Watchtower Blogs
Beachy Head Geophysics
4th January 2024
We've just completed two more resistivity grid surveys up on the headland. That's eight 20x20m grids we've done now, along the seaward side of the Beachy Head Road, looking for hidden structures underground with electrical resistance measurements.
With help from Gary Webster and his team of volunteers, we're well on the way to mapping the underground archaeology of the area.
We'll be back out again on Monday 8th January to continue our survey towards the trig point opposite The Beachy Head Story.
If you're in the area and want to know more, come and find us!
Annalie
Detail from the 15/11/2023 Survey
White lines show strong electrical resistance - in this case solid foundations below the ground. could the circular feature be an RAF gun emplacement?
Autumn Almanac #2
26th September 2023
Our second autumn migration walk wasn't full of rare birds blown in on the recent westerly winds, but was absolutely ablaze with colour!
May-tree, White-may, Whitethorn, Thorn-bush, Quick-thorn, Awes, Asogs, Azzies, Aglets, Agags, Agars, Arzy-garzies, Boojuns, Hoppety-haws or just Hawthorn, whatever you call it, the Downs are ablaze with a wildfire of red berries at the moment. If you are a fan of weather-lore you might take that as a sign of a harsh winter to come, but in reality it is the result of the year that has been so far. A hot early summer followed by a cool, damp middle and a very sunny September has helped to create a bumper harvest of wild fruits this year and it makes a stunning display on the Downland. These berries will be a welcome food source for a whole range of birds, both resident and migrants coming south this autumn. At the moment there is no sign of the latter as the cold weather has yet to take a grip of Northern Europe but the bushes and trees are full of our summer visitors, hundreds of warblers and Meadow Pipits, readying themselves for their southern journey. Flying overhead yesterday were literally thousands of Swallows and Martins making a spectacular display for our group. If you are up there over the next week or so, this max-exodus should continue and is certainly worth experiencing. Just sit back, look up and let your eyes adjust to the light, then the depth of these huge flocks will really emerge
Our walk yesterday was full of birds, but a limited number of species with a flock of siskin being a highlight. Perhaps though, it was one of our local birds who provided most excitement, as the male Peregrine Falcon sat on a chalk pinnacle, sunning himself in the unseasonal warmth and keeping a hungry eye on a flock of passing racing pigeons, seemingly oblivious to our binoculared presence.
Jo
Autumn Almanac #1
12th September 2023
In some ways, the weather for our first ever autumn migration walk at Beachy Head was fairly typical for this time of year, with a brisk westerly breeze, low cloud, broken sunshine but with high humidity and unseasonal heat. Not the best conditions for migrating birds but pleasant enough for us.
We started these walks as a way to engage with people who, like us, want to experience Beachy Head on a deeper level, as a place where the rhythms of the year are felt pulsing through nature. The changing of the seasons, particularly when we approach the darker months, can be a tricky time for some people but we want to share the absolute wonder and beauty that it brings. In all honesty I can say that autumn is my favourite time to be out in nature (alongside spring, summer and winter obviously), it is a time when we can marvel at the annual migration of birds and insects (yes some of them migrate too!) to and from our chalky cliffs. We started our walk today by talking about this, no scientific lectures, just absolute admiration for the almost magical ability for this immense feat of aerobatic stamina and navigation. Our conversation ranged far and wide, taking in badger latrines, archaeology and soil movement, in fact our chat went a lot further than we did, having walked only 500m or so in the first 45 minutes! But that is what these walks are all about, slowing down, sharing stories and enjoying whatever nature provides us with.
Although we weren’t inundated with sightings, we were gifted some beautiful ornithological moments, including seeing at least two Wheatear, for me a bird that typifies the early autumn (and spring) on the Downs and once hunted almost to extinction in this area for their juicy flesh, so enjoyed by the richer elements of Eastbourne Society, at least until they came to their senses in the C20th.
We were also gifted with some stunning views of a young buzzard, soaring directly above us, a fabulously agile female kestrel and we were accompanied by the guttural croaks of Ravens, another bird extinct in Sussex by the 1890’s and now breeding on the cliffs. As we walked back along the coastal path, with the low cloud closing in a male Peregrine Falcon provided us with some jaw-dropping acrobatics, before dive bombing a Herring Gull and bombing off along the coast. Just as we were finishing our stroll a flock of House Martins appeared, chirping like a bunch of excited kids, sharing stories of summer holidays on the first day back to school. We watched them rise up through the sea fret, sweeping in and then out again and vanishing into the grey. Perhaps today was the day that some internal signal told them that it was time to leave their summer holiday behind and return to their African winter home thousands of miles to the south.
