Seaford Head

The storm on Friday/Saturday had cleared a lot of the shingle from Seaford Beach.  A few days earlier the shingle was up to the top edge of the outer wall of the Martello Tower.  Now it is over six feet lower.  Before the run of storms, the shingle extended in a level platform the length of the beach and now the sea has raked much of it away to a shallow gradient leaving the sea wall exposed to the waves.  The effort to restore it was being concentrated on the west end on Sunday.
We looked for Kittiwakes at Splash Point, but it is really too early for them to have arrived yet.  We did see Fulmars, however.  There were Skylarks singing over the golf course on the cliff top and Stonechats, Meadow Pipits and Goldfinches about too.  It was sunny and warm, but we were quite unprepared for the sight of a Tortoiseshell Butterfly in flight on the cliff top.

At Cuckmere Haven the sea had cut back into the shingle and eroded part of the cliff behind the sea defences below the coastguard cottages.  A tremendous effort has been put into building up sea defences to prevent this from happening and all seems to have been swept away in a couple of storms.  The future for this landmark row of cottages is now looking uncertain.

Up the valley there were Shelduck, a Grey Heron, some Little Egrets, and a big flock of Oystercatchers and a much bigger flock of Canada Geese.