Tuesday 10th April

Quite a morning! At Sea Walls, down on the mud at the right, was a curlew, the first I have seen on the river side. Then I counted in excess of 40 redshank, also on the mud, but on both sides. This confirms the flock of them I saw yesterday. Size is difficult against the mud, but the curlew was double the size of the redshank when alongside of them. The only other bird with a curved bill is a whimbrel, and that is a little smaller than the curlew, also rather rare.
At the Peregrine Watch one of the nesting pair took off from the cliff below me and glided over to sit in a small beech tree just beside a large yew. he stayed for over half and hour, initially with his back to me, then turning to face, then to the back again. When facing his front shows out like a little yellow light in the sunshine. There was a pigeon about 10 metres away just on the other side of the yew. It did not notice the peregrine, and was even joined by a number of other pigeons on surrounding trees during the half hour that I watched. Flying past the pigeons did not notice the hawk. Similarly a jay fluttered past within a couple of metres. A large brown raptor flew from the quarry to the right, across the river and into the valley between Sea Walls and the Peregrine Watch. What was it? Probably a buzzard. The green finches flew past, twittering as they flew.
I hate to end on a sour note, but the rubbish left all around the road around the Downs was particularly bad this morning, even worse than Sunday.