Thursday 9 August 2012

9 August 2012 Beachy Head Fine warm & sunny with sea-mist by mid-morning. N to E 1

A reasonable fall of common night migrants probably due to an old weather front which lies across southern parts of the UK. However with high pressure dominating, the weather front has become very weak and is now just a band of higher moisture and humidity, bringing a little more cloud as well as some mist, fog and low cloud in places. 

We covered all the Headland sites from Birling to Icky Ridge, and  Bob was birding and ringing in Whitbread Hollow. We also met up with Geoff G. who kindly provided me with some numbers of migrants which he has seen earlier today: Birds ringed are in brackets.

Sparrowhawk 1
Swift 60
Green Woodpecker 4 (1)
Swallow 40
Wheatear 16
Grasshopper Warbler 1 (1)
Sedge Warbler 7 (3)
Reed Warbler 9 (7)
Lesser Whitethroat 3 (2)
Common Whitethroat 50 (15)
Garden Warbler 12 (11)
Blackcap 11 (5 with 1 re-trap from 2007).
Chiffchaff 1 (1)
Willow Warbler 107 (19)
Spotted Flycatcher 1
Bullfinch 3 (1)

Common Blue 6
Chalk-hill Blue Hundreds
Small Heath 1
Silver Spotted Skipper 1
Meadow Brown Hundreds
Marbled White 1

Migrant Hawker Dragonfly 2-3









A selection of some of today's Willow Warblers at Birling


Sedge Warbler at Birling