A reasonable fall of night migrants and RE reported good numbers of Blackcaps in the Hollow. Early morning light passage of mainly House Martins but this soon petered out.
Owing to the side effects of my cancer treatment when I become very tired during the afternoons and the time taken to collate all the day's records from several observers for the Beachy log and my blog, regrettably I feel I must now make some changes. I will continue to record my own totals of numbers etc. in the log and the blog, but will only keep a note of the scarcer migrants which are recorded by other observers and not seen by myself, in order to maintain these scarcer species for the Beachy Head area. I have maintained the Beachy log for over 50 years and I still have the very first log for 1960 when regular watching commenced. Over 50 years of maintaining the log, perhaps it is time I retired anyway. Many thanks to all the present and past birders who have contributed during this period and especially Bob Edgar for all his records from Whitbread Hollow since 1980 when I gave up ringing. This may now give me time to analyse some of these past records.
Gannet c50 feeding off Birling
Little Egret 2 off Birling
Sparrowhawk 1
Kestrel 2
Peregrine 1
Short-eared Owl 1
Tawny Owl 1
Green Woodpecker 1
Great-spotted Woodpecker 1
Swallow 50
House Martin 100
Yellow Wagtail 15
Robin 10
Common Redstart 9
Whinchat 10
Wheatear 9
Song Thrush 1
Grasshopper Warbler 6 (4 Headland and 2 Hollow)
Sedge Warbler 1
Reed Warbler 12 Hollow
Lesser Whitethroat 1
Garden Warbler 2
Blackcap 260 (10 Headland & 250 Hollow)
Chiffchaff
Willow Warbler 27 (15 Headland & 12 Hollow)
Goldcrest 1
Spotted Flycatcher 9
Tree Creeper 1 Whitbread Hollow
Jay 1
Raven 3
Corn Bunting 5
Hummingbird Hawk Moth 1 Hollow
On our way home 1 Cattle Egret was showing in with the cattle north of the reed-bed at Litlington.
9 Spotted Flycatchers were seen today.
