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Description
Newhaven Tide Mills hosts some good specialities in the winter, and can be good for migrants in spring and autumn. Summer is quieter. In the winter the best birds are the morski prodnik on the Breakwater at the mouth of the River Ouse. They show very well here at high tide, and on particularly high tides with stormy conditions will show up top on the highest truts. kamenjar and obalna vriskarica are also seen along this pier. At low tide from the end of the Pier, it is worth checking the beach on the opposite side of the river, for a gull roost that has in the past included rumenonogi galeb, rumenonogi galeb, ledni galeb and polarni galeb.
At high tide there is also often a small roost of spremenljivi prodnik and komatni deževnik on the shingle beach, with low double figures of each. The Mill Creek (a tidal creek and the remnant of the old course of the river) normally only holds spremenljivi prodnik, rdečenogi martinec and veliki škurh but other waders occasionally appear, especially in cold weather movements. There are extensive patches of rough grassland which sometimes attract wintering močvirska uharica or Pegasta sova. Another species always worth looking out for is šmarnica; one or two normally spend the winter here but roam widely. The best spots to search are the perimeter fence of the industrial land, or the caravan park as you walk towards Seaford. If accessing the site by train then always check around Newhaven Harbour station too. There is a large roost of rečni galeb and sivi galeb on the sea offshore every evening, with persistence and a telescope a črnoglavi galeb or two can often be seen.
Spring can bring good numbers of migrant kupcar from mid March to early May, and smaller numbers of Warblers and other passerine migrants. The Mill Creek will often have a few migrant waders, amongst the most regular are sabljarka (especially in March), and mali škurh and progastorepi kljunač (in April and early May). Summer is quiet, but breeding species include srpična trstnica and bičja trstnica, mlinarček, prosnik and often a pair of komatni deževnik, although these typically fail due to disturbance. From mid-July onwards it is worth checking any gulls for juvenile rumenonogi galeb.
Autumn migration can be a good time to search the scrub for Warblers, while repaljščica and kupcar in particular favour the open areas of this site. Stormy weather will on occasion result in sightings of ploskokljuni liskonožec on the Mill Creek, and in such weather it is also worth checking Newhaven Harbour for storm-driven Seabirds, there have been records of lastovičji galeb here.
Newhaven Tide Mills has a fairly good track record for rarities and scarcities; in the winter these include snežni strnad, ledni galeb, polarni galeb, a prerijski galeb (in 1991), črni martinec and žličarka. Rarities or scarcities that have shown up during migration have included kratkoprsti škrjanček, pisana penica, rjava cipa and rjavi srakoper, and the site has good potential, particularly for autumn rarities.
Details
Access
Park either at the Buckle Car Park in Seaford or the Tide Mills Car Park, on the A259 between Newhaven and Seaford. You can also access from the bus, take a 12/12a/12X and depart at the Tide Mills bus stop. If accessing via train, you can take the train that runs between Seaford and Brighton, and disembark at either Newhaven Harbour or Bishopstone stations.