Tag: Pannel Valley
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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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June 2024
It’s difficult to summarise the wildly variable weather experienced here during June but it certainly felt unseasonably cool for much of it. On the 1st of the month I spent the day at Rye Harbour NR (RHNR), a safe bet for interesting birding at the time of year with the last bits of wader passage…
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March 2024 birding roundup
Spring slowly arrived over the month, with a trickle of migrants throughout and the odd burst of higher intensity movement. A lot of the action was at Combe Valley CP, which, with water levels remaining reasonably high, becomes a very exciting place to bird at this time of year. Eastward Dark-bellied Brent Goose passage was…
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Convolvulus Hawk-moth at Pett Level, 1 October 2023
At Pett Level on Sunday 1st October I was enjoying a coffee with my partner at the Red Pig food truck in the layby near the pools, when something fluttered past in my peripheral vision. I knew it wasn’t a bird due to the erratic flight style and my first thought, given the size, was…
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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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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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Ruddy Shelduck, Pannel Valley, 19 August 2023
With a spell of easterly winds preceding the 19th August, I thought Pannel Valley would be as good a place as any to check — particularly with heady visions of a sunning Aquatic Warbler along the reedbeds edges. Of course that was not to be and instead I bring to you wildfowl of dubious origin!…
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Pectoral Sandpiper at Pannel Valley, 30th July 2023
With a window of time to spend at Pannel Valley on the morning of Sunday 30th, waders were very much on my mind. Thanks to a timely intervention by the management there, wader-friendly water levels are being maintained at the main scrape. It was therefore no surprise to find a nice range of species present,…