14th - 16th January 2016

Saturday, 16th January: Finally the wind has dropped, leaving a beautiful, crisp morning....after a very cold and frosty start.

Selsey Bill (0750-0900hrs): Sunny, WNW3   (Obs: JA/SR). At least five Great Northern Divers this morning, though otherwise fairly slow....

Red-throated Diver - 1E, 7W

Great Northern Diver - 1W, 5os

Diver sp - 1W

Great Crested Grebe - 1W, 1os

Brent Goose - 1W

Eider - 1os

Red-breasted Merganser - 1W, 7os

Common Scoter - 2W

Mediterranean Gull - 2W

Ferry Pool: Not much on the frozen pool early on - just 100 or so Lapwing and 20 Black-tailed Godwits. (AH)

Lapwing and Black-tailed Godwits on a frozen Ferry (AH)

Church Norton: A Short-eared Owl was hunting in the horses field, there was also a Jay and a dozen or so Wigeon and Teal. (SR/BJ) Also a Merlin late afternoon. Further down the west side a Dartford Warbler was in the bramble/gorse bushes. (AT).

Also half a dozen Red-breasted Merganser were offshore and a Grey Wagtail was at Park Farm, Selsey. (IP)

North Wall and Slipe Field: Very little along the wall - calling Cetti's Warbler and Water Rail plus a few Reed Buntings was about it. There were plenty of Lapwing, with a few Golden Plover and Redshank among them, along White's Creek, and many hundreds of Brent Geese were coming and going from the harbour, but the main interest was the Slipe Field.

All the way along the hedges there were masses of birds, with conservative figures of 50 Yellowhammer, 100 Reed Bunting and 300 Linnet, with at least 50 Chaffinches, 100 Goldfinch and 100 Greenfinch and half a dozen Song Thrushes among them. (AH)

Yellowhammer (above), with Song Thrush & Linnets on the Slipe Field (AH)

Pagham Lagoon: There were two female Goldeneye, a pair of Pochard and c40 Tufted Duck and c20 Little Grebes on the water this morning. (AH)

Goldeneye on Pagham Lagoon (AH)

Friday, 15th January: Another lovely fine and dry winter's day, despite the nagging north-westerly.....

Selsey Bill (0830-0930hrs): NW4, sunny  (Obs: JA)
Red-throated Diver - 2E
Great Northern Diver - 4os
Diver sp - 1E, 4W
Brent Goose - 3E
Red-breasted Merganser - 2os
Kittiwake - 2W
Mediterranean Gull - 2W
Common Gull - 4W

Church Norton: The Whimbrel and two Red-breasted Mergansers were in the harbour with plenty of the commoner wildfowl and waders, a few Knot, Dunlin and Grey Plovers were on the beach with plenty of Turnstones, and along the spit there were a dozen or so Skylarks. A couple of Chiffchaffs were around the churchyard, and there were 50 or so Wigeon and Teal on the flooded area by the horse field. (AH)

Red-breasted Mergansers (above), Chiffchaff, Knot, Grey Plovers and Turnstone, Dunlin & Wigeon and Teal at Church Norton (AH)

Long Pool: A few Reed Buntings and Meadow Pipits were about, a couple of Snipe went over, 80 or so Lapwings were on the ploughed fields, and around 25 Avocets were in the channel. There was a steady procession of Brent Geese, Shelduck and Wigeon going over west as the sun came up. (AH)

Shelduck (above) & Avocets from the Long Pool (AH)

Ferry Pool: Half a dozen Golden Plover and Redshank were in with several hundred Lapwing on the pool, and 500 Brent Geese were on the field. (AH)

Golden Plover and Lapwing on the Ferry (AH)

Medmerry: A Raven flew east over Easton Farm this morning (PH).

Fishbourne creek: A similar day to yesterday, with the creek full of waders at low tide; most notable among them were 3-400 Black-tailed Godwits, a Jack Snipe and a Spotted Redshank, whilst the saltmarsh held about a dozen Rock Pipits and the adjoining hedgerow held 4+ Reed Buntings and several Yellowhammers. A further 20+ Yellowhammers were in the horse paddock. (OM).

Thursday, 14th January: A lovely cold, crisp and sunny winter's morning, but with a brisk and chilly WNW wind and some cloud developing later...

Just a short reminder to say that the editors are still reviewing the layout of the blog to see if any changes would improve things (e.g. colour scheme, three days to each posting, etc,) and we have taken on board any suggestions from those that have commented so far. You may notice one or two minor changes as we experiment before finally deciding, and we are also aware of the differences encountered when viewing on a pc as opposed to a mobile phone, as the latter doesn't currently produce the full layout. (OM)

Pagham Village: There is just one spindly tree in front of the Pagham Parade shops. This morning a Black Redstart was sitting in it! (JDW)

Ferry Pool: The water level has dropped very low, following the collapse of the bank and there won't be a lot of water in it this spring. Plenty of birds again, though, including 300+ Black-tailed Godwits and 40 Redshank and Teal on the pool, 50 Shoveler on the flooded creeks and at least 400 Brent Geese, 200 Wigeon and over 1000 Lapwings spread out across the fields. (AH)

Black-tailed Godwits (above) & Lapwing and Redshank on the Ferry (AH)

Medmerry: Porthole Farm - Ham Farm - Chainbridge Field - Not much to report with the strong wind keeping the birds down, though a Green Sandpiper in the puddles of a flooded field near Ham was unusual. There were a few Skylarks, Yellowhammers, Reed Buntings and Meadow Pipits in the fields, only popping up occasionally, and a pair of Stonechats were by the ponds at Ham.

Not much was on view on the reserve, save a few Grey Plover and Oystercatchers near the Breach, and there were no birds at all on the settling tanks at the sewage works. (AH)

Stonechat (above), Yellowhammer & Reed Bunting at Medmerry (AH)

Selsey East Beach Pond:  The Kingfisher was actively zipping about, a Chiffchaff and 8 Long-tailed Tits were in the bushes and a Sparrowhawk was about but very little on the water apart from the usual Grey Heron and Mute Swan family.  (SR)

Fishbourne Creek: The entire creek was full of waders including 300 Black-tailed Godwits, 3 Spotted Redshank and single Jack Snipe. A pair of Ravens were active over on the west bank and in the surrounding salt marsh there were 14 Rock Pipits. (BFF/DM