Tag: Hastings
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Winter 2023-24 birding roundup
A lamentable absence of blog posts this winter, more due to a lack of time than a lack of good birds seen. In fact, it’s been a great winter for birding locally and in this post I’ll do a highlights roundup of birding Hastings and area from December 2023 through to end of February 2024.…
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Gull vismig, Hastings, December 2023
I spent much of my December birding time watching gulls as they drifted along the cliffs in Hastings. There seems to have been a near constant stream moving west here and the process of scouring them for rare species is quite addictive. The first clue that something was happening came in the first week of…
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Storm-Petrels from West Hill, Hastings, 2 November 2023
With Storm Ciarán still making its way east across the south of England, Hastings was pretty wet and windy on the 2nd and by midday I hadn’t yet dared to venture outside. That was until I got a call from David Campbell to say he had just had 3 Leach’s Storm-Petrel past West Hill. Fortunately…
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August 2023 birding roundup
Early autumn passerine migration was the highlight of August, with a nice variety of species present at the local migrant hotspots. I’ve been spending most of my birding time at the enigmatic Hastings Country Park, a local nature reserve which extends along the coast from eastern edge of Hastings to Fairlight. I often hear it…
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Migrant fall on West Hill, Hastings, 25 August 2023
I’m lucky to have some great places to witness bird migration on my doorstep in Hastings. One of these is the open parkland of West Hill, a green ridge rising between the two urban sections of Hastings town. The park section is a small area, about 0.1 km2, most of which is open ground frequented…
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More Juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls at Hastings Seafront, July 2023
After the influx of Yellow-legged Gull (YLG) on the 11th July there was a steady trickle of juveniles through the seafront over the rest of the month, with birds present on all four of my subsequent visits. My guess is that the birds on the 11th had taken advantage of the southerly airflow to make…
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Yellow-legged Gull influx at Hastings Seafront, 11th July 2023
In July we see the beginning of the UK’s annual influx of juvenile Yellow-legged Gull (YLG), as birds dispersing from breeding grounds in southern Europe arrive on our shores. I was curious to see how this would play out in Hastings given their annual presence in the Eastbourne area to the west. On the morning…