Tuesday 23 August 2016

23rd August, 2016 Beachy Head Sunny and hot SE 1

An excellent day for both weather and birds and our best day this Autumn so far. We covered Birling lane and scrub opposite, Shooters Bottom and the Old Trapping Area meeting up with RKH at Birling and also met up with a number of other birders covering the Headland including LP. RE was ringing in Whitbread Hollow. A good fall of night migrants which included a three figure count of Whitethroats, a good fall of Reed Warblers chiefly in the Hollow where Bob ringed 11 and estimated a total of 40 in the Hollow.
Highlights included an elusive Melodious Warbler at Birling which was seen just 3 times in over an hour before being lost in the gardens, a Hen Harrier hunting over the Top fields, an early Merlin chasing hirundines over Shooters Bottom and a Wryneck showing well in Shooters.
Diurnal migration included 7 Tree Pipits, 19 Yellow Wagtails E, several hundred Sand Martins and Swallows chiefly moving E whilst feeding over the Top Fields.
Combined totals as follows:

Little Egret 2 E off Birling
Hen Harrier 1 female over the top fields (many observers)
Sparrowhawk 1
Kestrel 1
Merlin 1 chasing hirundines over the top fields (several observers)
Tawny Owl 1 Whitbread Hollow
Wryneck 1 Shooters Bottom (many observers)
Sand Martin c300 chiefly E feeding over the top fields as they moved
Swallow c150 chiefly E
Tree Pipit 7
Rock Pipit 1
Yellow Wagtail 19 E
Nightingale 1 Whitbread Hollow (per RE)
Common Redstart 2-3 Shooters Bottom
Cetti's Warbler 1 still in Whitbread Hollow (per RE)
Grasshopper Warbler 1 Old Trapping Area (perLP)
Sedge Warbler 1
Reed Warbler 44  (11 trapped and a total of 40 estimated in the Hollow)
Melodious Warbler 1 (per JFC, DRC, RKH)
Lesser Whitethroat 11
Common Whitethroat c120 (30 in Whitbread Hollow and 90 on the Headland)
Blackcap 6
Chiffchaff 1
Willow Warbler 50 (40 Whitbread Hollow and 10 on the Headland)
Raven 2

Clouded Yellow 8
Painted Lady 2
Migrant Hawker 1
Lesser Whitethroat in Shooters Bottom

Reed Warbler over 40 were estimated in the area today


 





 

Female Hen Harrier hunting over the top fields


 

 


 


Wryneck showing well in Shooters Bottom

 
Fungi growing a little way up on an ash tree at Birling