The first bird to be noticed upon arrival was a Great Spotted Woodpecker, which flew across the car park from the woods on one side to the woods on the other. Walking up the hill, I located a Garden Warbler, which showed very briefly, and a much more showy Whitethroat, which was showing off its song-flight, regardless of the large numbers of dog walkers passing by. A few minutes later, the strange song of the Lesser Whitethroat came to my ears, and I managed a record shot as the bird surfaced for a second.
Just as I was beginning to wonder whether this had been a good idea or not, climbing Highdown Hill, as there were really not that many interesting birds, just Pheasants and other usuals, I located a bird in the sky, before realising that it was two birds fighting each other! I brought my camera on to them, as they were too far away to be easily identified by binoculars, and snapped a few shots. I promptly examined them, and found, to my delight, that one of the birds was an Osprey, and the other was a Buzzard, and they were fighting!
This was the outstanding highlight, but there were a few other semi-interesting species, such as Yellowhammer at point blank range, Chiffchaff, Linnet, and also Blackcap.
The next and final stop of the day was Goring Gap. Here, I did some seawatching. I came rather half-heartedly, as a north-westerly wind was forcast, which would be no good whatsoever for seawatching. When I arrived, however, I noticed that the wind was actually blowing straight from the south. Subsequently, I had a pretty good seawatch for an hour and a half or so, the obvious highlight being a Pomarine Skua past shortly before three. It had a massive tail. Other highlights were a couple of Little Terns fishing offshore, and three Arctic Skuas as well.
