At least one water rail still at sheepcote this morning. This afternoon there was a 1st winter male scaup and 8 red breasted mergansers at Arlington.

2 water rails were a surprise at sheepcote this morning. also a ring ouzel there. 2 black reds were at rottingdean and 2 were at shoreham harbour east side.

A Pallass warbler was found at sheepcote this morning, it was in sycamores at the southernmost end of 'the crescent' but was only present for a matter of seconds. It flew in from across the road with 2 goldcrests but seemed to disappear and we could not relocate it. A Lapland bunting was also heard.

A yellow browed warbler was seen on Saturday but unfortunately the highlight was probably a greylag over sheepcote, surprisingly a site first! Dreadful today with next to nothing anywhere, overhead or in the bushes.

This weekend, the highlights were 2 yellow browed warblers and a rather nice caspian gull. the seagull was on newhaven west beach late afternoon (today).

couple of holiday pics below.

So that's it then, back to work today, shame as theres obviously stuff out there waiting to be found. Me and me bro had the 3rd-13th off work and once again thinking big was the way to go, unfortunately this is sussex and a couple of padder finds was the best we could do. My best find was a rose coloured starling (my 4th county find), whilst Ian bagged a barred warbler and yellow browed. Birding was quite hard work, with not a lot generally going on from day to day, over head still no siskins or redpoll but loads of reed buntings. Other bits and bobs included tawny pipit 7th (not found, present previous day), 2 firecrest in Harry's bush (11th), 5 ring ouzels and 93 Brent geese sheepcote (11th), woodlark sheepcote (12th) and little gull at the res (13th). However, also a contender for best find was a wood warbler which spent 3 days in ovingdean up to the 13th. The latest county record i think. On the final day, a juv male goshawk complete with jesses was in Harry's bush. Roll on next year!

yday: tawny pipit newhaven tidemills.

An osprey flew over Brighton late morning.

Two splendid ospreys (juv and pres parent) at the res this afternoon from 4 :00-4:40 when they flew down the valley. One landed on the point for a quick bathe.

A honey buzzard flew over Brighton and I also saw my first merlin of the autumn.

as the autumn is so far rather boring, a few late pics from recent months. glossy ibis rodmell, wood sand rodmell, little egret princes park, an extremely distant white stork!!, red legged partridge at the marina and a med gull from the undercliff.

Down the cuckmere a marsh harrier flew in low over the scrape. On the river, large numbers of waders with 83 Dunlin and 30+ ring plovers. A little grebe at the res and gropper at rodmell.

yday: 5 garganey and 14 green sands (flyover flock) in the ouse valley.

yday: 2 quail calling from fields west of ditchling beacon.

A rather lost looking red legged partridge was roosting amongst the rocks at the marina this evening. A single cuckoo remains at sheepcote, the first instance of summering at this site. Hopefully it's done its business and a juv will appear soon.

slightly amusing, 4 great crested grebes flew high NE over the long car park (ashdown forest) this morning.