phylloscopic frustrations!

is 'Phylloscopic' a word? if not then it should be! By the way, this is a write-up of yesterday (1st November), so apologies for it being a bit late!

I started with low expectations, but I did hope the strong South-westerlies that had now been blowing for two days might have brought a Sabine's Gull or a Shearwater into the channel. as it turns out, in 40 minutes my totals were;

ARCTIC SKUA- 1E
Black-headed Gull- about 20W

and that was literally everything! Not even a Common Scoter, a Gannet or a Brent Goose! It's a good thing skua's are such a decent bird, and november is such a good month for them! otherwise I would have considered this rather a wasted 40 minutes.

Another good bird seen was a SCANDINAVIAN HERRING GULL that did a flyby of the groyne at Splash Point. (I know I should have been in the shelters on such a miserable day, but it had been so crap I actually moved onto the groyne thinking I was somehow missing everything from where I had been!) The gull perched down on the concrete path briefly, allowing a fairly good study through the scope, before flying off towards a roost on the beach to the east. I noted

• a darker mantle shade than  typical argenteus. However, I think this was quite a pale Argentatus, as it was very flat light and the mantle was lighter than some definite scandi's I have seen in bright sunlight! It was quite blueish grey as well
• increased white on the primaries with big white tip to p10, and a tip-black spot-mirror pattern on p9 (see bad drawing below). 
• in flight, the deeper breast gave it a more front-forward appearance than a british herring gull (and I checked by looking extensively at the rooftop gulls on the way home to compare!)
• the head was fully moulted into winter plumage, unlike most of the argenteus that are currently about halfway through (Argentatus on average moults slightly earlier)
• it had a heavy bill and big, brutish expression, more so than Argenteus. 

In my ultimate show of professionalism, I used Paint to show the primary pattern of an Argentatus! As a btief and interesting anecdote, I actually did a paint drawing to help get a Glossy Ibis accepted a few years back! I will have to dig that out one day!

On my way home, besides some gull-grilling on the rooftops, I also saw a Redpoll on Southdown Road, Seaford, and 4 Siskin flew north over the house. Both decent November records! Dad then told me about a Firecrest he'd seen in Blatchington Churchyard, which I decided to check out. A fateful decision! 

the Firecrest was calling almost immediately, and there were several Goldcrest, Redwing, Song Thrush and Blackbird in the churchyard. I heard a crest flock move off, so I followed them, and positioned myself so they would all be moving right in front of me to go from one tree to the next...

The first bird that dropped into view, I put bins on and thought, "bloody hell!"- it had a supercilium and a strong double wingbar! the super was too dull for Pallas's, so was it a Hume's or a Yellow-brow? It had an overall greyish cast and a very dull supercilium, just like the Hume's Warbler I'd seen in Belle Tout two days previously! But I didn't hear it call, and despite a lot of searching yesterday and today, haven't yet managed to see the bird again! 

However, in looking for it, I managed to see the following around Seaford; 

• BRAMBLING calling over the Churchyard, the first I'd seen since 7 Oct, and completing the trio of winter finches for the day! 
• a late HOUSE MARTIN flew over the Churchyard as well, my latest by seven days! 
• 3-4 Chiffchaffs in Seaford, including one by Seaford Primary School with pluamge looking good for an eastern bird. wouldn't claim it without the call though
• probably the same Firecrest in a tit flock by Seaford Primary School, giving gorgeous views in someone's garden!
• one, or possibly two, Mistle Thrushes around Blatchington Hill and Seaford Primary School. 

The mystery warbler was of course frustrating, but it was put into perspective a bit when Jamie and Peter, two great birders from the Brighton area, found a probable YELLOWTHROAT on Scilly, but couldn't quite confirm it! From Peter's description it sounds the genuine article! However Jamie found a Red-eyed Vireo on Scilly last autumn, so it would be rather greedy for those two to claim another yank passerine this autumn!! 

shore lark, hume's warbler, young birders field trip!

sorry for the unimaginative title, it's been a long day!

There can't have been many times my patch has played host to four young birders at once.  We're a rare enough breed as it is, to see four together borders on the ridiculous! there have also been few times I've walked as far for birds, and even fewer when I've been so well rewarded!

Perhaps, to begin this post, I'll tell you my predictions, that I'd made the past few days. we would be walking from Seaford to Beachy Head, a decent walk taking in Seaford Head, Cuckmere Haven, the Seven Sisters and Beachy. The winds were NW, and it was set to be a good day weatherwise, with a bit of fog to ground migrants.

