Wednesday February 27th

I had a fine view of one of the Ravens as it left Leigh Woods and came over towards Sea Walls, the size of these birds is impressive, especially when compared to one of the Crows that tried to mob it. This Raven took no notice of the Crow! The other Raven was beside the nest. There were numerous Black Headed Gulls on the river, this time with a slack tide. Were those Little Gulls that I saw yesterday - or just Black Headed Gulls? At the Peregrine Watch one of the Peregrines was sitting with its grey back to me in the Oak tree.

Tuesday 26th February

The tide was high, a large flock of Gulls was drifting down river as the tide started to go out. There must have been a couple of hundred birds, some looked smaller than others, almost like little pieces of paper floating on the muddy water. Occasionally some of them got off the water and flew around a little, then returned. They were too far off to identify clearly, especially with the wind blowing in my face. I wondered what some of the gulls were, could they be Little Gulls en route to their Russian breeding colonies? The high winds of the last few days could have driven them from their Irish Sea wintering grounds. They remained on the river, drifting down out of sight towards Horseshoe Bend.
There was a Peregrine over in the Oak, he/she got up and flew out over the river, then back to his/her perch. It was probably the male bird, no sign of its mate today.

The wood chips left on the path opposite are starting to change colour, going brown as the wood tannins oxidise. The rain will have helped this process. I still object strongly to the sloppy behaviour of the contractors - and those who allowed it to happen.

Sunday 24th February

Around the Downs the wind seemed to attack me from every angle, but at Sea Walls and the Peregrine Watch everything was quite calm; a big contrast to the last few journeys. The tide was high and just starting to go down, so there were no 'mud birds' that I could see. A Sparrow Hawk flew over opposite the Peregrine Watch, and the Peregrine couple arrived around 11.30am and perched over in the oak tree, sitting much closer to each other than I have seen until now. The larger female was side on to us, the male showed his white front. Around the Peregrine Watch the Jackdaws gave a fine display of unison flight!