Merlin 😢

I had to call the blog Merlin but there is no picture. Fortunately Dave and another birder were in the hide with me at Pulborough when the bird came through and they both confirmed the sighting. If they hadn't been there I would probably have doubted what I saw. This is a lifer for me and one that I have waited so long to see. There have been a couple of possibles in the past but I have never been confident enough to claim the sighting - this time I am.

Strange though I feel only disappointment. I didn't get the picture and my number one target and bogey bird has now disappeared. Probably the right decision though. It went through fast and if I had tried to get it in the frame and in focus I would come away with nothing. No picture and insufficient observation time to make the identification.

Lets just hope the London Buses cliche comes true and now the first one has been seen many more will come along. The next one sat on a post in front of the hide please.

So what else was about at Pulborough. Black-winged Stilt, I saw so many in Spain a few weeks ago but one on the local patch is always good to see even if it was 250 metres away.

Black-winged Stilt and Black-tailed Godwit

Three or four Common Sandpipers were also good to see. They seem to have been in short supply for the past couple of years

Common Sandpiper

Common Sandpiper

A pair of Egyptian Geese with six or possibly seven goslings. Spring is definitely here.

Egyptian Geese

Five or six Nightingales around the Pulborough site with lots of people trying to get a view of them. I always wonder why. It's quiet a boring LBJ if you discount the song. Surely a bird to listen to rather than to chase around. Which is probably just as well as most of the spots where you normally get a good view look a little overgrown this year. We had one view of a bird deep in cover but there was no chance of a picture so here is one from a couple of years ago

Nightingale

A few other birds around, a Jay keeping its distance as they do, Cuckoo, Whitethroats, a Wren carrying a white feather in its bill which caused us great confusion but I still haven't seen a Lesser Whitethroat or Garden Warbler.

A few Orange Tips around, the butterfly that really gets the butterfly season off to a start. Pearl Borders next, I will have to start carrying the macro lens.

Orange Tip

To finish off, yet another picture of one of my favourite birds, the Dunnock. A much underrated bird, who needs Bluethroats when these are in every garden?

Water Pipit

I see Water Pipits most years but but not many of those sightings are in Sussex. I usually end up having to visit Rainham Marshes or the watercress beds at Alresford in Hampshire to be sure of seeing the bird. So Saturday, I was pleased to see a tweet from Bola, reporting one as being present in the horse field on his Climping patch.

I couldn't make it Saturday but I was down there before seven the next morning to see if it was still around. The thunderstorms over the Saturday night had probably prevented it from moving on and it was easy enough to find. Getting a picture was a lot harder. It was either a long distant shot from the field gate or try to get a shot over a high hedge with branches and wire fencing obstructing the view.

Neither option was really satisfactory but in the end I did get a reasonable record shot even though most of my attempts ended up in the wast bin.

Water Pipit

Earlier in the week I had visited Pulborough Brooks and Pagham Harbour in an attempt to connect with some of the Spring migrants that were starting to arrive. Whitethroats and Sedge Warblers were around in good numbers but Hirundines were limited with House Martins being the only ones I saw.

Whitethroat

Sedge Warbler

Other nice birds around, a Great White Egret from the Hanger hide at Pulborough Brooks.

Great White Egret

Kestrel

Linnet

Treecreeper

a lot of very vocal Dunnocks

and a few Buzzards soaring on the thermals.

 also my first Cuckoo of the year heard calling from the North Wall and lots of Cetti's heard but not seen - or at least not seen long enough to photograph.

Wheatear

I had a go at Seawatching this week under the expert guidance of  David Campbell and Nick Bond,  and much to my surprise, once you get to grips with a few of the basic identification skills, it can get quite interesting.

We had a good list on Tuesday morning. The experts logged 689 birds with 27 species although my count was a bit below that total. I could identify most of the birds with Great and Arctic Skuas being particularly pleasing but a series of distant dots remained just that, distant dots rather than the Manx Shearwaters that the others could identify. The only downside is that seawatching gives very few picture opportunities.

