With the wind hitting a SE direction overnight and with clear conditions to start of with myself and Marc Read set off full of hope on the Head, where straight away there was a reasonable passage of Finches moving over. There was however little on the ground and optimism soon turned. Thankfully the news feed on the bird services were stating there was another good passage of Hawfinches moving, again mainly in the inland counties. With this in mind we sat at the top of Hope Bottom to watch various Finch flocks moving over, when out of nowhere I looked up to see a small group of birds dropping out of the sky that soon revealed themselves to be five superb
Hawfinches. They circled Hope Bottom and came quite close and disappeared behind the bushes. A brilliant patch tick, just a shame the camera didn't want to focus on them.
After a bit more scanning with little else, I walked Tide Mills seeing nothing where news then filtered through of a probable Izzy Wheatear at Beachy. Arriving on site there was no sign, so instead of looking, I went and had a green tea and biscuits round Roger and Liz's, which was by far the highlight of my first visit to Beachy this year!
Totals for Seaford Head:
Willow Warbler - 1
Chiffchaff - 8
Brambling - 4
Golden Plover - 1 over
Yellowhammer - 1 over
Hawfinch - 5 over
Mistle Thrush - 1 over
Lesser Redpoll - 10 over
Siskin - 4
Brambling in Hope Bottom
Mistle Thrush over Hope Bottom
