Continuing excellent value. At midday there were 4 Little Stints, 3 Curlew Sandpipers, 2 Spotted Redshanks, 5 Bar-tailed Godwits, 2 Ruff, loads of Dunlin and the usual supporting cast of Black-tailed Godwits, Redshanks, Lapwings, Ringed Plovers and…Avocets.
In addition, 2 each of Sparrowhawk & Hobby were hunting nearby, Bearded Tits pinging in the reeds and a Water Rail dashed across a patch of open mud stretched out like a dart.
On a still morning in mist-capped Hastings, the sounds carry clearly: the pulsing wail of Herring Gulls and the crunch of shingle as fishing boats are launched onto the high tide. There’s also the whine from machines of the street-cleaning teams and the steady footfall of the beach litter-picker, neither of whose labours seem ever to extend to the gulleys and crevasses of Castle Rocks, where I’m in search of yesterday’s Greenish Warbler. Through narrow gaps and over hand-worn sandstone, I crunch across merrymakers’ debris of glass shards, crushed cartons and flattened cans.
A few Meadow Pipits and Grey Wagtails are going east in the mist, but the cliff-face itself is busy with Robins, Dunnocks, Blue Tits and phylloscs. They move westward from the shelter of ivy and holm oak along the gloomy canyons behind the DeLuxe and Pelham Crescent, where they perch on a/c units and explore a rusty downpipe.
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Further to Chris’s posting about the large jumping spider Marpissa muscosa, I found 7 of them on one gatepost at Castle Water today and was able to watch them closely and get a few photos of their amazing eyes…
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The long staying Osprey gave good views again this morning, fishing near the hide.