This video of the black-headed gull colony at Ternery Pool, Rye Harbour NR taken on the 5th April shows nest building, territorial behaviour, food exchange between a pair, and some distant shots of Mediterranean gulls amongst the black-headed gulls, also a couple of instances of sandwich tern calls. (Just a test to try out the new video uploading tools on flickr.com.)
8th April. The Dark-eyed junco remained in the garden of Southview cottage throughout the day and frequently gave good views. Other migrants on the land were again limited with just a Great Spotted Woodpecker, six Swallows, a Redstart, 12 Chiffchaffs and two Brambling. Several hours seawatching during the day produced a Black-throated Diver, 162 Brent Geese, ten Shoveler. 14 Eider and a Velvet Scoter of interest whilst there were at least six Common Tern feeding offshore. Also of great interest was a fine male White-spotted Bluethroat which was seen at Hookers Pit on the RSPB Reserve from late morning.
David Walker from DBO website
On Harbour Farm this morning, nine Avocet on the pools near Harbour Farm Barns, two Grey Partridge nearby and a singing Willow Warbler were the highlights. From the viewpoint at Castle Water, at least two Sedge Warbler were heard singing, a Marsh Harrier was quartering the reedbeds, and small numbers of Swallows were moving through. In addition, two Little Tern were seen on the Beach Reserve mid-afternoon, the first of the year.
Tuesday 8th April
Pett Level
Since I’ve spent little time this week on the coast, many new migrants have passed me by, so much so that I’m still in a March time-warp and misidentified a House Martin, fluttering over snowman-stumps on Toot Rock in frosty sunlight, as a displaying Greenfinch.
Even so, I think of House Martins as mid-April arrivals and at that point hadn’t even seen a Swallow. It’s the first time in my life that things have been that way around.
There were several Willow Warblers singing in the gardens. I particularly enjoyed watching one flitting through the dense white blossom of an ornamental Cherry, making the most of it since, although they were S – in Atlaspeak – they are really just M, soon to move on.
During a visit to the Pools at high tide, I saw at last a few Swallows, and a Whimbrel flew past. A friendly helicopter flushed hundreds of Common Scoters from the opal sea amongst whom a single Velvet stood out clearly.
A brilliant male Yellow Wagtail appeared on the seawall, with an oddly pale bird behind it: a spring-plumage Water Pipit which (of course) flew up as soon as I set eyes on it. With uncharacteristic helpfulness, it landed again just opposite us on the edge of the pool, where the heat haze was so intense as to make it hard to see!
By the evening, Chick Hill was in full Spring Mode, with Swallows twittering over newborn lambs in the golden sunshine, shimmering Blue Tit calls warning of a Sparrowhawk overhead and Mistle Thrushes fighting off a marauding Magpie.