Palace Pier
(All pictures by Russell F Spencer)
Had a superb day urban birding on the south coast in Brighton. It's surprising how little birding information there is on the city when you delve on the internet. So after arriving in town I headed to a nice cafe to plan my day and indulge in a hearty breakfast. I then headed over to the Brighton Marina where I found 2 Purple Sandpipers and watched a pair of Black Redstarts feeding amongst the blocks of concrete dumped along the side of the marina.
Later, I found a Mediterranean Gull and a couple of Little Egrets amongst the loafing gulls on the rocky beach at Saltdean, a couple of miles down the coast, west of Brighton. I ended my day back in Brighton on Palace Pier to witness perhaps around 30,000 Starlings coming into their roost on the pier. It was amazing to watch them cut shapes over the sea with smaller groups flying over and being sucked into the main group by some irresistible invisible traction beam.
It was also great to watch the faces of the observers who armed with phone cameras and the like gazing at the spectacle like they were watching a firework display. The smiles on their faces were a pleasure to behold. I will be writing a piece about if for Bird Watching Magazine.
Yesterday, I had a terrible game of football conceding four goals in the space of 10 minutes. The less said about that the better. I was chatted up by a girl on the tube too who offered to be my girlfriend if I gave her the Guide section of my Guardian. No girl's worth that!!
1 comment:
Sounds like a fun day.
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