Pectoral Sandpiper

The weather was best in the west today so we headed for Pagham Harbour with the first stop being the North Wall. It was great to see the Breech Pool back to normal with a good mix of water and mud and with plenty of birds in evidence. I am surprised that it has recovered so quickly given the repeated drying out and flooding it received during the early part of the year.

With shallows and mud available many of the waders have returned along with the wildfowl, a few geese and various warblers in the reed beds. The insects are also thriving and there was a mixed flock of Hirundines hawking over the pools.

The birds were there but the weather did not deliver. It was overcast all morning. There were some great birds on show but the resulting photographs are poor.

Godwits, Redshanks and Greenshanks in White's Creek

We were told to look out for a Little Stint and when a suitable small bird turned up we were happily clicking away. It was only later that we realised that it was a Pectoral Sandpiper, but that is the beauty of getting a photograph, you can always check it out when you get home.

Pectoral Sandpiper

The Sandpiper was joined by a juvenile Ruff and we would have had some excellent pictures but without the light you cannot get the colours and detail into the pictures and they end up looking flat.

Pectoral Sandpiper(front) and Ruff (rear)

Ruff

We did check out other areas around the harbour but it all seemed very quiet. The following are all pictures taken in the North Wall area

Black-tailed Godwit

Reed Warbler

Whitethroat - taken during a brief improvement in the light conditions

The Pectoral Sandpiper was a great bird to see, even if we had difficulty identifying it, but overall the day was a bit disappointing. I like to spend the evening sorting out my shots and producing the blog. Tonight I spent my time trying to rescue a few record shots from amongst all the pictures taken today.

Black Tern

I have had a few trips out birding over the past week but they have mostly been on sea watches or looking for Terns arriving on the coast. Their have been a few good birds about but the picture opportunities have been limited.

Chichester Gravel pits are always a good place to look at this time of year and true to form on Sunday there were hundreds of birds hawking over the water. Black Tern and Little Gull were the highlights but dozens of Common Terns, Swifts, House Martins, Swallows, and a few Sand Martins added to the excitement.

All the birds were distant but I still managed a few record shots.

Black Tern and Common Tern

The Common Tern below helped me to a new first, the first time I have photographed a flying insect at about 100 metres. I knew that the Terns were agile in flight but I hadn't realise that they could also turn their heads through a hundred and eighty degrees.

It would be interesting to see the equation of energy expended over energy gained!

Common Tern

My sea watches at Selsey Bill did not prove very fruitful. I saw plenty of Terns going through but in general things were quiet and I also managed to miss the few Skuas that were present.

Common Tern

Little Tern

The Breech Pool at Pagham North Wall had a little more water in it when we visited on Sunday but most of the bird life seems to have abandoned the area. There were a few Sedge Warblers in the reeds, one Little Ringed Plover and a single colour ringed Avocet that flew soon after we arrived.

And today, Monday, was meant to be distant shots of the Red-rumped Swallow at West Marsh Eastbourne. Except nobody thought to tell the swallow and I had three hours staring at a birdless lake and didn't take the camera out once.

Not much of a birding week but the Black Tern was good to see. I thought about not doing a blog but then this is my diary of what I see and you have to accept the bad days along with all the good ones.

Garden Warbler

I woke up this morning to what looked like a thick sea mist. I live close to the coast so there was always the hope that by the time I got to the top of the road I would be back in sunshine. No such luck this time and when I got to Pulborough Brooks I found myself sitting in a hide looking out at a bank of colourless grey fog.

It's probably appropriate then, that the first bird that appeared was a Grey Heron. The shots of the Heron below are far better than I saw on the day, its amazing what you can do in Photoshop to recover a picture.

Why does it look surprised? Well it had strayed too close to a Lapwings nest and it was under attack.

Look out

a warning pass

Followed by an exhibition of high speed precision flying -
a few inches lower and it would be impaled on the Heron's bill

Still defiant but moving away

and the Lapwing still intent on protecting it's territory

I was surprised that the Heron made no attempt to use its bill to defend itself. I would have thought that a quick stab would have brought the Lapwing down. But then I am thinking like a human and not like a bird. These territorial disputes probably have an etiquette that ensures that neither party gets injured.

With the fog gradually lifting I went to have a look at the Nightingales. An hour listening and watching these raised the spirits but did not give me many picture opportunities. They seem to have an uncanny ability to always perch with small branches in front of them.

In full song

From a distance the North Brooks did not look very promising but I decided to walk round to Nettley's Hide for a closer look. I am glad I did. There were distant views of a couple of Greenshanks and also a Green Sandpiper.

