One determined seagull

Chimney, Princes Avenue, with newly-fitted bird deterrents.

Spot the chick

At this time of year seagull noise is pretty much 24/7; raucous squawking from adult birds and loud whistling/calling from chicks waiting for food.

It's a good year for garden spiders

I noticed dozens of small, large and medium-sized garden spiders on my way to Tesco this morning. This was the biggest one with a body about 15mm long and pretty markings.

Bug

Warm weather has brought out lots of insect life. I don't recognise this bug; he was about 2cm long and stayed on the outside of my balcony door for several hours. BTW, what looks like a dirty window is actually crusted with salt, the result of July's high winds.

And when you're sinking...

...your teeth into the food you've bought on the pier, watch out for seagulls. Given half a chance, they'll whip the food out of your mouth and fly off with it.

Seagulls

Photograph copyright Liz Marley 2009.

Sunset with seagulls

...and finally, one with added wildlife

Nectar time

Crows

Sitting on the beach this afternoon, I noticed that there were lots of crows standing around on the shingle.

Pointing in the same direction

Pheasant on a wall

A pheasant isn't the usual sort of bird you expect to find at the seaside - much more colourful that a seagull or pigeon!

Fishing

As well as sea fishing from boats, fishing from the shore is popular from Hove seafront round to the Marina. Depending on the season, some of the species caught are mackerel, plaice and bass.

First day of the New Year

I walked down the seafront to Hove Lagoon this morning. As well as the ubiquitous and noisy herring gulls and black-headed gulls on the water, there was a large group of swans and cygnets by the edge of the small lagoon. Swans looks so graceful in the water, but on land they're cumbersome creatures and rather grumpy, squabbling fiercely over morsels of food.