Ruff

A mixed bag of birds, locations and weather today. We started out in overcast conditions with a visit to Cissbury Ring and a stakeout on the Yew tree that Ring Ouzels stop over in
each year. The climb up the hill probably did us good and we had a pleasant hour or so looking at the view but there was no sign of the Ring Ouzels or of any other birds apart from a few crows.

Next stop was Pagham North Wall to see if I could improve on my Curlew Sandpiper pictures. No luck again as they had moved further down the creek on the rising tide but there was a Ruff on the Breech Pool and the usual collection of Black-tailed Godwits along with a couple of Spotted Redshanks and a few Snipe that were showing well.

Ruff in amongst the Godwits

on alert

and feeding

The Snipe were more active than usual, feeding, running around, aggressive behaviour, and tail fanning. Perhaps practising courtship techniques for next year!

Snipe

Snipe

With the weather improving we decided to move on to Church Norton to have another look for the Pied Flycatcher. It had been seen just before we arrived but as with the previous day it had gone into hiding when I arrived. There were even more Spotted Flycatchers about today. It was difficult to do an accurate count but probably ten or more just in the area outside of the church grounds.

So yet more pictures of Spotties:-

Spotted Flycatcher

Likes butterflies as well as Flies

So we dipped out on our three targets for the day but we still had a good days birding and enjoyed the Autumn sunshine.