Eight members met at Blackgang viewpoint car park for a walk led by Jim Baldwin. An overcast start, plus a forecast of heavy rain later in the morning, along with a strong south-westerly wind no doubt deterred some members from attending while the passerines mainly stayed hunkered down out of view. Four Herring Gulls and a Woodpigeon were observed from the cliff edge at Blackgang. As per last year’s walk at this site, there was a large group of approx. 300 corvids (c.100 Jackdaw, c.180 Rook and c.20 Carrion Crow) in an adjacent field which had recently been cut. 6 Swallow and a singing Skylark braved the conditions and were the sum total of the passerines seen and heard. A pair of Raven treated us to a brief aerial display along the path at Gore Cliff while a Gannet was observed fishing off Rocken End along with 8 Herring Gulls. With the rain clouds gathering, we decided to retrace our steps at this point and managed to beat the rain. In addition to the birds, we also saw 2 Humming-bird Hawk-moths and several species of butterfly (6 Meadow Brown, 2 Marbled White and singles of Large White and Wall).
Jim Baldwin
