookie to Pulborough walking the fungi trail and to Hayle's Viewpoint. A Coal Tit was the highlight.