31st July 2017

Phil walked from Bockhill to Kingsdown in a strong SW, then I joined him for a walk around The Farm and Paddock. Suffice to say he had the majority of the birds! There were three Chiffchaff, two Willow Warblers, two Lesser Whitethroats, three Whitethroats, a Whinchat, four Yellow Wagtails, a Mallard, five Migrant Hawkers, five Painted Ladys nd a Hummingbird Hawk-moth in my garden.

30th July 2017

Nigel, Phil and I walked down the cliff-top, around the Freedown and back to the Monument via the Paddock and had 10 Whitethroats, a Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Chiffchaffs and 3 Willow Warblers. Apart from the warblers we saw 2 Ravens on the fence, up to 35 Swifts moving SW, a few Sand Martins and a Dunlin and Golden Plover.
The Butterflies seen were Gatekeepers in very large numbers, Common Blues, Small Coppers, Meadow Browns, a Clouded Yellow and a couple of Painted Ladies. Also had a Hummingbird Hawk Moth.

29th July 2017

Phil, Richard, Nigel and I walked around the area this morning and had a Golden Plover, 5 Yellow Wagtails, a family of 4 Pied Wagtails (the adults and 2 young), 4 Swifts, 5 Sand Martins, 2 Sedge Warblers, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 7 Whitethroats, 1 Blackcap, 3 Willow Warblers and, perhaps the bird of the day, a young Whinchat.

 Whinchat - Nigel Jarman

 

 Clouded Yellow - Nigel Jarman

 

28th July 2017

A morning seawatch for an hour produced c.50 Gannets feeding offshore, 4 Turnstones and 2 juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls moving N.

26th July 2017

Phil and I walked the area today and had 3 Grey Partridges, 2 Golden Plovers, 5 Yellow Wagtails, 4 Sand Martins, 2 Ravens, 1 Siskin and our first Wheatear of the autumn.
Butterflies included a Clouded Yellow, good numbers of Common Blues, Marbled Whites, Wall and Gatekeepers....but where have all our Chalkhill Blues gone?

24th July 2017

Phil and I walked the area and had very little apart from 700 Swifts moving W, 1 Hobby and the 4 young Kestrels, that were fledged on the cliffs at Kingsdown, feeding across the stubble field.

22nd July 2017

Phil, Richard and I had a seawatch from 07:00 until 11:00 and saw 709 Common Scoters and 420 'Commic' Terns moving down channel. Other birds of note were 21 Whimbrels, 12 Mediterranean Gulls, 6 Shags and 1 Arctic Skua.
Also coming in off the sea were 45 Swifts.

21st July 2017

With the news of seabirds off the coast west of us, admittedly a long way west of us, Jack and I did an hour and a half of sea watching in St. Margaret's Bay from 14.45 in a moderate SSW wind. Apart from a Balearic Shearwater up channel at 15.00 and five Mediterranean Gulls it was devoid of activity.

Later in the evening there was a Hobby over the house in Kingsdown with a male Sparrowhawk in close attendance.

20th July 2017

The easterly bias of wind had changed to a gusty south west, so Jack and I decided on a seawatch in St. Margaret's Bay between 09.00 and 12.50. We had our first Balearic Shearwater of the year going down channel at 11.03, a Great and Arctic Skua, eight Auk sp., three Mediterranean Gulls, two juvenile Shags, 25 Whimbrel down channel, 21 Common Scoter and, what is a scarce bird for us, a Common Sandpiper. A large movement of Swifts were heading into the wind, we counted 1400 between 09.00 and 11.00.

16th July 2017

Another poor day with little about apart from 50 plus Swallows feeding over the Rough and the same 100 or so Carrion Crows in the fields.

15 July 2017

Richard, Phil and I walked around the area this morning and had very little of note apart from a small movement of Swifts and Sand Martins going SW and quite large numbers of Swallows and House Martins feeding over the newly harvested fields. There were also 121 Carrion Crows in the large field and at the Monument 2 very young Stonechats.

4th July 2017

A Bee-eater flew over the house in Kingsdown calling at 6.55 this evening and appeared to drift off in a SE direction. Other than that pretty quiet really.

1st July 2017

Phil and I met by the Monument and walked to Hope Point via the Farm Wood. We had 57 Sand Martins, 261 Swifts and a Hobby moving N into the wind. At the Freedown we flushed a bird off the path onto the hedge and to our amazement we saw a female Common Rosefinch which gave us good but brief views before flying off towards Kingsdown. We followed as far as Hope Point but were unable to relocate the bird.