Briefly seen tonight at about five past seven, a female Redstart, my first sighting, and now brings my garden list to a fairly respectable 60 species since I started noting them in January 1999.

Well believe it or not - I'm pretty sure I saw a Golden Eagle sitting in a tree about 60 yards away in a tree just off the A22 near Hellingly, East Sussex.

En route to the Eastbourne Airshow I paid a visit to the re-emasculated Long Man of Wilmington. On a cool, windy day in the lee of the hill were a Whinchat, two Wheatears and a flock of 43 Meadow Pipits. Nearby 3 Peregrines sported above the escarpment. Judging size and plumage I presumed they were two juvenile males and an adult female. The juvs sparred with the the female for some time before the latter plummeted out of sight. One of the juvs then proceeded to harry a pair of Ravens for at least half-an-hour. A third Raven was also seen.

A brief search this morning revealed the following in the bushes immediately to the east of Horseshoe Plantation; Pied Flycatcher - 1 Redstart - 1 L. Whitethroat - 1 Willow Warbler - 3+ Whitethroat - 6+ Chiffchaff - 2+ Mostly all in the same bush! plus 1 grey wagtail over

After being domestically committed for over a week, it was a relief to be out birding again this morning, so I decided on a trip down to the local patch. A Little Ringed Plover flying W and calling along the shingle beach was a surprise, but otherwise it was all fairly average; 20 Gannets W, 4 Sandwich Terns and a juv Med Gull offshore, 6 Wheatears, 1 Whinchat, 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 12 Whitethroats, 3 Lesser Whitethroats, and about 6 each of Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff.

Family party of spotted flycatchers {5-6} at north side of lake behind Petworth House today with small number of both willow warblers and chiffchaff

A gorgeous late afternoon walk produced 3 Common Sandpipers, 4 Ringed Plovers and 3 Dunlin amongst the usual fare.

On a very windy Chantry Hill above Storrington no site or sound of the Quail this afternoon, but the juvenile Marsh Harrier was still in the area quartering the fields to the south and two Peregrine were playing around giving quite a performance. Several Common Buzzard also in the area.

Nipped down to PHNR today for a couple of hours in the vain hope of finding the Curlew Sandpiper reported a couple of days ago. No joy there but we did have 2 Whimbrel, 3 Greenshanks, plenty of gorgeous-looking Grey Plovers, 3 Knot, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit and numbers of Ringed Plover, Turnstone, Dunlin and Redshank. 6 Common and 9 Sandwich Terns were also noted as was a single adult Yellow-legged Gull. A female Redstart was nice just behind the churchyard and a very yellow-looking Willow Warbler had the pulses racing for a moment! A quick stop at the wader-less Ferry and we had a lovely Red Kite drifting over from 1530-1540. Plenty of hirundines moving through but not much else. (Ads Bowley and Chris Glanfield)

Migrants this morning included 1 Buzzard, 3 Whinchats, 1 Nightingale, 5 Pied Flycatchers, 3 Redstarts, 40 Whitethroats, 55 Willow Warblers.

Went to Worthing pier yesterday. Saw what looked like a grey bird that was parrot like. Obviously not a normal sighting in this country. It was on top of the end of the pier for sometime, flew out over the seas and came back to pier again. Anyone got any ideas what this could be?? Was slightly bigger than a budgie, and a bit rounder.

Visitors to Rye Harbour will find that there are machines working on Rye Harbour Farm, adjacent to the nature reserve. This is an exciting habitat creation project by the Environment Agency that will re-create large areas of saltmarsh, remove topsoil covering shingle ridges and create many new ponds and scrapes. To find out more see
www.wildrye.info/news/habitat-creation-project

Having been out all day, we decided to pay a quick visit to the west end of the reservoir, we didn't see the Osprey seen earlier. However, the nine Black-tailed Godwit close outside the hide were worth the visit. Five were in near full plumage. Also here seven Green Sandpipers remained and 22 Teal joined the mix of Mandarin and Mallard. Lastly the Little Egret stuck out like a sore thumb roosting with the Cormorants.

5.15 pm.Sitting with 2nd mug of tea in garden when a Hobby flying at less than 25ft flies straight over my head from the west.

Down on the beach at Hope Gap, Miou rock-pooling with grandchild Stella, I saw out to sea SW what I thought might be two skuas chasing each other but which through the telescope proved to be a juvenile herring gull harassing a marsh harrier, the harrier dropping lower and continuing to come in crossing the shore probably at Splash Point at 1148 for anyone who was there. Four whimbrels here too.

81 species seen between 10am and 3pm on a walk round Rye Harbour Reserve, highlights included one curlew sandpiper with dunlin on Quarry Pool and a bar-tailed godwit over; an arctic skua showing well above the road alongside Shore Ridges; a spotted redshank and 2 little terns on Ternery Pool (also several greenshanks among many other waders there); several wheatears, scores of yellow wagtails and, at Castle Water, a female garganey, peregrine, barn owl and kingfisher.

Mill Hill: buzzard 1, redstart 1, reed warbler 1, lesser whitethroat 3, whitethroat 44, garden warbler 1, blackcap 8, willow warbler. Adur saltings (at high tide): little egret 14, red-breasted merganser 1, greenshank 1, redshank 45+, common sandpiper 1

Hi, Chris Wright phoned telling me he had a Quail calling west of Chantry Hill near Storrington today. Checking out the area late afternoon today a Quail was calling near the South Downs Way near the Dew Pond -400 metres west of Chantry Hill car park at map reference 083123. Also seen in the area juvenile Marsh Harrier and Peregrine being harassed by a juvenile Common Buzzard. If you are not very mobile the Marsh Harriers can be viewed from the car park. Check out the valley to the south west where they are often seen hunting over the maize crops. Bernie Forbes

Dodging the rain we walked around Arlington reservvoir and counted nine common sandpipers and single dunlin, greenshank and black-tailed godwit, while in bushes were four lesser whitethroats and over the dam one turtle dove and a kestrel the only raptor. At Litlington two grey wagtails were in the farmyard and, sitting in stubble above there, scanning for a buzzard (where are they nowadays?) Miou picked up coming very high from the NE at 1550 a string that became a v-formation echelon of some 200 of what were evidently, when I finally managed to get onto them, golden plovers which carried on going SW in and out of clouds they were so high.

Carter's Flood cannot be accessed via Carter's Farm. The viewing screen for the Flood is at TQ893144, most easily approached along the Saxon Shoreway footpath from Toot Rock just east of Pett village (starting out from TQ894138). Recent sightings are regularly posted on both
http://rxwildlife.org.uk/
and
http://rxbirdwalks.wordpress.com/