Wednesday 30th October 2024: Beachy Head bonanza!

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 Today we visited Beachy Head with Sue, parking at Birling Gap and walking up the slope towards Belle Tout. It was quite busy, and we were concerned our target bird may have been deterred, but in fact it was completely unfazed and we soon were enjoying stonking scope views of a lovely Desert Wheatear. A real bonus to our annual bird list at this time of the year, when new birds are hard to come by.

Desert Wheatear

Tim and I were still in search of a Ring Ouzel, so we headed to the car park at Beachy Head and worked our way along the footpath overlooking the lower cliff, where we have often found them in previous years. The path was somewhat overgrown and beginning to fall away in parts, making for a treacherous, and sadly fruitless walk. We came out at the far end of the path feeling rather disappointed. I checked my phone to see if any had been reported elsewhere, and as luck would have it a Pallas Warbler had just been seen at the Z bends just a short distance away. We hotfooted it back to the car and drove the short distance to the nearest car park and set out on foot for the target area of scrub. A small group of birders were present, and before long we were enjoying some fantastic views of this tiny bird, it’s distinctive crown stripe and lemon rump and wing bars showing really well as it flitted amongst the branches. We were delighted - much better than a Ring Ouzel, and far better views than the last time I had seen this bird. Tim even managed a photo!

Pallas Warbler



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