Female Blackcap in our garden this lunchtime feeding on honeysuckle berries. Also Great Tit shouting its head off in nearby tree.

On the scrape at Cuckmere Haven at 3.15 pm: 1 Avocet, 60 Snipe, 40 Wigeon and 20 Teal. West of river in fields: ca. 4000 Great Black-backed Gulls.

After nearly a decade of looking up hopefully at the Shoreham telephone exchange building every time I walk past it, I was finally rewarded today with what I had been hoping to see. A Black Redstart was giving great views feeding around the window ledges there.

GREAT GREY SHRIKE 400m west of Long car park at 11.30am on small birch; also male Hen Harrier.

Ringtail hen harrier caused a stir by hunting widely across the site at about 10.30 this morning. Female goldeneye still present on north brooks, amongst the usual teal, wigeon, pintail, mallard, shoveler and ca.15 black-tailed godwits. Singing goldcrest nr Jupp's view. Two water rails at Nettley's hide. At least one crossbill (male) on the heathland restoration areas (per Clive Hope).

Black Redstart in my Hastings garden on 4 Feb. The female Blackcap is still here. Someone mentioned early nest building. I saw two Herring Gulls having some intimate contact on the roof opposite my house about a week ago, and a couple of days later saw a Magpie carrying nesting material.

(A Magpie adding sticks to a nest by the Holmbush roundabout in Shoreham today - Ed).

I'm not sure this will help Tim on his possible Bonaparte's Gull. Olsen & Larsson (Gulls of Europe, Asia and North America - Helm) state in the introductory to this gull, "Bill always darker than legs (rather similar coloured in Black-headed)". The legs are pink to orange.

Large flock of Fieldfares, around 400 birds, flying in the coombe at Church Farm, Coombes. A  very large flock of gulls following the plough, must have been over a thousand in and around the field. Resident Kestrels courting around the buildings and Collared Dove started building nest in the Leylandi. Found dead female Sparrowhawk, very thin with sharp keel, must have been caught out by the cold.

Following Cliff Deans notes re this site a quick visit late morning located 1 Treecreeper, 2 Firecrests, 1 Coal Tit and 3 Long-tailed Tits all in the north-west corner. A further Firecrest, 1 Jay, several Magpies and Blackbirds were on the fringes of the open area adjacent to the childrens play area. Plenty of tits all around with good proportion of Great Tits.

Just thought I'd add that two of the Bewick's Swans I saw at Henfield Levels (27th Jan) had yellow neck-collars, though they were too distant for the numbers to be read. Having not noticed any recent reports of swans from Henfield, the recent increase in numbers at Burpham may well be attributed to the Adur herd joining the Arun herd.

A visit to the Chichester Gravel Pits this morning around the Ivy lake complex drew a blank for anything out of the ordinary other than a Water Rail. Quick check to see if we had our passports with us and we took off for Hampshire-Brockhampton where we soon located the Green–winged Teal on Budds Farm sewage plant settling tanks. Over to Hayling Island and off the oyster beds Velvet Scoter and a Pale-bellied Brent Goose. Fishbourne Creek: plenty of ducks and waders feeding including Little Stint, Spotted Redshank and Whimbrel. In the car park Bullfinch and Grey Wagtail. Arun Valley, Burpham: 46 Bewick's Swans feeding out in the water meadows and Firecrest around the sewage works. (Bernie Forbes & Dave Smith).

Having just left my house in Hove this morning, it occured to me that my digital camera was on my coffee table, but I thought, won't need that, will I? Upon finishing my business near Preston Park I took a quick walk around the Manor Gardens, and then coming to the park, I decided to take a closer look at the gulls on the playing fields (something that I very rarely bother doing). A few dozen black-headed gulls were foraging for worms, but the very first bird that I trained my binoculars on appeared to show a black bill, as well as a rather unusual head pattern. Bonaparte's immediately entered my mind, but upon closer inspection the bird's bill did not appear to be entirely black, showing some slightly paler (but not red) patches. not being a laridophile, 'all-black bill' was the only identification feature that I was aware of for this species, but the bird was sufficiently interesting for me to take some very sketchy field notes. The bird's head pattern was striking, with a partially developed black/dark grey hood, very prominent white eye crescents and flared black patch behind the eye, reminding me very much of winter Mediterranean gull head pattern, only more extensive. Bill dark, black with paler areas suggesting perhaps an off-pink colour upon very close inspection. Bird extremely confiding, feeding unconcernedly down to 15 feet away. BH gulls in area (with which it did not associate) distinctly warier and flightier. Wings grey, with diffuse grey extending onto nape and back of neck. Legs dark, muddy reddish. Neck seemed shorter than on bh gulls, bird seemed slightly more squat, less rangy; jizz subtlely different, bird not pumping its' head in the same way when foraging/walking. Not seen in flight. although bh gulls all around, never near enough for direct size comparison, but did not appear strikingly smaller. White tips to primaries visible at rest. All this from 12 noon til 12.15 today. I walked home thinking it was probably an interesting bh gull, but its overall appearance was nagging at me; checked field guides and was shocked/thrilled/sickened to read 'always black or nearly black bill', 'grey nape' and 'bold white eye-crescents'. I grabbed my camera and returned to the park but despite searching did not see it again. Looking in the books, the head pattern was most reminiscent of Franklin's gull. I don't know if it was really a Bonaparte's or just an interesting black-headed. Any suggestions?

Not much in the way of birdies, apart from approx. 100 Fieldfares in the field NE of The Ring (where the dead sheep has been lying for the past 5 days!!).

The four adult Whooper Swans flew in to Ivy Lake, Chichester GPs at 16.35 this afternoon. (Chris Brown)

In an hour late morning at Splash Point I saw 2 Red-throated Divers, 2 or 3 dozen Gannets feeding way out, 130 auk sp. flying E and 30 W. The main interesting features were two pairs of Fulmars on nest sites and 20+ Kittiwakes prospecting them. A total of 112 Brent Geese in four flocks flew E in the hour, while at Newhaven Tide Mills at noon another flock of 30 was seen. I could only find 12 Purple Sandpipers on the East Pier.

Thirteen Avocets at Nutbourne this morning, plus regular colour-ringed Greenshank GY+GY.

Following Christine Hill's observations of birds with nesting material, we have a pair of Robins in our Wisborough Green garden strongly defending the territory against a third and seen collecting nesting material since last Sunday. A pair of Blackbirds are getting very close to each other and a Woodpigeon squab was being fed by a parent this afternoon.

The 2 ringed adult Bewick's Swans and a pair of juveniles were together all the time I was watching them, staying close to one another constantly, so safe to assume they were a family.

Thanks to Paul Marten for providing accurate details of the neck-collared Bewick's Swans at Burpham and to Sam Bayley who has passed on information about these birds from Peter de Vries in Holland. 001E (an adult male) was ringed in Texel, Holland on 28 December 2008. It was last seen on 7 February 2009 but had returned to Holland by 30 October 2009 and was still present on 7 January 2010. 078E (an adult female) has an identical history to 001E. Both birds have been accompanied in Holland this winter by two unmarked juveniles so it would be interesting to know if these too are at Burpham.

This afternoon at 15.30 on the Marine Parade, Brighton, I saw a Starling fly over with nest material in its beak. Does anyone know if this is early or regular? Also a Magpie seen with nest material over the A27 on 28 January, which also seems early?