I predicted the NW winds would bring some northerly birds down- I was thinking maybe the likes of Lapland Bunting, Snow Bunting, Twite or Shore Lark. It seemed to me the best place to see any of these would be the clifftop of the Seven Sisters- on a similar walk perhaps five years ago I'd missed out on a Shore Lark along here, found on one of the sisters on 1 Oct 2007, and one of the most recent sussex records. Would lightning really strike twice?

My second, more hopeful, prediction was of a phyllosc of some variety. The one at the forefront of my mind was Hume's, though Pallas's and Dusky I also considered good candidates for late October. The winds weren't very good for a new arrival, but maybe a bird had arrived on the east coast, and would be blown down here on it's southward migration?

as it turns out, I think I should consider a career in clairvoyancy! But lets start at the beginning, and move on to the wonderful birds later.

I woke up early, planning to meet up with Jake Gearty, George Kinnard and Luke Dray at 7.30 in Seaford. by 7.23 I was out the door, and almost the first bird I heard was a Siskin in the garden. three Meadow Pipit then flew over, heading due south, and a FIRECREST was in with a small crest/tit flock at Blatchington Pond; there was a lot of activity, and all this before I was really awake!

Having met up with the other three muskateers, we headed towards the seafront. In a very brief seawatch, the first bird Jake saw in his scope was a Red-throated Diver heading west very close in! a few Gannets were offshore, and three Brent Geese passing east were most unbrent-like, going high above the horizon. From Seaford Head, George managed to pick out a female-type Common Scoter, sitting distantly on the sea.

It was around now that the mist started to roll in, and for a while visibility was probably only about 50-100 metres. As we walked up the slope from Splash Point to the Golf Course, the first of several Skylarks were picked up coming in/off, and a MISTLE THRUSH did the same before flying off to the west. This is my first record for Seaford Head, and the species is probably the rarest of the six thrushes on passage in Sussex! This was already and early highlight, and the day was shaping up to be a good one!

On the Golf Course, five Siskin dropped down into the bushes of the northward facing hill, and by the radio mast was a decent concentration of birds, with a few Redwing, Song Thrush, Blackbird and a single Fieldfare, seen by myself and Jake only and the only bird of the day! Non avian highlight of the day was a WEASEL seen here, again a very brief spot by Jake, that I also connected with as it darted across the path. Walking along the clifftop was quiet, though Skylarks and Meadow Pipits were both coming in/off in small numbers.

record shot of the very showy Siskin
(Liam Curson)

Hope Gap was also fairly quiet. We managed a House Martin overhead, perhaps 20 Redwing, 4 Jay, 2 Blackcap, a few Blackbirds and Song Thrushes, 2-3 Goldcrest, and two very showy Siskin feeding in the thistles alongside the path. These were superb views, compared to my typical fly-over views of the species on patch. In fact, I've only really ever had views to match this at feeding stations before! a flock of seven Redpoll also flew overhead, heading down into Hope Gap as we were leaving it. These being my only my second records this autumn, it's not been a great one for Redpolls to my knowledge? After leaving Hope Gap we checked Harry's Bush, which did it's usual trick of failing to live up to all our expectations! 15-20 Goldcrest, 5 Chiffchaff and a Treecreeper were as good as it got! However, George's eagle eyes did notice one Goldcrest had a ring on it's leg, quite a spot on such a small, fast-moving and hard-to-see bird!

My overall estimate for the migrants on Seaford Head today was- 40 Blackbird, 40 Robin, 30 Redwing, 25 Goldcrest, 25 Song Thrush, 25 Meadow Pipit, 20 Skylark, 8 Siskin, 7 Redpoll, 2 Blackcap, 1 House Martin, 1 Fieldfare and 1 MISTLE THRUSH. 

The walk then continued on, to Cuckmere Haven, where there were 250+ Wigeon on the flooded levels, among smaller numbers of Canada Geese and Gulls. In the bushes along the west side were small numbers of Song Thrush, Blackbird and Redwing. a YELLOWHAMMER heard might just be one of the last ones left locally! Last year I counted one singing male in Greenway Bottom and one at Exceat, and these were the only two in an area where you could have, a few years ago, seen 20! It's a sad state of affairs when I'm capital-ing what should be a common bird...

