bird identification....again!!

[badgerwatcher]

I saw a mummy oystercatcher showing her baby how to be an oystercatcher last year, and he was watching and copying.
You stick your beak into the mud like this......
It was VERY sweet!

[Tursiops2]

Hi Sparkle14
I'm glad you haven't been put off, and you definitely have got the bug! Observational skills take a while to acquire, but you're well on the way - that was a nicely detailed description, with all the right elements of appearance, behaviour and habitat.

I don't know your part of the country particularly well (East Sussex, yes?) but I should think, being on the Channel coast, you should see a good selection of seabirds moving past as the migration season gets under way - gulls, terns, skuas, auks, fulmars, shearwaters etc. Seawatching is best done from a promontory or headland - try Beachy Head after a stiff SW gale. Don't neglect the land birds either; summer visitors and passage migrants often make landfall on the south coast, and rarities often turn up in your area - Beachy Head, Dungeness, Rye Harbour and Pevensey Levels are places that spring to mind.

Here's a couple of websites that might help:
Sussex Ornithological Society
BirdGuides East Sussex Page

All the Best
Tursiops2

[sparkle14]

Thankyou for all the info and advice! I will bear it all in mind, and have my eyes cast skyward as much as possible! I wont neglect the land birds, its just that I am spoiled, being lucky enough to live a two minute walk from Bexhill beach, and spend a lot of time walking my springer there. I love the woods also, and am hoping to spot a woodpecker at some point. I hear them every year, but never seen one. Best wishes all, Tracey

[sparkle14]

Oh, Joy at low tide! I went a little earlier than low water, to the spot where I had seen the three oystercatchers. It was around 6.30am, but a cracking morning! To my utter amazement and joy, I spotted 5 of the little tinkers, slipping and sliding on the rocks, having their breakfast! For all the world I could have handed my binoculars to the nearest person to show them! But everyone round here is still fast asleep at 6.30am on a Sunday morning. If only they knew what they were missing!!!..............