I was expecting a repeat on Wednesday morning but with no breeze there was very little moving. Fortunately a Wheatear on the beach did at least give me a chance to use the camera and also a few Photoshop skills to correct the early morning colour cast. My first Wheatear of the year so worth recording.

I managed to see the Savi's Warbler at West Rise Marsh last week although only for a few seconds at a time. It was great to see but there was no chance of a record shot and my key UK list of seen but not photographed now rises to 11 with Warblers responsible for the bulk of that list.

Consolation was this Sedge Warbler singing from the scrub, another first for the year.

Iceland Gull

We had a great trip to the Coto Donana but the downside is that it's hard to get going again once you get back. With so many birds to see you end up a little numbed by the experience. Flocks of Flamingo, Glossy Ibis, and I seem to remember White Storks and Black Kites on every other pylon. So many birds that I often didn't even bother to get the camera out. I get home and it all seems a bit dead. There are a few migrants starting to come through but nothing to really get me motivated. I am almost tempted to do a twitch somewhere but fortunately I resist the temptation.

I didn't bother to put any pictures on the blog last week but now, a week later, looking back at what was about, there were a few birds worth recording. The 2CY Iceland Gull at Goring Gap made a couple of appearances but I only ever managed to see it in the rain....

and for flight shots it was always a bit too close.

A Purple Sandpiper on the beach at the Hillfield road car park in Selsey was a bit unexpected.

There were also a few Brambling about. This female being near the feeders at the Pagham Harbour visitors centre.

I had my first Willow Warbler in the garden but it was gone before I could get a picture and I have yet to connect with a Wheatear although there have been a good few reported.

Coto Donana - El Rocio

Just back from a weeks birding with Dave in the Coto Donana, so if you read both blogs they are going to look very similar. We had a great time and saw a lot of birds although the weather was far from ideal. We had strong winds, overcast skies and at times torrential rain.

Before we went I had been worried about the marshes being too dry. Up until early January, Spain and Portugal had been experiencing a severe drought, but I can confirm that it is now over. We found fields and roads flooded, fords that we wanted to use under deep and fast flowing water and in one case water coming over the bridge instead of under it. All part of the entertainment really.

There were a couple of locations that we couldn't get to and a few extended journeys to get around the blockages. We also had one occasion where we were lucky to be able to extract the car from a muddy track.

Sanctuario del Rocio

Perhaps the best place to start is El Rocio, the town in which we were based for the week. It is in a great location with a large lagoon "La Madre de las Marismas" just to the south of the town and with a promenade and viewing points from which to observe the birds. Be aware, however, that this looks more like a wild west town with sandy pot holed roads and horse rails outside every house. It is a bit touristy, the lagoon can dry up in the summer and you need to avoid the pilgrimage season when the town will be solid with people but it's certainly full of character.

Typical view over the Lagoon - Flamingos and Spoonbills

The novelty of seeing the Flamingos, Spoonbills and Black-winged Stilts soon wares off and our early morning walks along the promenade where mostly focused on the smaller birds, the warblers, hirundines  and and anything skulking in the foraging areas around the waters edge. A Little Bittern disappearing into the reeds in the half light was a missed opportunity but Purple Swamphen, Sardinian Warblers, Cetti's, Black Redstarts and Red-rumped Swallows were all worth following.

Cetti's Warbler

House Martins  looking for somewhere to roost

Red-rumped Swallows - couldn't get any closer

Sardinian Warbler

Mrs Sardinian Warbler - Looks well fed and ready for breeding season

Sardinian Warbler again

Iberian Yellow Wagtail

Zitting Cisticola (Fan-tailed Warbler to the traditionalists)

White Wagtail

It was also good to see a flock of Tree Sparrows but they got very little attention as they were closely followed by a small flock of Common Waxbills. Common they may be but these were a life tick for me and not a bird that I had expected to see in this location. They are usually sedentary in just a few locations in Spain and Portugal but had probably been driven to move by the high water levels.

Tree Sparrows

Common Waxbills

Common Waxbill

Common Waxbill

Black-tailed Godwit

Not a bad location to use as a base. More blogs on the Coto Donana to follow.