This was the perfect start to our autumn ambles and I think we all left feeling alive, vital and a little bit more in love with The Head than we were an hour or so earlier.
We will be organising more migration walks this autumn but they will be weather dependant so please keep an eye on our social media posts for details.
Jo
Harbour Seals at Beachy Head
9th September 2023
Beneath Bomber Command Memorial, on the shores of Beachy Head, a colony of harbour seals have made their summer home. You can spot them just before high tide swimming away from the beach or westwards towards the lighthouse. They’re often seen swimming in pairs or trios, or singly, floating on their backs, diving or bottling (bobbing upright like bottles with only their heads above water). This season, the most seals spotted at one time was 32, by Glenn, one of the Beachy Head Chaplains. A couple of months ago ‘Beachy Head Birder’ photographed 31 seals hauled up on the rocks (count the red dots!).
The most we’ve spotted from land during landwatch surveys has been 10, which is still a thrilling sight to see from the headland!
The landwatch surveys are part of an initiative by The Sussex Dolphin project to monitor cetacean and marine mammal activity along the coast. We’re on the lookout for bottlenose dolphins and harbour porpoises as well as keeping an eye on the harbour seals
So far, these eyes haven’t seen our coastal cetaceans, but we’ve had reports of a bottlenose dolphin sighting off Beachy Head two weeks ago, and sightings of harbour porpoises at Sovereign Harbour and the mouth of the Cuckmere. Independent seal sightings have been noted at Sovereign Harbour, Holywell, Birling Gap and Hope Gap, Seaford. These are brilliantly busy waters off the coast of Beachy Head!
If you’d like to join us for a Marine Landwatch Survey, keep an eye out for Facebook posts by Wildwood Heritage and The Beachy Head Story, or pop into the Beachy Head Story to see the next walk listed on our ‘Nature Notes’ board in the lobby.
Annalie
31 Harbour Seals snapped by Beachy Head Birder!
'Tracing the Lost Voices of Beachy Head ' project is awarded £5000 funding by Changing Chalk!
16th August 2023
This project will celebrate Beachy Head’s heritage as an international communications hub by surveying, recording and mapping the archaeology and history of the area to explore and share how these communications over the ages impacted the communities who lived on the Downs. The Changing Chalk Community Grants Scheme have been given the green light to deliver projects which will support the people and places in their local areas. Thanks to The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the National Trust, grants totalling £21,828 have been awarded to six successful groups in the first round of applications, with awards varying from £1,000 to £5,000.
Changing Chalk is a multi-million-pound partnership project led by the National Trust, which connects nature, people and heritage in eastern Sussex. It aims to restore and protect the internationally-rare chalk grassland on the eastern South Downs, bring histories to life, and provide new experiences in the outdoors to those who need it most. The four-year project is supported by a £2.23m Heritage Fund grant made possible thanks to National Lottery players; by players of People's Postcode Lottery; and The Linbury Trust.
Jo
Beachy Head Landscapes and Legends - Crowdfunder raises £6,755!
2nd August 2023
Thanks to the generosity of many pledgers, to the Chalk Hill Trust and East Sussex County Council's Communtiy Wellbeing Fund, we have managed to raise £6,755 for our work on Beachy Head.
The work is just beginning and we are thrilled to see what we can achieve in this landscape. Our Dolphin Landwatch Surveys are temporarily becoming Harbour Seal Landwatch Surveys as we regularly spot these beautiful creatures from our viewpoint at Bomber Command Memorial. We are aiming to charter a boat to search for the dolphins and porpoises out at sea, which will give us a better chance of interpreting their behaviour and hopefully spotting them from land.
We are planning to start our Communications from the Headland Project in September, when we will start charting the visible archaeology on the headland through physical mapping and geophysical survey. We're looking for volunteer researchers to help us gather information about the buildings that have stood here since the outbreak of the French Revolution, so if that sounds like something you'd like to get involved with, drop us a line on the 'Contact Us' page.
As part of our Shipwreck Research Project, the shipwrecks of Beachy Head are being explored by an awesome team of volunteers. (The Shipwreck Crew) We are offering free talks and training sessions on some of the Beachy head shipwrecks, and a session on how to use Lloyd's Register of Shipping, to our volunteers as part of the crowdfunding initiative.
