Tuesday, 26 July 2016

26th July, 2016 Beachy Head Light overcast cool at first becoming warm W 0 increasing to 2

With a cold front passing down the UK overnight, I was hopeful that it may kick-start the Willow Warbler passage. A cooler morning than of late, with just a small arrival of night migrants with our first double figure count of Willow Warblers and an increase in Common Whitethroats and yet another Cuckoo at Birling, this time it was a female hepatic morph  and a distinctly different bird to any of the previous ones I have seen this Autumn. Every time it tried to land it was chased off by some corvids. Again overhead passage consisted of just 16 Sand Martins W. Two Juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls were present in the fields at Birling and later were seen moving E out to sea off Birling.

Buzzard 1
Kestrel 1
Red-legged Partridge 1
Dunlin 1 flew over the overflow car park at Birling
Yellow-legged Gull 2 Juv at Birling
Cuckoo 1 female hepatic morph at Birling 
Sand Martin 16 W
Swallow 15
Sedge Warbler 3
Reed Warbler 1
Lesser Whitethroat 1
Common Whitethroat 23
Blackcap 1
Willow Warbler 14
Raven 2



 

 



 
 Cuckoo hepatic female at Birling



Willow Warblers-just a small arrival recorded today

 
A heavily streaked juvenile Kestrel