Gannet 10
Sandwich Tern 3 E
Corn Bunting 2
Meadow Brown 50
Small Tortoiseshell 3
Common Blue 2
Small Heath 6
Marbled White 50
Speckled Wood 3
Dark Green Fritillary 1
Six-spot Burnett Moth 50
Dark Green Fritillary-just 1 seen today
Marbled White - 50 seen today
An Indian Myna was present at Birling for a few days this week, last seen yesterday.
Have also started to write up this years Spring records and will post the summary onto the blog.. Have just finished the Divers and Grebes as follows:
Diver sp. Spring 2014: Between 1/1 to 19/5, a total of 30 unidentiified divers were logged with a maximum of 10 E on the 5/5. Most of these were probably Black-throated Divers.
Red-throated Diver Spring 2014: January: Recorded on six dates during the month with a total of 119 birds seen with a daily max of 67 E on the 25/1. February: Recorded on two dates with 13 E on the 1/2 and 5 E on the 23/2. Movement is more random during the winter months with probably birds moving between local feeding areas rather than migrating.
Spring sea-watches: Recorded on 32 dates from 1/3 (3 W) to 22/5 (1 E). A total of 501 were identified with the majority moving E with daily maxs: 30/3 168 E and 31/3 50 E.
Great Northern Diver :Spring 2014: One in partial s/p E on the 10/4 (JFC, DRC, RDME).
White-billed Diver :Spring 2014: 21/4 A first summer spent a few minutes on the sea off Birling and was digi-scoped before being flushed by a yacht and departed E. (DC, JFC, BK and PN).
Our first record for Beachy Head. and the 5th record for Sussex with the last being seen in 2007.
First summer White-billed Diver off Birling Gap on the 21st April
(digi-scoped by David Cooper)
Great Crested Grebe : Spring 2014: Jan-Feb: Recorded on 7 dates with a daily max: of 9 on the 12/1 of which 6 moved E. Spring sea-watches: A total of 103 bird-days with a daily max of 45 on the 8/3 of which 22 E and 23 on the sea, and 9/3 with 16 on the sea and 9 E.
Our best Spring to date and also our maximum daily count of 45 on the 8/3.
Red-necked Grebe: Spring 2014: (1/4 1 possible moved E, but just too far out to be certain of the i/d. JFC, DC)
Slavonian Grebe : Spring 2014: None were identified during the Spring sea-watches.
Black-necked Grebe :Spring 2014: 29/3 8 in partial s/p on the sea off Birling (DC,JFC,BK and RDME), and 1 in full s/p off Birling on the 2/4. (RKH JFC, DRC, RDME, RHC and PN).
This now brings our total to 40 since 1960 of which only 8 were seen between 1960-1999 and 32 have been seen since 2000. This would seem to indicate a marked increase in records in recent years in Sussex.
Slavonian / Black-necked Grebe : Spring 2014: 29/3 5 sat on the sea off Birling but just to far out for identification.