Brent Geese, Cuckmere Haven
(Liam Curson)

two juvenile Brent Geese had found themselves on the River, and were quite literally tame as ducks! Brents are a regular winter visitor/passage migrant in the Cuckmere in small numbers, but this was the first time I'd ever been close enough to hear their grunting calls. There's something quite lonely about hearing them call alone, a sort of parallel to the frenetic energy given off by the sound of a whole flock on an estuary. Meanwhile there were three Dunlin on the meanders, and seven Swallows hawking over the river- will those today be my last of the year? From the riverbank near the sea, the two resident Little Owls could be heard calling from the hawthorn bank the herons and egrets like to roost in- the first time I've heard them in quite a while.

A short seawatch off Cuckmere Haven produced another Red-throated Diver west, and a Common Scoter east- we were going to check the beach for Shore Larks and Snow Buntings but the tide was too high. So we proceded to climb the steep slope of Haven Brow, and see what we could find the rest of the walk to Hope Gap.

The answer resolved itself within about 10 minutes; we first saw a small, dark passerine with a bouncing, skylark-like flight, silhouetted and flying out of sight over the brow of the hill. We joked about this being everything from a Black Redstart to a Black-eared Wheatear, but about three minutes later found ourselves once again looking at the mystery bird- I'd decided it was either a Wheatear or a Skylark without really laying bins on it- but George, ever observant called out (minus the expletives), "Oh My God, a Shore Lark!". That's right, a SHORE LARK on my patch!!

what a stunner!

We called news out, to Birdnet and RBA, to Jake Everitt, Jon Curson and Nick Pope, and hoped they would spread the news among the local birders. The first sussex Shore Lark in two years (since another showy bird on the beach at Cuckmere Haven!), and what a stunning, stunning bird! The yellow and black face, the little black tufts, the plaintive, soft, gentle little whistle of a call- this has really become one of my favourite birds in a matter of hours! It was happy feeding on the short grass of the clifftop- though it was getting flushed quite a lot by ramblers and their dogs (when are the two ever apart?). It generally fed on it's own, avoiding the company of nearby Meadow and Rock Pipits and Skylarks.

(Luke Dray)

our plan was to stay around until other birders arrived to see the lark, but that plan was hampered slightly when a HUME'S LEAF WARBLER was discovered at Belle Tout. Now, there are two very good reasons to leave the bird, a) we kinda wanted to see this warbler!, and b) most, if not all, local birders, would go for the warbler first, meaning it might be a few hours before anyone else came for the lark. We reached a diplomatic decision, and trundled over the seven sisters!

my favourite shot! (Luke Dray)

It was a long walk, with not a lot to see other than a Peregrine patrolling the cliffs. But steely determination is a wonderful way to make time fly, and it felt like in next to no time we arrived at Belle Tout. At first the area seemed completely lifeless, a small gathering on the east side of the wood having seen nothing for half an hour. Jake and I took a wander into the wood, and picked up on a Goldcrest who seemed to have a sore throat, the quiet calls even softer than usual. Knowing the warbler might well be with it, we scanned the treetops, but the thin, monotonal call gave it away first. We'd relocated the Hume's Warbler! We called the other birders over, and after a bit of persistence everyone had pretty good views- and over the next hour and a half the bird continued to show well on occasion and call frequently. The following are my notes on a great bird;

• thin, generally soft but at times quite piercing, monotonal call. Slightly lower pitched than a yellow-browed warbler to my ears
• very cold grey above, with hardly any greenish colouration on the mantles and wings
• double wing bar made up of pale fringing to the greater and lesser coverts
• pale supercilium, with hardly any hint of yellow at all. 
• was roving Belle Tout Wood with a flock of Goldcrest, and seemed even more 'fidgety' than it's counterparts, and also engaged in flycatching more often (generally a good way to pick it out without bins was as the bird flycatching in the crest flock!)
• overall impression- a greyer, colder version of a Yellow-browed Warbler

A terrific bird, and an amazing end to the day. While watching the Yellow-browed at the top of Belle Tout, Jake and I picked out a bird flying over eastwards with a harsh, high-pitched chirp- having been prepared for this moment via xeno-canto we both immeditately picked it up as a large pipit sp! The odds of it being a Richard's are of course far greater than a Blyth's, and we feel we can eliminate Tawny- not only is the date very late, but the calls we heard had a higher-pitched, more explosive and harsher quality more typical of a Richard's. Problem is, Blyth's sounds very similar! Probability dictates it is a Richard's, but I'm not sure I want to submit a description of a species I'm not certain of- I know it was rare, just not how rare! And it is partly to do with my suspicion the records comittee would flat-out reject a heard-only Richard's, unless the observer had extensive experience with both Richard's and Blyth's. Am I being paranoid? maybe- but it can hardly rob from one of my finest days birding ever! Thanks to Jake, George and Luke for making it so enjoyable! :)

some great record shots of the Hume's Leaf warbler.
(Luke Dray)

bits and bobs

Not much the last three days, as school has largely dicated the pace. Yesterday morning was poor in a morning on Lewes Railway Land, though Redwing and Skylark were new patch birds (57 and 58 respectively), and 13 Siskin, a Mistle Thrush and a few Goldcrest were scattered about, as well as two more Siskin and a handful of Meadow Pipits heading over. Splash Point the morning beforehand was dreadful beyond belief- a Common Scoter was the sum of 20 minutes before I gave up and headed home!

