Whoopers.

 With January already nearly over I have already seen 3 different butterfly species. This includes my earliest ever Brimstone that I saw at High and Over on an icy day of January 11th along with a Peacock, both in a sunny sheltered area. This followed on from the Red Admiral that I saw in the same area on the 8th.

I also had a great trip with David to Dungeness on the 18th. Unfortunately, the birds were rather quiet and our hoped for Bearded Tits were nowhere to be found. The highlight was 5 Whooper Swans showing rather nicely on the ARC pit. A great finish to the day with Jennie cooking another fabulous meal.

Whooper Swans on ARC.

I've also had several great days with Lisa including seeing several Hawfinch and a Goshawk at West Dean and on another day we saw the sunrise at Burton Mill Pond and the sunset at The Burgh with sightings of Short-eared Owls and Barn Owls and a ring-tailed Hen Harrier for good measure in between.

Yesterday Pete and I went for our annual trip to see the Purple Sandpipers on the pier. I'm not sure if it is a bad year for them this year but for the first time I can remember we didn't see any at all. We were entertained though by several Ruddy Turnstones that were hanging around the fishermen hoping for little titbits. Mostly they were running around but one did stop briefly to give me the chance of a few shots. The light was really poor so no flight shots were possible.

Ruddy Turnstone.