Yesterday I saw my first Whitethroat of the year, which is just about the right time. Many of these warblers will be arriving now having flown all the way from West Africa. The greyish head and white eye ring of this one suggests a male. The “white throat” from which it gets its name is also clearly visible.

I think my collection of Coastguard helicopter photos is now complete with this one taken from directly below as it flew over.

Lots more wildflowers out now, Red Campion, Grape Hyacinth, Alexander, Three-cornered Leek, Ramsons, Stitchwort all added to my list last week. Also the blackthorn is in blossom. Brakey Bank may well be at it’s best in time for Easter.

The tiger is this caterpillar, the first that I have seen this year, a Cream Spot Tiger Moth.

First for me anyway, this year, in Warren Glen this afternoon.

Ok, I know only just, but as far as I’m concerned that counts.

Coming up the Dripping Well path today I found that it is again blocked by a fallen tree. It is quite spectacularly split from a good way up the trunk as can be seen in this photo.

As you can see, the rest of it is right across the path and it has brought a couple of smaller trees down with it too. A little further up I met a couple with a push chair who decided wisely to go back when told about the blockage.

There is a pair of Mallard again on Saxon Pond and thanks to a heads up from Bumbling Badger here is a photo. Is it the same pair?

The Charlie Rock barge along with it’s tug Afon Goch came back today with one more load of Larvikite to finish off the Fairlight berm

This barge load should be enough to finish the job and I have been told that tomorrow there will be a load dropped off at Hastings Pier. I also got a better video than last time. Watch the Cat loader closely and you will just how much lifting power it has as it picks its back wheels up right off the deck!

The final stage of the coastal protection berm at Fairlight Cove started recently. A large barge the Stema Barge II is moored offshore that is stated to be capable of carrying 21,000 tonnes of Larvikite an igneous rock similar to granite that comes from Norway.

Having checked the tides I made my way up to the cliff path east of the village to watch the smaller barge the Charlie Rock towed by the Afon Goch come in and was surprised to see some sort of landing craft leaving the beach having dropped off a dump truck. I had assumed that the heavy plant that was on the beach at Pett Level would be tracked round at low tide, so I rushed round to Cliff Way to have a better view when it returned with it’s next load.

Here comes dump truck no 2

The landing craft is called Severn Sins from the port of Bideford and a little research has revealed that it is a LCU (landing craft utility) Mk9 which were carried by the Amphibious Assault Vessels (4 each) HMS Fearless and HMS Intrepid (not the Invincible as previously stated here, many thanks to Pete who served on the Fearless for correcting that) that saw action in the Falklands.

The last load. Some of the freshly unloaded rock can be seen just left of the excavator boom

It seems that the Stema Barge II will be empty tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how many loads it takes to complete the works.

Short video of the Charlie Rock barge unloading, shame about the sound, it was windy!

Having started my walk this afternoon in the sunshine for it only to become overcast with a distinct dampness in the air my mood was again lifted by the sight of the first bluebells on Brakey Bank. Not quite fully in bloom yet and looking at the sea of bluebell foliage we should soon be rewarded with the usual impressive display there.

It is also interesting to see bluebells coming up in places where the gorse has been cleared and the Exmoor Ponies/White Park Cattle have been active. Have these plants flowered hidden from our view in the past or have they been dormant? Either way this is an indicator of the value of recent management.

Did anyone see the Stork that has visited Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve? It has brought us a White Park calf and we are sure it must have been a Stork as there are no gooseberry bushes in the Country Park.

Mother and calf are both fine and were moved this morning to Brakey Bank field where they can be monitored more easily.

Happy Christmas and New Year to all Hastings Country Park volunteers and followers.
Our next scheduled day is 3rd January 2016, that’s 2 whole days to recover from New Year excesses!! It will be back to the Quarry to carry on clearing bramble regrowth to ensure that last year’s clearance work has the desired effect.