4 days swopping the clay for the chalk. (1 Viewer)

[KenM]

Fifty years ago, I averaged c1hr.45m NEast London (Essex) to Eastbourne (Sussex) now such is traffic volume (+M25) that journey time is closer to c3 hours (90miles away)…so much for progress!

Got to the hotel on the seafront with superb balcony sea views late in the afternoon via Birling Gap, to stretch my “driving legs” and meet the most numerous “tourist”…..South Koreans in their hordes, all flocking to the cliff edges, where a famous South Korean Pop Idol made a video some time ago!

Certainly helps to keep the East Sussex tourist board very happy, albeit seeing so many people at cliff edge can be a little disconcerting.😮
As I gazed at this human spectacle afore me, my sub conscious had already registered the sound of a distant Merlin.
Gradually closing the gap betwixt distance and moi, with the hairs on my neck rising rapidly, as it morphed into view!

To be continued….

 

[KenM]

Tuesday 30th had us up early-ish for breakfast, first challenge of the day was “hunt the pineapple” in the fruit salad.
Clearly biased towards “spotters” for only those and such as those, that could ID only very small pieces of the aforesaid amongst the melon.😮
Definitely a “two fruit race” for all those concerned.😩

We’d decided that given the top temp forecast for the day as c30 degrees, we’d have to seek shade thus onwards and upwards we drove to Belle Tout.
Butterflies were the order of the day, as I hunted the down for splashes of colour, in between returning to the shade of the trees for frequent cooling off periods.

There were Marbled Whites, Meadow Browns, Painted Lady ( just a couple), Chalk Hill Blues and what got me mildly excited WALL BROWN!
When I was a lad these were not uncommon, however they now seem to be almost exclusively coastal.😩
With lunchtime approaching in this heat, there was only one destination!…Littlington Tea Gardens with total shade for all….we got the last table.🤩
After a shared Brie and Cranberry on brown, washed down with English Breakfast and then augmented with a generous slice of date & Walnut we were replete.

However such was the heat, we knew that we’d better stay put in the shade for another hour at least.
The upside to this was espying briefly, a Silver Washed Frit. zapping through the old Mulberry tree and a loud “begging” call of a young Buzby in the tree above, prompting the adult to wheel away into the blue in search of….

To be continued…..

 

[Harry Stottle]

Last time we stayed in an hotel like that we played 'hunt the cream in the cream cake'

 

[KenM]

Wed.31st had us up early-ish once more, with all breakfast challenges taken in our stride
(albeit no complaints with the “hotties” all excellent). With wind out the East (and elsewhere 🤣) we decided to drive to Seaford Head and walk down to the Cuckmere against the wind.

This proved (on paper) the best strategy for the day, assuming that the wind persisted😩.
So far so good, Linnets and Goldfinches on the way down before hitting the mouth of the Cuckmere.

This was where I struck lucky with my second Wall Brown of the trip also Marlborough White.
Pumped-up with these two, I noted a Northern Wheatear flitting about the track ahead of us, also Stonechat, Willow Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat plus a family party of Greenfinch and not forgetting the four Legrets stalking the shallows.

All to-ing and fro-ing between two isolated stands of Hawthorn, yes, things were looking lively.
A then Reed Warbler was noted just two metres away, preening in the grassy banked tangle of sedge and bramble, unfortunately I couldn’t image it, as it proved too elusive within said low bush.

With that, we walked North along the West Bank of the river slowly approaching the host of Mute Swan, BHGulls and a solitary Whimbrel on the Ox-bow before retracing our footsteps, to ascend the steep gradient back to the head.

As is often the way, the wind dropped for our ascent and the sun blazed at c29/30…by Christ we were so glad to get back to the air conditioned jam jar…the only draw back being that the black steering wheel “was too hot to handle!”😮

That evening on the balcony, Haddock & Chips washed down with a couple of glasses of red to the strains of Tchaikovsky’s 1812, emanating from the bandstand 5 floors beneath, we thought a little incongruous.😮

Tomorrow proved to be the best photo tick day of the trip!… to be continued.

 

[Jos Stratford]

.... also Marlborough White.

Marbled White?

 

[Farnboro John]

The Spit looks like T9 serial PT462 with its slightly odd non-standard scheme. Tell a lie, it's MT818 T8 masquerading as a RCAF 401 squadron aircraft.

John

 

[KenM]

An early start for our last day, had me scanning off the balcony seaward before breakfast and managing a couple of Gannets circa a mile out.
Hoping this might bode well for the coming day (which it did) on our planned visit to Shooters Bottom, before leaving the chalk.

By the time we’d driven to the head it suddenly became quite misty, then lessened, as we drove down a very tight left hand hairpin (just when you don’t want an adult female Marsh Harrier to flyover the rd.😮).
Another omen I mused, quickly parking up around the bend, I ventured up the down, but to no avail…no sign!…the Circus was gone.😩

Being quite overcast (dull), there was not much life in the bushes save for a few Willow Warblers, Common Whitethroats, juv. Reed Bunting, Starling, Blackbird with Skylark singing somewhere on high + a jangling Corn Bunting also somewhere down low.

I thought we’d go to the cliff, look down on the lighthouse and we might just pick up a Peregrine in the gloom, no joy in that department when!…out the corner of my eye,
I espied a disappearing “gingery thingy” on the ground about 3 metres away.

Clearly one of the Mustelas…but which one? I was then totally gobsmacked! it reappeared barely two metres away and gave a first class performance…am still in meltdown!
I screwed up being in the wrong mode (my excuse was looking for Peregrines) albeit I did get some reasonable shots, better than the eventual Peregrines I might add, so not all was lost!
What’s that old quote….“Weasels are weasely recognisable, as Stoats are stotally different”.
🤣
It kinda took the sting out of the three hour drive home to the clay!

Cheers

 

[Richard Prior]

Marbled White?

No. Marlboro Light (cough, cough), although I always imagined Ken as a Senior Service man myself

 

[KenM]

No. Marlboro Light (cough, cough), although I always imagined Ken as a Senior Service man myself

Yes, that was a Freudian slip on my part, as it was the Marlborough Downs, Wiltshire in ‘68 that I first laid eyes on Marbled Whites, and was somewhat taken by them.
Never dreaming of course, that they would spread onto my “clay” some 53 years later and visit my garden to boot! 😮