Squacco Heron

Last Friday a Squacco Heron was reported at Pagham North Wall. Having previously dipped two opportunities to see one along the south coast I was keen to have a look but with no further sightings on the Friday it looked as though it had moved on. In some ways I hoped it had. I had commitments over the weekend and would not be able to get out to see it.

Sure enough, Saturday morning it was refound and reports of sightings appeared for the rest of the day. Would it stay? The 2015 Cuckmere bird had gone within 24 hours of being reported leaving me on a fruitless search at dawn the next morning.

Six o'clock on Sunday evening and I finally made it to the viewing area just by Halsey's Farm. No sign there but I did at least manage to get a few seconds glimpse of it through reeds on the other side of the farm Not a very satisfactory view but it still counted as my first UK Squacco.

Monday morning and we were back at the farm and after a couple of hours wait it flew in and started to feed.

Squacco Heron

It's not an easy bird to photograph in flight. Collins refers to an explosion of white on take off. The eye compensates but the camera has difficulty coping with the contrast.

Squacco Heron

Once on the ground you have the opposite problem. It blends into the background and the camera has difficulty in pulling focus. Solution, take lots of frames and just hope you get a few good ones.

Squacco Heron

Squacco Heron

Squacco Heron

It was only a small twitch but you have to respect other people's right to see the bird. That inevitably means that you are too far away to get the picture that you really want. I was happy though, I had my record shots and the perfect picture could wait until the next time I was in Spain.


I have had something of a quiet summer birding wise. A focus on Orchids and a seeming lack of migrating birds late spring and early summer has left me some thirty to forty birds behind my usual totals for this time of year. Sussex can be really dead through the summer but today you just got the feeling that things were starting to liven up again.

Wood Sandpiper with Common Sandpiper in foreground

Wood Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper on the Ferry Pool at Pagham and Common Sandpiper, below, in the Ferry Channel.

Common Sandpiper

It will be interesting to see if I can make up the numbers during the autumn migration but I fear that a few will have already gone.

Medmerry Black-winged Stilt

I was in two minds about going out today. The weather did not look so good and the birding has been a bit slow of late.The decider was a pair of Black-winged Stilts still being reported at Medmerry. I had seen a pair down at Dungeness a few weeks ago but these were Sussex birds and so a patch tick.

I started the day off at Pagham Harbour Visitors Centre with another two hours wasted trying to get a picture of the resident Cuckoo. Again I had plenty of views but I just could not get it in the viewfinder either perched up or flying - very frustrating. The consolation was a Wood Sandpiper on the back of the Ferry Pool. I managed a couple of record shots but it was too far away for a decent picture. Fortunately a couple of friendly birders let me have a look through their telescope and I was able to see the diagnostic features.

No pictures of the Cuckoo or Wood Sandpiper so you will have to make do with a Chaffinch

The Black-winged Stilts had been reported on the scrape at the end of the footpath on the Earnley side of Medmerry. It's a long walk in, particularly if the birds have flown when you get there, but if you don't look you don't get to see so walk it was. I am glad I went. The Stilts were still there as were some other interesting birds although they were all a bit distant.

Black-winged Stilts

Given that the environment is only about a year old the bird population is building up nicely. I just hope these are new birds and not just ones that have been attracted away from Pagham Harbour. There were a number of Avocets there and they appeared to be sitting on nests. I only saw one younster but that was being well cared for by the parent who was seeing off any Gulls or Crows that came close.

Avocet

The Avocets are very protective parents and even the Stilts were expected to keep their distance.

Not really a threat but see it off anyway

There was also a Curlew Sandpiper putting in an occasional appearance. Again very distant but this time the record shot is just about acceptable. You can see the diagnostic features, long black legs, pale stripe over the eye, slightly downcurved bill. The white underside is gradually disappearing as the bird moults into its red summer plumage

Curlew Sandpiper

I had a couple of hours left and a choice of things to do. I could head off to Whiteways and look for the Turtle Dove or have a look around Church Norton for a Flycatcher or other migrants. I chose Church Norton which was probably the wrong decision as the Turtle Dove was found at Whiteways.

Nothing was found by me at Church Norton apart from the rather odd behaviour of a cock pheasant. He was stood on one of the old gravestones as I walked through the church yard and he was still there when I came back half an hour later. I went over to investigate and he was rather reluctant to move away, letting me get within five or six feet before he moved off. There was no name on the gravestone, it had worn away with time, but I did wonder if he had found the remains of an old game keeper or poacher and had been dancing on their grave.

Pheasant on gravestone

I also took a couple more pictures of butterflies when I was out on Monday. Not enough for a blog but they are worth adding here.

Common Blue

The Wall Brown has to be one of the hardest to photograph. I am used to chasing Brimstones or Orange Tips over long distances but at least they stay at a reasonable height. The Wall likes baked hard bare mud where it waits until I get down alongside it laying on my belly when it then takes off and lands ten feet away. This is a game that we pursued over a couple of hours in the hot sun on Monday afternoon. I got my record shots but it was hard work and I am going to have to do it all over again to try to improve on the ones that I got.

Wall Brown

Wall Brown closed wing shot.

Wood Sandpiper

Having seen a Curlew Sandpiper at Pennington but then only managing to get a poor record shot of it, I was looking for an opportunity to get a better picture. Reports indicated that one was showing well from the sluice gates on the north wall at Pagham and I thought that if I got there a couple of hours before high tide the incoming water would drive it closer and give me a better picture opportunity. Good thinking but totally wrong. The incoming tide drove it further down the creek and out of site.

Fortunately there was a consolation prize in the form of a Spotted Redshank. It was showing well on the front of the Breech Pool when I arrived and I managed a couple of quick shots before an incoming flight of ducks spooked it and it flew to the back of the pool and took refuge with the Godwits. This put it just out of range for a decent shot.

Spotted Redshank - still showing some summer plumage

Preening

I walked down to the lagoon and spit hide but I was forgetting that the caravan site is full this time of year and there were too many people around for my liking. I did see a couple of Pipits and a few Wheatear but again these were at a distance.

Wheatear

Back on the North Wall and still no sign of the Curlew Sandpiper. The Spotted Redshank remained out of range but the little Egrets were impressive with over 20 birds counted in this one area of the harbour.

Little Egret Roost

The weekend saw me visiting family down near Canterbury and that gave a good opportunity to call in at Dungeness RSPB on the way home to look for Wood Sandpiper.

There were a couple visible from the Firth hide with one giving reasonable picture opportunities.

Wood Sandpiper

 

Wood Sandpiper

 Good record shots and I was pleased to have them but there is a level of frustration at always being that little bit too far away and having to rely on heavy crops. Last weeks Long-billed Dowitcher was a good example. I came away with a decent record shot but then saw a digiscoped shot on the web that showed far more detail than I had achieved. I usually expect the dirty atmosphere and heat haze to be the limiting factor for both approaches but this showed that there are times when the more powerful optics have the edge. This will be more so as we move into the crisper cleaner air of the winter. Perhaps I will have to try doubling up on the extenders to get a better balance between range and quality.

Also showing, but well camouflaged on the mud, was a Common Sandpiper.
 

Common Sandpiper

Ringed Plover

And there were late nesting Common Terns on the rafts from the Denge Marsh Hide.

Common Tern chicks - still to fledge

 Also had a walk on the North Downs looking at the butterflies and when I got home I was pleased to find that I had managed to capture an Essex Skipper instead of the Small Skipper I was expecting.

Essex Skipper - showing sex brands parallel to wing edge

Essex Skipper - and black tips to the antennae