Annalie
Seaford Head Seals
31st May 2023
At low tide the beach at Hope Gap reveals the scoop of a small, rocky bay, the remnants of old cliffs now lost to the tide. Sit here long enough, feeling lucky enough, and the bay holds a little surprise, or in this case three surprises.
What at first looks like a bold swimmer braving the rocks and currents, on second glance appears too bald and shiny to be human. The head is streamlined and grey-black, human head sized maybe but definitely non-human. We’re watching a seal surface and disappear, though we need binoculars to be sure. The selkie stories come to mind, of seals hiding their seal skins to live as humans for a while and walk on land.
These seals are not discarding their skins today, they’re revelling in them. It looks like a mated pair floating on their backs, rolling through the waves, now and then surfacing for a gasp of air, the occasional bark, before slinking back into the sea. Later, another seal joins them.
They’re framed against the backdrop of the Seven Sisters and the proud, white curve of Belle Tout. Their endearing faces peer round-eyed at us from a safe distance.
They are not an uncommon sight here, children glance over and remark, matter of fact, oh the seals are here again. We have strayed into seal-habitat.
We gaze and gaze through binoculars at the seals’ charming faces and speckled bellies, astounded that our local waters suddenly seem so exotic. Skylarks serenade us as we stare, enchanted. We sit here long enough and a new sensation is revealed. We have accepted the seal’s presence, as they have accepted ours. Naturalisation is not difficult nor astounding, it is awareness and observance. Acknowledgment. Now we are no longer surprised to share the beach with sea mammals, it feels normal.
We’re a fifteen-minute drive and a half hour walk from home and it feels like we’ve entered another realm, one where seals watch children play in rock pools and shape sandcastles from sediments.
A lone sailing boat drifts past the shore, the tide prepares to turn. Just another day on the wild coast, an extraordinary day for us.
What a way to kick off the Beachy Head Story Dolphin Landwatch season. Find out how you can get involved.
Annalie
Harbour Seals!
Dolphin Watch Training with The Sussex Dolphin Project
Sunday 30th April 2023
Well, we’ve had our first attempt at dolphin/porpoise watching up at the Head. A group of us enjoyed a brief talk by members of the Sussex Dolphin Project, though most of us might have failed the ‘can you tell what cetacean you’re looking at in this video?’ test! This was followed by a walk over to the Bomber Command Memorial to station ourselves there for an hour and monitor the ocean.
This is much more charming than it sounds. We were recording the visibility levels and ocean swell, the number of boats in the area, the wind direction and strength – all the variables that affected our ability to monitor cetaceans. We were also staring really hard at an expanse of the English Channel, from Eastbourne Pier to Lighthouse Point, scanning with the naked eye and binoculars to home in on areas of wave disruption.
I stared at a dark, round head-ish shape in the water for quite a while before concluding I was staring at a buoy.
The learning curve for this monitoring project is going to be steep. We’re keeping an eye out for harbour porpoise, bottlenose- and common dolphins, and also for harbour- and common seals. Along the way, we’ll be learning patience and stillness, attitudes much needed in the pace of a working week. The enforced rest should do us all good, as we contemplate the ocean mammals of Eastbourne and wait for their appearance.
It could be that we have a pair of harbour porpoises living off the coast here already, the trick I hope, is to turn up often enough to spot them, and to learn enough about them to gauge their behaviours. Though this is a daunting task – gazing at the ocean alert enough to notice any rapid flicks of head and fin and tail – and trying to identify what we see, as well as describe the behaviour of the animals we’re noticing, this is the challenge we’ve set ourselves for the next few months.
From May to October 2023, we will be leading cetacean walks from The Beachy Head Story (on the Beachy Head Road, next to the Beachy Head pub) out into the landscape to officially monitor the ocean for cetacean activity. Walks will vary from half hour monitoring standstills to two-hour walk-and-standstill monitoring. We will be combing the shore for anything there is to see and sending feedback to The Sussex Dolphin Project.
This is citizen science in action. We’ll be heading out weekly, choosing our timings based on tide times and weather conditions, and you are invited to join us if you are in the area and have the time spare to gaze at the ocean.
We’ll be updating walk times via Wildwood Heritage and Heritage Eastbourne socials and also on info boards at the Beachy Head Story.
Who knows, perhaps next time we head out, we’ll be able to report back on some sightings!
Annalie
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