However, today was at least notable for some good numbers in the sunny conditions! A flock of 200+ Woodpigeon headed over Seaford, along with a few Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Goldfinch and Siskin. , there were about 400 Goldfinch in the fields around Tide Mills and a flock of 150+ heading south over Piddinghoe Pond, where about 500 Swallows and House Martins were gathered. Remarkably, another HOBBY flew over Newhaven from the train, eight days after I'd seen one previously here. Lewes was full of Goldcrests, and a few Skylarks were still piling overhead late morning, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood, Large White and Migrant Hawker were also all out on the wing. Not a lot, but more than I would hope for on the days largely dominated by school!

Real Birders are out No Matter the Weather!

An early start to school, and I was a free man today by 12:00! Lewes Railway Land beckoned me first. The afternoon's are never brilliant around here, but at least the weather was still nice, for the hour or so I was here! 

Birdwise- a small amount of vismig, with 7 Swallow, 4 Siskin, and singles of Meadow Pipit and House Martin heading south. there were still quite a lot of Robins (I'd guess 25), and 12 Chiffchaff. Plus 2 Treecreeper, a Jay, and a Kingfisher around the heart of reeds. Patch bird no.55 was heard only, 2 PEREGRINE calling distantly over the cliffs. I also saw the remarkable spectacle of a Speckled Wood flying into a spider's web, getting trapped and devoured, and then rolled up into a neat, silk-wrapped parcel. I chose the wrong day not to bring a camera! As I sat for 30 minutes waiting for the train, an estimated 300 hirundines passed over Lewes Station in a constant stream, seeming to consist primarily of Swallows.

On the way home I called into Newhaven, trying to relocate a Wryneck reported yesterday on RBA. I failed in this assignment, but there were a few good birds in the area;

• a SHAG was offshore, fishing to the east of the pier about 100 metres o/s. My first in Sussex since 1 September 2011 surprisingly!
• a small flock of waders flew down to bathe in the puddles immediately south of the industrial land, about 100 metres NE of Newhaven East Pier. They consisted of 17 Ringed Plover, 6 Dunlin and 2 Turnstone. Turnstone is a fairly unusual bird for Tide Mills in my experience, bizarrely I have only seen them here three times previously!
• 2 Wheatear. One at Tide Mills showed a bright supercilium, long primary projection and uppright, dick's pipit like stance, typical of GREENLAND WHEATEAR (oenanthe oenanthe leucorrhoea), while one, perched on the viewing screen at the Ouse Estuary Project, looked a much more typical 'british' Wheatear. 
• 1 YELLOW WAGTAIL, my latest ever and first ever record for October! it called three times as it headed over

However, whether it was worth the soul-chilling south-westerlies and the dismal rain is another matter! The highlight of the day was probably the GREENLAND WHEATEAR, great birds that still feel like a bit of a rarity, depsite being pretty regular. Slightly commoner stuff included 30 Lapwing and 20 Curlew, a handful of Gibbugs (Great Black-backed Gulls), my first Common Gull for a few weeks in Sussex, and a handful of Chiffchaff. The tide on Mill Creek was sadly too high for the Pectoral/Buff-breasted Sandpiper that hasn't arrived yet...

29 Sep '12- mahoosive movements in the Cuckmere

Early morning reports and garden birding

early on, Jon Curson reported a few Yellow Wagtails and Tree Pipits in a brief search of Seaford Head. It's been, to my understanding at least, a pretty good year for Yellow Wagtails, I've seen more of them (and til later in the year) than I've managed probably since autumn 2008, when they seemed so numerous I could count flocks of 20+ on the suburban fields I played football in! I normally don't see many Yellow Wagtails past about the 20th, but have had a few trickling through throughout this week, including 10+ at Portland Bird Observatory on the 22nd.

