American Robin

I have missed a lot of life ticks over the past few years. I don't like twitches and in particular I don't like twitches in urban areas. There is something really creepy about standing outside people's houses with binoculars and long lenses when they are opening their curtains in the morning.

So the American Robin at Eastbourne posed a real problem, a small cul-de sac on a quiet estate, the locals reported as tolerant of the crowds but for how long? It was on my county patch and although a common bird in North America it does not appear often in the UK, let alone in Sussex. I wanted to see it but my usual high risk approach of leaving it until the crowds have died down, had failed me recently and anyway did not seem appropriate, when a long running twitch was likely to antagonise the locals.

In the end I decided on an early morning visit and hopefully a short stay on site. It all worked out but the early signs had not been good. When I arrived there were already thirty to forty birders on site, gardens and roof tops were being searched and new arrivals were trying to park in the already crowded banjo. For me this was not comfortable or enjoyable birding.

However, what was enjoyable was the bird flying in within a couple of minutes of my arriving. It landed in a cotoneaster, where I managed to get a few record shots and I was then able to walk away from the site, within ten minutes of having arrived there. Checking the pictures later they were reasonable. I am sure if I had stayed around for some better light I could have improved on them but a life tick and record shot was a good result and I was walking away a happy man.

I thought about a return visit to the Hume's Warbler on the Eastbourne Seafront but having seen it twice and having failed to get a single picture in focus there seemed little point in a third visit. Instead I decided to call in on Splash Point at Seaford and Newhaven West Beach. Both turned up interesting birds.

I had been hoping for Kittiwakes at Seaford Head but there were none showing. Instead I found this ringed Rock Pipit.

It showed little fear of people and happily posed for pictures so I am sure many people will have seen and photographed it there. It was ringed in Maletangen, Møre & Romsdal, Norway 27 Sept 2021 and had already been reported three times from Splash Point with the earliest sighting on the 14 Jan 2022.

So this bird must be of the Fennoscandia subspecies littoralis and has migrated about 1500km to winter on the south coast of England. The dominant UK subspecies petrosus does not migrate.

Moving on to Newhaven I found a Gull with yellow legs on the beach. Unfortunately having yellow legs does not always make it a Yellow-legged Gull and with this one looking like all the other Herring Gulls on the beach other than for the colour of its legs I am going to have to call it as a Herring Gull. If there are any gull experts out there that can tell me otherwise I would be interested to hear from them.

Herring Gull

Other recent birds of interest 

A Redwing seen in the undergrowth at Warnham NR. It did not look to be in perfect health and was reluctant to fly but it was still actively foraging so may have survived. 

Redwing

A Bearded Tit from Farlington Marsh

Bearded Tit

and the overwintering Whimbrel from Pagham Harbour.

Whimbrel

It is good to have a bit more freedom to travel and to go out birding. The year lists for the past couple of years have been a bit disappointing and whilst I am unlikely to get back to the level of some of my previous years I am targeting 200 plus species this year.