Wednesday 24th January

There was no frost this morning, but it was very cold. The river was slack, the tide neither coming nor going. Very, very little activity from any birds, but seven mallards at the opposite side of the river, four drakes and three hens! A very large group of gulls on the football pitch beside Ladies Mile.

Sunday, Tuesday January 21st, 23rd

Sunday was uneventful, if a bit windy. A lone cormorant flew over Leigh Woods, and the river was speckled with a couple of hundred gulls. The temperature is dropping, so that by Tuesday we had a sharp frost. I don't often see black backed gulls (usually herring, common and black headed) on the Downland, today, there were three near the road by Sea Walls, alrge ungainly birds waddling around on the grass. Beside the Peregrine Watch a large group of jackdaws were flying around, some swooping low over my head, and flying around in a large flock above the river. At first I thought that a peregrine was around, but none were visible. What else can cause this kind of behaviour? The jackdaws crowded onto their tree, and many of them settled on the grass behind me for a short while, then off flying again. The ground was still hard and frozen, but maybe someone had put some food down. On Sunday there was a programme on BBC about Red Kites. I overheard someone at the PW say they had seen a kite some time back. See for more.