Sunday 31 July 2011

31st July 2011. Beachy Head Calm Sunny & clear

We met up with RJF & JK at Birling and later saw RES & RKH, and we
covered most of the siteson the Headland.
RDME was ringing in Whitbread Hollow and the following are the combined totals with ringing numbers in brackets:

Fulmar 2
Gannet 12
Yellow Legged Gull 1 Juv/1st W. in rough field.
House Martin 1 (our first for the Autumn!!)
Nightingale 1 croaking in Shooters Bottom
Common Redstart 1 female in Shooters Bottom
Grasshopper Warbler 1
Sedge Warbler 2 (1)
Reed Warbler 8 (2)
Lesser Whitethroat 2 (1)
Common Whitethroat 56 (14)
Garden Warbler 5 (2)
Blackcap 5 (4)
Chiffchaff 2 (1)
Willow Warbler 31 (9)
Tree Creeper 2 (1 B/T wood & 1 trapped Hollow) Also another bird was trapped in the Hollow yesterday.
Raven 2
Corn Bunting 2

Bank Vole 1 Belle Tout wood.



Juv. Yellow Legged Gull in rough field.

In the field this large barrel-chested individual appeared heavy-billed with obvious gonys angle, square-headed with dark mask complete with dark underwings all combined to suggest nothing other than a standard michahellis...


Yellow Legged Gull (as above)
... but taken out of context the above two images apparently showing fluffy-white axilliaries, a long slender jizz with an apparently more pear-shaped head and snouty and longer-billed appearance could all mislead into suggesting a close relative!



Grasshopper Warbler in Shooters Bottom




1st W. Reed Warbler in the Hotel Garden






Tree Creeper in Belle Tout wood.


Record shot of a Bank Vole in Belle Tout wood.


Essex Skipper in the Old Trapping Area (RKH)


Small Cuckoo Bee - Melecta albifrons (RKH)


Hoverfly - Sphaerophoria scripta (RKH)