Sunday June 10th

A lovely warm summer morning with lots going on, the crowds were out on the Downs together with a noisy rave party in the valley!
From Sea Walls I watched a Heron and a Cormorant fishing in the storm drain outlet, the cormorant was diving repeatedly into the stream, whilst the Heron was doing its usual statue imitation. I didn't see either bird catch anything. Two Mallard were also feeding - bottoms up lads - and a Crow washing itself. Later (from the Peregrine Watch) I saw the Cormorant with wings outstretched sitting beside the outflow, so that it must have found some breakfast; later it came up-river, flying low over the water. I could not see the 'Peregrine-on-the-rock-face' today, so assume that it was a bird, and likely to be the male Peregrine. Anyway, it was not an artifact.
There was a lot of activity on the cliff top at the Peregrine Watch, the BOC have a presence there today. They were well rewarded, the female was perched over in the banana tree - a small silver birch on the cliff face opposite, and just near the now deserted Raven's nest. She moved around quite a lot but did not fly whilst I was there, eventually she faced the river, and her chest became a minute pin-point pale yellow beacon just visible with the naked eye. The notice from the BOC said that the three chicks will be flying soon.
One other visitor (probably two from the tracks on the mud), a deer came down over the large expanse of mud to the river, probably to drink. At first I thought that it was a fox, and from some angles it looked just like one, then the ears became visible, and the long legs. I suspect that it was a relatively young Roe deer. Eventually the deer made its way back up the mud and disappeared into the long grass beside the river. Two sets of tracks to the water probably indicated a second deer, but a whole herd could disappear into the grass at present.