Category: raptors
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October 2024
Coverage was a bit limited during October due to quite a bit of time away for work, but the transition into the final stages of autumn migration was apparent even so. Witnessing this was the focus of my birding, which was almost entirely at the coastal sites of West Hill and Hastings CP. With many…
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September 2024
September is when visible migration really steps up a gear and my birding time over the month was largely spent soaking it up. It was a wet and unsettled month weather wise and this may have contributed to those those days of finer weather being particularly lively. Movement seems to occur on a broad front…
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August 2024
The first half of August was warm and relatively calm, with some great days for observing migration. In the third week of the month the remains of Hurricane Ernesto passed over the UK, bringing with it strong winds and rain which largely put a hold on movement. This was followed by a final period of…
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July 2024
The long, warm days of July can mean only one thing: it’s time to start looking for that keenly awaited marker of midsummer; the arrival of juvenile Yellow-legged Gull from southern Europe. My first this year came on the 13th, with a flyby watched moving west from West Hill. In marked contrast to the riches…
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September 2023 birding roundup
A busy month with a bit of time away meant less time for birding, but nonetheless there was some great variety and highlights in the best birding month of the year. Particularly exciting has been the increase in visible migration (aka vismig) of many diurnal migrant species, most notably House Martin, Meadow Pipit and Siskin.…
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Honey Buzzard at Hastings Country Park, 15 September 2023
After a morning circuit of Hastings Country Park, dominated by Meadow Pipit and House Martin vismig, I was walking back to the car park from the Quarry and clocked a group of raptors circling over Lower Coastguard Lane. Through bins they all looked to be Common Buzzard but backlighting made viewing difficult. Fortunately they started…