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 over the Hastings area but most of my watches have been from the Ladies Parlour at nearby West Hill which seems particularly good.

It’s been a good autumn here for Tree Pipit (and seemingly elsewhere), with a count of 20 at Hastings CP on 7th being particularly notable. They continued to be heard overhead, in dwindling numbers, right up until the end of the month. The vismig make-up started to shift as the month progressed as Meadow Pipit and hirundine numbers built towards a crescendo around the 20th/21st.

Other milestones of autumnal progression were the first migrant Eurasian Skylark (21st) and building numbers of alba (i.e. Pied/White) and Grey Wagtail. The pulses of regular species were occasionally punctuated by something more unusual, including Eurasian Hobby (1st and 22nd), Marsh Harrier (1st) and Great White Egret (1st and 16th). It seems to have been a good year for the latter given the numbers around.

Finches and buntings started to increase towards the end of the month, with my first Eurasian Siskin on the 20th – almost a month later than last year. This variability seems to be related to seed crops on breeding grounds and whether or not this pushes them to wander sooner. In data from migration tracking site Trektellen, there are dramatically different peak occurrence dates between 2020, 2022 and 2023. I’m guessing 2024 is going to be of the “2022” type, with a relatively short and sharp spike in late October and early November.

Amazing for me was seeing common birds, that I don’t particularly think of as migrants, moving through – like tits and Dunnock dropping in from the sky and a flock of Collared Dove flying east one morning. On the 17th I counted a minimum of 8 Great Spotted Woodpecker around the radar station and Firehills at Hastings CP. For reference, this is a-typical woodpecker habitat of low coastal scrub. I can only assume these were dispersive migrants but I would love to know where they come from.

With so much sky watching grounded migrants were less of a focus, but the usual deposits of Common Chiffchaff were apparent on most outings (40 at Hastings CP on the 17th was my highest count). My first and only Spotted Flycatcher was on 20th September feeding from a hedgerow at West Hill, Hastings, while my first (and again, only) migrant Firecrest were two on the 17th at Hastings CP.

Of the other departing migrants, my last record dates were 7th for Willow Warbler, 20th for Yellow Wagtail, 22nd for Northern Wheatear, 27th for Common Whitethroat and 28th for Lesser Whitethroat, Reed Warbler and Whinchat. On the arrival front, an early Rock Pipit at Rock-a-Nore (Hastings seafront) on the 23rd was a surprise.

Showing that even the least promising conditions can yield exciting birding in the autumn, I went on a late afternoon walk at Hastings CP in wind and rain on the 28th, choosing to check the relatively sheltered Ecclesbourne Glen area. Over the valley were eight Marsh Harrier, a bird I’ve only ever seen along the coast here in single figures and just a handful per autumn.

In fact it was an all-round raptor fest with a Hobby, 2 Sparrowhawk and 5 Kestrel in addition to the Harriers, all desperately zooming around over the trees and fields in an effort to find food in less than ideal conditions. Not a great place to be a House Martin or Meadow Pipit.

Away from coastal watchpoints, seven Common Snipe at Combe Valley on the 21st were presumably migrants on a stopover. Water had yet to inundate the flood plain so wildfowl numbers were low when I visited, with just small flocks of moulting Eurasian Teal and Northern Shoveler on the persistent water bodies in the NW section. Major works on the SWT Filsham Reedbed area have been underway, apparently with the aim of opening up the reedbed again – could this see the return of Bittern and Bearded Reedling to the site?

While the sea was not a focus this month, it’s been interesting to watch the roving gull feeding frenzies offshore, often joined by Gannet and occasionally terns. Finally, four Little Gull west along Hastings seafront were a consolation prize from another poor Winter Gull Survey count that yielded just a handful of roosting gulls.

In entomological news, Ivy Bees (Colletes hederae) emerged en masse at nearby soft rock cliff sites like West Hill and Glyne Gap. As the name suggests, this emergence is timed to coincide with Ivy flowering, and results in huge aggregations around nest sites. A couple of photos follow to close out the post.