an adult caspian gull was on the undercliff this evening.

spent the day with ian barnard checking out various sites in the far east of the county. the main interest for me being the possibility of relocating the king eider (in sussex). pett was largely devoid of sea duck although a red throated diver was on one of the pools. a walk up the pannel valley produced 2 marsh harriers, plenty of med gulls, cetti's warbler and a very distant great grey shrike. 2 smart avocets and a marsh harrier were on the midrips with slav grebe and 2 scaup offshore. a few other bits and bobs were seen but annoyingly large gulls were few and far between.

literally just finished work when i had a call about 3 waxwings in hollingdean, brighton. couldnt be arsed to begin with but was early enough to miss the traffic and got there in record time due to some very favourable traffic lights. the birds were perched high up with starlings and flew off about 5 mins later! cheers pete for use of the bins.

a day out with me bro and ian barnard produced a few bits and bobs but the king eider stubbornly decided not to cross the border into sussex. we started at jurys gap and walked east to the border but the eider was not even visible until we were well in kent. we sat it out for a few hours in the hope (for me at least) that it would come into sussex but had to make do with a 1st winter iceland gull drifting along the beach into sussex, hen and marsh harriers on the midrips and a long tailed duck, slav grebe and 10+ velvet scoter offshore. all scotney could offer was some whitefronts but news that the eider had flown west had us back at jurys gap. alas it was all a waste of time as the eider returned to galloways and had probably not flown far (if at all).

actually twitched this chap on hove pitch and putt during the week. it was found by me bro and i couldnt resist having a gander. quite funny.

news for yday: 2 1st winter caspian gulls were found in the roost along the undercliff with 5+ yellow legged gulls, some very dark mantled common gulls (plus 2 still in largely juv plumage) and a whole host of other interesting looking gulls. no white wingers though.