Tuesday 31st October, Wednesday 1st November

Tuesday: A strong gale swept down the Gorge from the NNE, blowing the rooks, jackdaws, and seagulls around the sky. A brief glimpse of (probably) a sparrow hawk over the wooded valley beside Sea Walls, at first I thought it was just another rook, then it attracted the attention of others. Mobbing is a sure sign of a hawk. Lots of birds on the downland grass.
Wednesday: Cold and clear with a wind from nearer the east. A brief glimpse of a heron as I arrived at the peregrine watch. Seagulls on the mud, and several pairs of mallards swimming up river with the incoming tide.

Monday 30th October

Low clouds and misty rain when I arrived at the watch. Nothing interesting, no falcons and few other birds apart from squabling rooks!

Thursday, Friday, Sunday : 26-29th October

Thursday was dull and cold, with flocks of birds on the grass and very few flying around. The high tide meant that there was no mud for gulls and ducks to search. Friday was a better day, a brief glimpse of a peregrine as he flew over to perch in a tree in the middle of the cliff face opposite. Three cormorants flying in from the estuary, above the Leigh Woods trees, and (possibly) some teal down on the river, leastwise they were ducks, and seemed to be flying more like teal than mallard. A curious phenomenon on the river - a line of debris showed where the high tide had stopped coming in, and reversed to going out. The river surface was quite different on either side. There was a flock of black headed gulls on the corner of the Downs near the traffic lights.
Sunday. Much more interesting and with fine high cloud and a weak sun. The jackdaws were diving around and chasing each other and also trying to catch some insects in flight. One of the jackdaws has a lot of white feathers mixed with his black coat. Several large flocks of rooks, one of over a hundred roosted over in a large beech in Leigh Woods. As I arrived (around 10am) a raven (maybe a carrion crow) perched over on the cliff face opposite, a peregrine flew over, there was an altercation! Off flew the raven, and the peregrine perched in the 'banana' tree. I saw several peregrines flying around, two to the cliff below me, a female came up the Gorge from the suspension bridge and landed below me, and another took off for the bushes on the cliff opposite. The pair of ravens now resumed flying low above Leigh Woods, and a couple of cormorants made for the docks. The Portway was closed to traffic for the third Sunday in a row; only a workman's flat top went back and forth. Nice and quiet - but with large numbers of Sunday runners, walkers, climbers and cyclists.

Sunday 22nd October

A cold autumn Sunday, with a slight high cloud rain. The Gorge was very quiet with no traffic along the river road, someone was working on the Gorge sides, so that cars were stopped. Only a few birds flying, pigeons and some gulls, a few jackdaws, no raptors.

Thursday 19th October

Oh dear, just like a diary, I forgot to enter this day. A lovely sunny day when I arrived at the peregrine watch at around 10.30. Cycling over towards Sea Walls, I thought that I saw a buzzard, but he disappeared down into the trees, similarly I think another raptor appeared briefly when I was at the watch. Could have been a sparrow hawk? Cormorants came up river.

Wednesday 18th October

On Wednesdays about two dozen football pitches are set up on the Downs, this tends to displace the birds probing the grass to quieter regions. Coming to Sea Walls, I spotted a heron down by the drain outlet, he was still in the same position when I got to the peregrine watch (around 10.30am this morning). An alternate sunny and misty morning, with a low tide and lots of mud. I think the gulls on the mud and at the river edges, are common gulls rather than black headed, they have no black on their wing edges. Another heron flew along to the outflow,though I could not see where he landed.

Sunday to Tuesday, 15-17th October

Three days to fill in. Sunday was very misty; a brief view of a peregrine as he came in to land on the cliff beneath the peregrine watch, appearing from apparently nowhere across the gorge, and with the characteristic economy of flight. Other birds were two cormorants, mallard, and (probably) black headed gulls in their winter plumage. The Portway was closed for work on the gorge cliffs, but the Downs were very busy with Sunday walkers, runners and cyclists. The activity clears most of the Downs of the crows, rooks, jackdaws and gulls that usually search the grass.
On Monday I arrived at 11.30am, after a long talk with another cyclist at the Sea Walls. We put the World to rights! The cloud layer was very thick, and it became darker and darker, very few birds were about, and the thunderstorm started as I went back over Ladies Mile. By the time I was home I was drenched.
Tuesday, a lot of mud, with a fast river flow, and a nearly low tide, so that rocks were showing in the river bed. Lots of activity with the jackdaw tree well occupied, and many other birds flying around.
Any birds in mid stream were swept down stream rapidly, so that the many gulls (which I still think are black headed), kept to the margins of the mud. A cormorant was perched by the water outflow just upstream from Sea Walls. A pair of herons flew rapidly up river, and low over the water, scattering the gulls as they passed. A few minutes later one returned to join the cormorant. I had not realised how much black there is in a grey heron's back feathers until I saw this pair, and I guess that the view from the top of the cliffs is unusual in giving a full back picture as these large birds fly by. A BBC film, shows just how black they can be. The wood pigeons are usually solitary or in pairs, this morning a flock of more than a dozen were feeding on the Downs grass, looking grey-blue-pink against the green. I caught a brief glimpse of a peregrine heading towards the Suspension bridge, he was probably the reason why a flight of ducks made a rapid u-turn just below the cliff, heading downstream rapidly.