Red-throated Diver 32E Great Crested Grebe 41E
Heron 1E
Little Egret 2E
Gannet 14E
Canada Goose 13E, 13W
Brent 95E
Shelduck 1E
Scoter 29E
Mallard 9E
Shoveler 68E
Wigeon 2E Pintail 40E Teal 112E
Peregrine 1
Kittiwake 13E
Common Gull c.50 Mediterranean Gull 16E
Black-headed Gull 40E
Curlew 9E, 3W
Auk sp. 5E, 3W
Skylark 9 over
alba Wagtail 1N
Meadow Pipit 5N
Harbour Porpoise 1
Chiffchaff 1 Firecrest 1
Brimstone 2 drive home
Comma 1 Burgess Hill
Mediterranean Gulls off Birling
Great Crested Grebes off Birling
Great Crested Grebes are nocturnal migrants so we seldom witness anything of their Spring migration so seeing 41 pass east today was a pleasant surprise
Chiffchaff in Belle Tout Wood
Comma in Burgess Hill
Emerging from hibernation in March this would appear to be a male of the nominate form c-album
Red-throated Diver 5E
Great Crested Grebe 2E
Gannet 25E, 82W
Cormorant 5E
Little Egret 1E along beach
Brent Geese 59E Scaup 5E (2 drakes) Eider 4E (2 drakes)
Scoter 13E
Curlew 2E
Oystercatcher 15E
Black-headed Gull 23E
Common Gull 30E
Mediterranean Gull 8E (7 adults 1 second-winter)
Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 on beach
Kittiwake 32E, 2W (only a single first-winter seen)
Guillemot 3E
Auk sp. 6E
presumably a pair accompanied by last years offspring (right)
First individual
Second individual
Third individual
The obvious moult limit in its median coverts and narrower pale tips to its greater coverts render this a first-winter individual in contrast to the two adults above
Scandinavian Rock Pipit in the Cuckmere
The pockets of saltmarsh alongside the River Cuckmere are reliable locations for this form and these three were located feeding together over a mile and a half from the coast. We considered all three had commenced their pre-breeding moult into summer plumage to varying degrees whereas A.p. petrosus hardly
undergoes any spring moult (Vans Duivendijk 2010). All three were attaining a grey cast to their crown, nape
and scapulars. Their supercilia appeared both pale and strong especially when
viewed head-on (being most apparent on the first adult to least apparent on the first-winter individual) and flared behind the eye on the two adults. Their underparts are taking on a spotted appearance against a
whitish ground colour and the first individual was developing a pinkish suffusion across its breast being most apparent when viewed head-on. All three were losing their malar stripes. The fresh set of tertials visible on the second adult individual are a further clue to its form as littoralis frequently renew them as part of their pre-breeding moult whereas petrosus typically don't moult any wing feathers - Alstrom & Mild (2003) only saw a single specimen of petrosus that had renewed just its central pair of tertials. Additional
support for their identification as littoralis is provided by the
extensive yellow bases to their lower mandible, broad white tips to their
median and greater coverts and their white outer tail
feathers. Whilst the first individual bears a superficial resemblance to a Water Pipit it shows a dull brownish-grey rump and retains the diffuse, blurred, broad streaking to its sullied flanks and underparts.
Despite being an adult, as JFC pointed out, this individual was showing paler underwing-coverts than the accompanying adult. Olsen notes that some adults do show as pale underwing-coverts as second-summer birds.
We enjoyed some time seawatching together with Lee at the Bridges of Ross last year and it was last night on seeing his superb images above revealing its chestnut streak extending above and behind its eye, the extensive rufescent breast-side streaking and its bill pattern and comparing them with Dave Gandy's images from Thailand at http://birdingfrontiers.com/2014/02/13/identification-of-chinese-pond-heron/ that prompted us into paying a visit this morning.
