Birling on the chalk

Emerging from the cinema into a sunny July day I decided I would attempt a little light birding without my mentor (who was preparing to head for the East Coast for some more serious twitching) so I dived into the nearby supermarket for some sandwiches, crisps and fizz and drove to Birling Gap where I could make rare use of my National Trust member sticker, devour my lunch and take a stroll on the downs behind the white cliffs. There being no birds showing off in the bushes round the car as has sometimes been the case, I carried on reading a birthday present book (Barbara Ewing's The Mesmerist) while I consumed the sandwiches and, foolishly because of their greasiness, the crisps. The batteries in the camera ran out immediately, leaving me to attempt to use the new mobile for that purpose but without much experience of its use.

I then went for a little stroll up towards Belle Tout lighthouse which is the one that was moved bodily back from the cliff for some temporary respite from cliff edge erosion and which recently appeared as Hasting lighthouse in the remake of Brighton (or rather Eastbourne) Rock.

I could swear I had seen a Red Kite earlier (are there any other likely raptors with forked tails?) but didn't see much on this little ramble. After all the displaying and singing of the spring followed by the exhausting period of constantly finding food for insatiable chicks most of the birds seem to be taking a well-earned rest somewhere, but I did see some Swallows and a number of Skylarks in addition to a lot of gulls. They seemed to be Herring Gulls, both adult and youngsters of various ages but no doubt my expert friend would have spotted more interesting things amongst the crowd. Aside from the usual Magpies, Crows and gulls I did see an LBJ sitting up on top of a bush quite prominently tweeting away but could I identify it? No I couldn't. Come back soon birdmeister I am not yet ready to go it alone.

I returned via a silent Horseshoe Plantation but I did see a number of butterflies on the walk. There were several different species blue, white and brown and yes, I am even worse at identifying them than I am at identifying birds - for that I again need my bird tutor or his wife.

It was a very pleasant stroll and largely solitary as the large number of people about (including the usual German school coach) confined themselves to the Gap itself and the beach (which pretty much ruled out seeing any waders there).