1st - 3rd August 2014

Sunday, 3rd August: Another bright, if breezy, summer's day, with the big news that the Black-winged Stilts have departed. Seemingly on a farewell tour of the RSPB's reserves, the whole family have decamped northwards from Pagham Harbour to Pulborough Brooks this morning, to the disappointment of the many early visitors.

Ferry Pool: Early on the 5 Greenshanks were again present, along with a Common Sandpiper, 2 Redshanks, 5 Black-tailed Godwits and an Avocet, but these had been replaced mid-morning by a roosting flock of 90 Redshanks and 20 Dunlin and not much else. (SH/OM)

Church Norton: Fairly much like yesterday - a dozen Sandwich Terns, one or two Whimbrel and the Peregrine were in the harbour, and two Lesser Whitethroats and the Garden Warbler were in the bushes, along with 12+ Willow Warblers, 6 Blackcaps and 4 Whitethroats. (S&aH/RJS/A&YF)

Big surprise this evening was an Arctic Skua making forays into the harbour over the spit to investigate the roosting terns. Presumably this was the one seen offshore yesterday, and it had been seen coming into the harbour repeatedly all afternoon today! The Peregrine was also about, and in the harbour there was a Bar-tailed Godwit, a Common Sandpiper, 5 Whimbrel and at least 100 Dunlin and 80 Ringed Plover. (AH)

 

Very distant Arctic Skua (above), Peregrine and Sandwich Terns at Church Norton (AH)

 

 

Selsey Bill (0705-0905hrs): Dry, sunny, wind fresh SW4-5. (obs: OM/JA)

Gannet - 28W, 6os

Shag - 1 juv os

Eider - 9 os (between Bill - Coastguard station)

Common Scoter - 2E, 3W and c.80 os (between Bill - Coastguard station)

Turnstone - 3W

Little Tern - 2 os

Common Tern - 2W, 12 os

Sandwich Tern - 4W, 6 os

Green Woodpecker - 1 gardens

Willow Warbler - 1 gardens

Selsey: Northcommon Farm: Little to report; a mixed flock of hirundines over the fields consisting of 25 House Martins, 30 Swallows and 5 Sand Martins, a couple of Willow Warblers and a Kestrel. (OM).

Medmerry: Fairly quiet for waders this morning, but large numbers of passerines.

Waders on show included a Green Sandpiper and a Common Sandpiper on the first pool from Easton Lane, at least 6 Little Ringed Plovers, 2 Redshank and 20 Dunlin around the Stilt Pool area and an Avocet chasing off crows out in the middle.

Most of the passerine activity was around the first pool, though not exclusively - with conservative total estimates of 500+ Sand Martins (mostly moving south-west), 1 House Martin, 2 Yellow Wagtails, 200+ Pied Wagtails, 2 Wheatears, 20 Skylarks, 40 Meadow Pipits, 5 Yellowhammers, 1 Corn Bunting, 50 Goldfinch and at least 500 Linnets. A Sparrowhawk upset the birds around the first pool and doubled my estimates in one go!. (AH)

This afternoon there were fewer Sand Martins, though still 200+, and Pied Wagtails, though to add to the above were 10 Black-tailed Godwits, 40 Dunlin and 3 Buzzards. (S&SaH)

 Sand Martins (above), Yellow Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Linnet, Wheatear & Sparrowhawk at Medmerry (AH)

 

 

Chichester GP's - Drayton Pits: With water levels quite high and a lack of muddy edges, the only waders located were a Common Sandpiper and 20 Lapwing. Wildfowl were more plentiful though, with at least 80 Tufted Ducks, including at least 4 females with broods of young. Four adult Pochard were also present, two of the females with broods, each of 5. A few eclipse Gadwall were keeping a low profile, whilst at least 7 pairs of Little Grebe were located, five accompanied by young birds. A Common Tern was fishing and finally, a Hobby arrived to have a go at dragonflies during a brief visit (OM/JD/DS).

 

Just-about-discernible Pochard with young, Drayton G. Pits (OM)

 

 

 

Saturday, 2nd August: Grey and cloudy with a moderate breeze this morning, but with a band of heavy rain due to pass through later. Good news came early on today with a report that all five Black-winged Stilts were together on the Ferry Pool again.... phew!