Greenshanks

Green Sandpiper

Linnets, Sedge Warblers, and Whitethroats were also showing well in front of the hide.

Linnet

Sedge Warbler

Whitethroat

The best find of the day, for me, was a Garden Warbler. This is a bird that always gives me problems but this time I managed to locate it from its song.

Garden Warbler

Sometimes you can walk around Pulborough Brooks and not see anything but today it was well worth the effort.

In the afternoon I went down to Selsey, mainly to look for the Sandpipers that have been reported on the Ferry Pool. There were none there on the way through but on returning later I found a Common at the back of the pool, a first for me this year.

I found the local Kestrel on the ground in the pumping station and in the process of devouring what ever it had caught. I grabbed my camera but I was stuck on the wrong side of the road, unable to cross because of the amount of traffic going by. I had to settle for a flight shot later.

Kestrel

A visit to the North Wall was equally disappointing. Last week it was flooded, this week it has the lowest water levels I have ever seen. Whoever controls the sluice gates seems to be doing their best to destroy the habitat.

Little Ringed Plover on the drying up bed of the Breech Pool. It should be under a couple of feet of water.

A great day out spoilt by what seems to be the wanton destruction of one of my favourite birding spots.

Black-winged Stilt

I was back at Pagham Harbour Ferry Pool early this morning and fortunately so was the Black-winged Stilt. It was hiding behind the reeds when I got there but then came out, gave me a chance to take a couple of distant shots and then flew to the back of the pool where it was beyond my range. It's not a brilliant shot but I am happy to have it, although I wouldn't complain if it decided to give me a close up exclusive.

Black-winged Stilt

There were about sixty Black-tailed Godwits on the pool and another larger flock wheeling out over the harbour. Other birds of interest were a Little Ringed Plover, a majestic looking Grey Heron, and a Spotted Redshank.

Little Ringed Plover

Grey Heron

Black-tailed Godwits with what looks like a Spotted Redshank turning summer plumage on the left

I had a walk around Northcommon Farm but all the migrants from the past couple of days seem to have moved on. All I could see were three Wheatears and a very distant Hobby passing through in the fields at the end of Golf Links Lane.

Hobby

Church Norton was very similar with just a few of the usual suspects on the water and in the bushes and a couple of possible Whimbrels out in the harbour. The church yard itself was being subjected to its usual cut and burn maintenance so there was little point in looking in there. The only bird worth photographing was this Lapwing seen in the fields by Rectory Lane.

Lapwing

I finished up at the North Wall which has been very disappointing of late. At least today there was a good level of water in the Breech Pool although it has probably wiped out anything that had started to nest in the dried out conditions that have prevailed of late.

There were two Wheatears feeding along the wall and a couple of Little Grebes in one of the pools.

Wheatear

Little Grebe

Another great day, the birding has really taken off over the past week.

Red-breasted Goose

I picked up on the report posted on SOS of a Red-breasted Goose on Henfield Levels and with the sun shining this morning I went to take a look. It took a bit of searching but I eventually found it whilst viewing from the Downslink Path although it was very distant.  It was with a flock of about a dozen Greylags although I later found it in a mixed flock with Greylags and Canada Geese.

With mixed flock of Greylags and Canada Geese.

You will have to be very lucky if you want to get close to this bird. The Greylags make excellent guards. They start giving alarm calls if you get within about 100 metres of them and take flight if you approach any closer. There is good cover along the Downslink path but the river bank is very open and people walking along the bank were putting them to flight.

There was another Red-breasted Goose flying with Greylags reported in the same area in March last year. Perhaps it is making a return visit.

Yesterday we had another unusual Goose, a single Barnacle  on the Breech Pool at Pagham Harbour. This time associating with Brents.

Kingfisher

I had to make a trip up to Horsham today and with an hour to spare I thought I would call into Warnham LNR for a quick look. I wasn't expecting too much and that is exactly what I found. Wanham is a site to visit in the winter if you are looking for birds, although it can be worth a visit in the summer for butterflies and dragonflies.

Fortunately there were two Kingfishers mobile around the site. It was difficult to get a clear shot but I did manage the one below. The bird was mostly in shade which gave me a chance to get the iridescent blue colour along its back. This is usually too bright for the camera to record when it is in direct sunlight.

Actually the feathers are a dull brown rather than blue but the structure of the feathers scatters and reflects the short wavelength blue light much more than the longer wavelength red light thus giving the bright blue effect. So to be correct I should be referring to it as the "Tyndall Effect" rather than iridescence.

Kingfisher

And a few shots taken at Pagham North Wall the day before.

Wheatear

Reed Bunting

Two Spotted Redshanks taking to the air. Black-tailed Godwit in the background.