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.

Sunday April 9th

Hazy, blue and warm this morning. The Gorge looks its best under these conditions. At Sea Walls I was able to spot through binoculars a small group of redshank on the mud. Some motor boats scared the birds from the mud - revealing a much larger number than I had thought were present, it must have been 30+. The ravens were more visible on their nest this morning; the size of a raven relative to a crow was brought home by seeing one of them being harassed by a local crow! Otherwise, a couple of green finches, and some other small birds, probably chaffinches. Recognising birds 'on the wing' is tricky. Artists, from Bewick to the present day, usually show the animal sitting in a convenient pose rather than in flight.

Sunday 8th April

Bank holidays always increase the amount of litter scattered over the Downs, this morning was no exception, and a flock of crows was busy spreading the rubbish even further around. A buzzard flew over just I came up to the Peregrine Watch; other birds 'spotted' were a heron flying down river, mallard on the mud (the tide was coming in), and the usual jackdaws, high speed pigeons, seagulls and a jay. I didn't see a peregrine, nor any sign of the redshank from a week or so ago. The local 'birders' were out in force.

Friday 6th April

High tide this morning: a cormorant passed down river, flying high over Leigh Woods, another flew very low over the water: three buzzards were circling over Leigh Woods (why three?); one of the peregrines was perched on the cliff. I did not see it, but did see a 'photo taken a few minutes earlier, the raptor was perched on a rock just below us. The 'photo was taken by Andras Kovacs of Bird Life International (Hungary) cf Magyar Madártani és Természetvédelmi Egyesület, Andras studies European eagles, and like many others is drawn to what must be one of the best sites there is to see and photograph peregrines. We are lucky! I hear that there is a security camera watching the nest this year. It would be great to see this on the web as a web cam, and would increase the number of eyes keeping guard! I did not see the ravens, not on the nest either.

Wednesday 4th April

Brrr! It was very cold this morning. I could not see the raven, the nest is jammed between the rock face and a small silver birch. I expect the bird was crouching low on the nest. High water with nothing else much about.

Tuesday April 3rd

The cold has returned! The flock of jackdaws was flying around again, there must be about 50 of them, they rise from the cliffs to the right of the Peregrine Watch andswing around in a large group, the pairs of jackdaws are often obvious, even in such a large group. I think that they were annoyed at a couple of crows this morning. It looked as if they were chasing crows: egg or nest material theft?

Sunday, Monday 1st & 2nd April

Just as I arrived at the Peregrine Watch on Sunday I spotted a peregrine circling around the trees beside the quarry opposite. A large flock of jackdaws took off and tried to mob him, but he singled out one and chased it down to the water, then to a small tree at the side of the river. It was a very near miss and that jackdaw must have been terrified! The peregrine subsequently flew up and over towards Burwalls, the last I saw was a rapid descent from a height. A kill perhaps?
Monday. High water with no mud. A peregrine took off from the cliff below me and flew to the right, over a small quarry, and into the trees. I lost him, but later thought I might have seen his light front shining from tree over that way. It could have been a light branch. A raven could just be seen sitting on the nest opposite.