Ferry Pool: The whole Black-winged Stilt family of 2 ad's and 3 juv's was back on the pool this morning at 0710hrs (SR).There were also 5 Greenshanks, too, often mixing with the young Stilts, plus 20 Lapwings and a Kingfisher. (AH/SH)

 

Juvenile Black-winged Stilts on Ferry - above with a Greenshank (AH)

Selsey Bill: A few bits offshore  today, including 7 Fulmars west, but mostly it was lingering/feeding birds, including 40+ Gannets, 30+ Sandwich Terns, 10+ Common Terns, one or two Little Terns and 100+ Common Scoter. (JA/SH/AH)

Additional watch (15.00 to 17.00hrs):  Sun/cloud. Wind SW 3-4 (Obs: SH)
Gannet - 2E, 5W, 1 os
Common Scoter - 1E, 7W
Eider - 1 os

Turnstone - 5 ob

Little Tern - 1W

Common Tern - 13W
Sandwich Tern - 16W

 

Turnstone at Selsey Bill (SH)



Church Norton: A few things in the hedge behind the hide this morning, including a Garden Warbler, half a dozen Willow Warblers and two or three Blackcaps and Whitethroats. There were still a dozen or more Sandwich Terns in the harbour, plus 3 Whimbrel and 100+ Dunlin, all put up by a juvenile Peregrine, being watched over from their island by one of its parents. (AH).
An additional record, from Peter Sketch, was of an Arctic Skua close inshore from the beach that the regulars didn't spot!

Arctic Skua off Church Norton (P Sketch)

 

Garden Warbler (above) & Blackcap at Church Norton (AH)

 

Medmerry: A bike ride from Easton Lane to the Avocet pools at Medmerry this evening:

100 House Martins & Sand Martins over the Bean field and two Common Sandpipers and many Pied Wagtails on and around the first sluice pool. From the Easton viewpoint, the Wood Sandpiper was again present, a single and a rather lost looking Grey Plover was being kept company by two dozen Black-tailed Godwits and a motley collection of Little Egrets and Grey Herons. One Yellow-legged Gull was visible in the two gull roosts. Two Wheatears were on the posts near the pool by the Earnley track and Starlings and Linnets were everywhere. At the pools, a single Common Sandpiper and a summer plumage Grey Plover were with 100 Canada Geese and nine Dunlin. A Whimbrel flew over low battling gallantly and fairly unsuccessfully against the strong south-east wind. Two Avocets were on the saltmarsh (BI).

Friday, 1st August: A grey and blustery start (though becoming sunny later); perhaps presaging a turn in the weather in the next few days when low pressure is set to arrive.....meanwhile, the Black-winged Stilts put in a late appearance at the Ferry Pool after initially being absent. Worryingly though, only 2 adults and 2 juveniles were present; let's hope the third juv is just elsewhere and hasn't succumbed to a predator.

 

Ferry Pool: No sign of the Black-winged Stilts early on, or anything else very much! The only waders present were 2 Common Sandpipers, briefly, 2 Avocets, a Dunlin, 2 Curlews and 4 Lapwings. (AH) Later, four Black-winged Stilts appeared (2 ad's and 2 juv's) but there was apparently no sign of the fifth bird today (BFF/DIS/DM/CRJ/SR).

 Black-winged Stilts on the Ferry Pool (upper two - juveniles, lower - adult) (DM)

 

 

Halsey's Farm/North Wall: Very little through Halsey's Farm bar a couple of Willow/Chiffs. The North Wall was a bit better - there were 2 Kingfishers, one on the Breach Pool, one on the creek towards Owl Point; also a Green Sandpiper and the colour-ringed Common Sandpiper were on the Breach Pool, along with 67 Black-tailed Godwits, 4 Lapwing, 6 Teal, 2 Common Terns (and a flock of 5 flew over), and a few Reed and Sedge Warblers.

There were 2 Greylag Geese, 2 Grey Herons and 40 Curlew in the fields behind, plus 50 or so Swallows and 20 Sand Martins around the cattle, but no sign yet of any Yellow Wagtails. (AH/PC) This afternoon there were 89 Black-tailed Godwits, 3 Yellow-legged Gulls plus the highlight of an adult Spoonbill feeding in the channels on the eastern side as the tide flowed in (BFFDIS/DM).
 

adult Spoonbill, Pagham Hbr east side (DM).

Green Sandpiper (above) Common Tern, Greylag Geese & Grey Herons from the North Wall (AH)

Church Norton; single Knot, 40 Dunlin and 12 Whimbrel in the harbour, 2 Peregrines and a handful of terns, mainly Sandwich (BFFDIS/DM).

Fishbourne Creek: A light shower this morning soon cleared leaving a warm sunny day with a blustery SW wind. Our first stop was Dell Quay where we walked down the east side to the River Lavant near Fishbourne. Not many waders found with only singles of Greenshank and Common Sandpiper, although we had a large count of 404 Mediterranean Gulls north of the Lavant, loafing on the saltmarsh, plus a single Yellow-legged Gull. A Cetti’s Warbler was calling from the reeds and a smart Kingfisher dashed up and down the Lavant (BFF/DIS/DM).