Streat Lane, Plumpton
Nightingale 3h
Diver sp. 5E
Red-throated Diver 4E
Black-throated Diver 1E
Grey Heron 1E
Gannet 25E
Brent Goose 16E
Egyptian Goose / Ruddy Shelduck 1W very distant!
Shelduck 4E
Scoter 77E
Velvet Scoter 2E
Merganser 1E
Eider 11E
Garganey 6E (2 drakes)
Bonxie 4E
Arctic Skua 10E
Pomarine Skua 2E at 4.55pm ex.
Black-headed Gull c.200E
Mediterranean Gull 26E
Little Gull 44E
Sandwich Tern 21E, 2W
Commic Tern 1E
Whimbrel 40E
Curlew 1E
Bar-tailed Godwit 47E
Avocet 1E landed on the sea briefly and attempted feeding Phalarope-manner!
Tawny Owl h
Swallow 13 in off
Wheatear 4
Willow Warbler 4
Blackcap 3Whitethroat 10
Seal 1
Harbour Porpoise 1
Cetacean sp. c.3
Speckled Wood 1
Willow Warbler showing characters of acredula at Birling Gap
Northern Willow Warbler Phylloscopus trochilus acredula, Out Skerries, Shetland, September 2008
This form breeds in conifer and birch forests, and willow-scrub on the open tundra far beyond the tree-limit from Norway eastwards to central Siberia and is considered a regular but scarce passage migrant to Britain (Gantlett 1998) probably as a result of adverse winds deflecting them from their intended route (BWP). It is considered that the variation shown by both the nominate trochilus and acredula renders the differences between the forms as subtle, and it is therefore perhaps not safe to attribute the majority of individuals in the field to subspecies (Riddington 2004). However, typically long-winged and long-tailed individuals, sporting prominent pale supercilia and the hint of a pale greater covert bar, that are paler and greyer above and whiter below than the nominate form, can prove very striking birds indeed.
Male Wheatear at Birling
Ringed female Chaffinch at Birling
A flock of 10 Mediterranean Gulls passing Birling
Seal off Birling Gap
Beachy's best answer to the Dungeness Killer Whales!
