Brambling in Firle

The first Brambling of the winter seen at Firle yesterday morning, with a group of Chaffinches at Place Farm.

Walk up through the village, past the church and onto the Old Coach Road, then view the yard with the straw bales and metal barn on the left, opposite the horse paddocks and just before the track turns sharply left.

Plenty of other common bits and bobs at this spot too recently, including Grey Wagtail, Fieldfare and Little Owl.

Also Lesser Redpoll heard daily around the cricket pitch in recent mornings.

A Bird in the bush….

A 1st winter Red breasted Flycatcher found by Jon Curson in Harry`s bush at Seaford Head/west side of lower Cuckmere valley late morning  proved quite flighty and difficult to follow as it flitted up, down and through the branches of a couple of sycamore trees mostly in the shade, only occasionally standing still to give good views, therefore only a rather poor ` record shot` was obtained. An excellent find though.

Southease – Piddinghoe

A late afternoon walk  yesterday turned up few surprises, two distant Buzzard north west of Piddinghoe, single Curlew, Lapwing, Little Egret & Kingfisher along the river also a pair of Grey Wagtail. Two Cetti`s Warblers heard. Best of all was a Peregrine which gave an all too brief fly past between pylons 17 & 18.

Southease-Rodmell

A beautiful afternoon up the river from the station produced 2 Cetti’s (1 on either side of the river)only 2 Snipe(the main Snipe fields are still fairly dry) a flock of about 20 Corn Buntings feeding on the reed heads along with Reed Bunting ,Skylark,Meadow pipits and usual what have you.

Snipe + buntings at Alciston

A late-afternoon visit to my old patch at Alciston made me happy – in the tiny reedbed I used to keep an eye on, a single Common Snipe, at least a dozen Reed Buntings going to roost, and half a dozen Yellowhammers in the nearby hedgerows (with perhaps twice that number in surrounding fields). Good to see that it’s still, in relative terms, a prime spot.

Elsewhere around the fields to the east of the village, quite a few Common Gulls, plenty of Pheasants, and not much else.

On The Street, near where it meets the Old Coach Road, our car disturbed a Sparrowhawk which had been busy disembowelling a Woodpigeon.

Late Osprey

A latish Osprey reported in the lower Cuckmere on Friday (23rd), by Mike Unwin (via SOS).

Today in Firle, both Swallow and Fieldfare near the Church.

Migrants at Alciston

A brief wander up to my favourite piece of the escarpment at Alciston revealed:

Swallow 2
Yellowhammer 4+
Lesser Redpoll 1
Chiffchaff 2+
Blackbird c. 12
Song Thrush c. 8
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1
Common + BH Gull c.200

The concentration of thrushes, many of which were flighty and vocal, seemed to indicate migrants rather than local birds.

Several moths and butterflies active, including a Red Admiral.

Little Stint at Arlington

A Little Stint in the company of two Dunlin at Arlington Reservoir today is a good record (Alan Kitson, per SOS).

Earlier in the week, reports of a couple of Goldeneye there among a selection of commoner ducks.

Another Osprey

A case of deja vu at 6 p.m. this evening as an Osprey appeared over South Heighton as I walked down the river bank, it flew over the river, turned left at Piddinghoe pond , headed away over Newhaven cemetry and Peacehaven Golf course and  carried on in a westerly direction towards the coast until lost from view.

White winged Gull & Lots of Gannets

Visited  Tidemills just after 8 a.m. this morning and found a large comfy log to sit on and began to scope the bay, after a few minutes  I found a Guillemot out from the West Breakwater and the odd Gannet further out, scanning eastwards towards Splash Point a largish white shape appeared distantly which I first thought was a Little Egret, as it flew west across the bay I realised it was a White winged Gull.  It was flying on its own and by now heading over the East Pier and seemed to drop down into the harbour. I reached the Pier just as a large group of gulls took off from the west beach and sure enough it was amongst them, in size no different from the many Herring Gulls present but noticeably smaller than a Great black backed Gull which flew very close to it, frustratingly it flew further west over the breakwater and dissappeared from view so remained unidentified. A mostly non productive walk along the creek  followed so I returned to the beach to find Mark Austin watching as a few Gannets headed west, I joined him and over the next half an hour counted over 800 all moving west with lots more further out uncounted, a mix of adults and immatures. It will be interesting to see if there is a count from Splash Point or a West Sussex watchpoint. Three small groups of Brent Geese totalling 24 birds were also seen heading west.