The morning/early afternoon were not especially bird-orientate for me, but I love autumn because migration is evident anywhere you go, at least around here. Hanging the washing up at around 12:30, I counted a small stream of Meadow Pipits, generally heading W or SW over the garden. This is the time of year when Siskin and other finch become evident on migration, and I picked one up by call as it flew over the garden. It was heading very low and in a NE direction, and almost landed in a Leyland Cypress 40 yards away before veering off to the north, Jon saw one do something similar earlier, I expect it's the same bird hanging around to feed up before continuing it's journey south. I've noticed an increase in reports of Siskin at garden feeders on the SOS, are these the returning winter birds or migrants, gratefully stocking up on an easy meal? Also seen was a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a none-too-common bird in the garden.

Cuckmere Haven- 13:30-15:00

A daylist for the Cuckmere managed 28 birds, but that wouldn't tell the full story at all! There were 2000+ Hirundines, with a ratio of about 70% Swallows and 30% House Martins. three SAND MARTINS felt almost like a rarity for me, they've been really hard to catch up with locally this year, and today smashed my previous 'last-of-year' record for the species by several days!  Also moving over were 2-300 Meadow Pipits, unsurprisingly a great day for one of the commonest autumn migrants on my patch. I picked up the calls of at least 10 YELLOW WAGTAIL as they passed south, these also being a record date! Is this year, which has been fantstic for them so far, the year I finally see an October Yellow Wag? (one of my odder birding ambitions).

As if that wasn't enough, I recorded four more record dates! Three were for Butterflies, Large White (of which there were still 100's), Small Heath (1), and Small Copper (4, and all the better as this is by far my favourite butterfly!). The latter two species were present in a small area (20 yards or so) about 50 metres NE of the Coastguard Cottages. Also seen today were 50+ Small Whites, 3-figure numbers of Red Admirals and a single Comma. The other record date of the day was a SPOTTED FLYCATCHER, feeding near the horse paddocks by the Golden Galleon. Otherwise grounded migrants where few and far-between, with perhaps 20 Chiffchaff, and a single, late Willow Warbler near Harry's Bush.

Small Copper (a.k.a the best butterfy in britain!) and
Small Heath, photographed near the Coastguard Cottges

However, migration was still in evidence, even in some of the commoner birds. seven Little Grebes on the meanders were the first returning birds of the winter (I can't wait til there's 30+ here!), and there was a slight inflation in gull numbers, with 200 Black-headed, 30 Herring and 12 Great Black-back at an estimate. However, the only ducks seen were 10-15 Mallard (the Shelducks go elsewhere to moult, but I'm surprised there are no Wigeon back yet), and the only waders were 5 or so Curlew heard calling from the fields of the west side of the valley.

one of several Black-headed Gulls present today

How much really moved through today?

when you think about it, this was the quietest time of day for birding, and yet the number of birds was phenomenal. so How many birds were migrating through the Cuckmere today? vis-mig is often at it's peak from first-light for about two hours, in this case 06:30-08:30. it then gradually tails off, and by the time I visited the Cuckmere should really be at quite a low rate. of course there are exceptions to that rule, but I still expect far more was moving through in the 7 hours of daylight before I arrived than the hour and a half I was there. so how much was really moving? I'll give my little estimate, which could of course be way off, but here it is anyway.

15,000+ Hirundines- days like this are pretty much annual in sussex, but still remarkable

1,500+ Meadow Pipits- could well have been more, but I'll try and be conservative. The rate of passage today was at least 150 an hour while I was present, and was probably higher in the morning!

100+ Yellow Wagtails- dad reported some overhead at Seaford Head this morning, and there were at least 10 moving over this afternoon.

In addition, Tree Pipit (JC) and Siskin (JC and myself) have been reported today, so small numbers of both those were probably moving over. Not forgetting the possibility of something rarer, maybe a Tawny Pip or a Citrine Wagtail among it's commoner relatives?

Rook at the Golden Galleon- totally irrelevant but it's a nice pic! 

Why today?

This question puzzled me a bit, as although the skies are very clear, the wind was generally S swinging round to NW today. However, I think this could have been last big push of british migrants leaving the country, which may well have been held up by the awful weather, and were today all leaving in one big stampede! The Westerly winds would support this theory, as often these birds appear to leave the country through areas like Portland, and could have been pushed further east towards us. Not forgetting the NE winds that brought additional Scandinavian and eastern birds into the country last weekend, these migrants have also probably been waiting around for a good day to leave. Some of you might think this question is a bit trivial, but if I remember this for the next time similar conditions occur, I'll be up at first light to see what's moving!

good birding to all

Liam C