1st - 3rd September 2016

Saturday, 3rd September: After a glorious bright and still start the day gradually deteriorated into heavy cloud and blustery westerly winds with the promise of rain later.....

Church Norton: The Wryneck was showing really well along the first Several again early this morning, and there was quite a few other bits around, including a Marsh Harrier over west, a Redstart by the railway-carriage houses and another plus two Spotted Flycatchers in the churchyard.
Along the beach/Severals there were also two Wheatears, two Lesser Whitethroats, three Blackcaps, 20+ Whitethroats and a couple of Willow Warblers and Cetti's Warblers, and the oddest sighting of the day - a Kingfisher flying out of the orchard at the rear of the Severals  and across the field to the beach. Also seen in the churchyard were 70+ Willow/Chiffs, two Garden Warblers, five Lesser Whitethroats and ten Blackcaps. (S&SaH/AB/PB/AH et al)

Wryneck (top two SH, lower AH), skulking Restart (SH) & Marsh Harrier (AH) at Church Norton

Redstarts (above PB) & Garden Warbler (lower two AB) at Church Norton

Selsey Bill: Not much found in the gardens this morning - just a couple of Whitethroats, and up to four Wheatears were along the front.  Log below....(SR/JA)
0615-0800; WSW2, sunny (JA/SR)
Gannet - 5E, 13W
Fulmar - 1E
Common Tern - 1W
Sandwich tern - 6W, 4os
Mediterranean Gull - 1E, 1W
Wheatear - 4ob
Swallow - 5E, 1W
House Martin - 6p
Whitethroat - 2 gardens
Willow Warbler - 1 gardens

Northcommon Farm: There were 100+ each of Swallow, Sand and House Martin, several fly-over Yellow Wagtails and a dozen Pied Wagtails around the farm, but the hedgerows were dead bar a single Willow Warbler, and also a couple of Sparrowhawks were in the area. (S&SaH)

Park Farm, Selsey: Just a Buzzard and a Yellow Wagtail were about this morning. (S&SaH)

North Wall: There were two Egyptian Geese in the harbour from the wall this morning. (AB)
A Curlew Sandpiper had been present earlier but had flown off into the harbour but didn't reappear, though there was still a single Little Stint feeding along the margins and five Greenshank, three Spotted Redshank, c100 Redshank, c75 Black-tailed Godwits, c30 Lapwing and 15 Teal on the pool, a dozen Yellow Wagtails dropped in among the cattle and c25 Swallows were flying over the fields. (SR/BJ) Also, a Juvenile Knot was on the pool and three Lesser Whitethroats were near the Lagoon. (AB)

Lesser Whitethroat (above) & Egyptian Geese from east side of harbour (AB)

Ferry Pool: There were a Green Sandpiper, two Little Ringed Plovers, four Black-tailed Godwits, eight Lapwing and a dozen or so Teal and Shelduck this morning, and a Greenshank in the channel opposite.(AH/AB)

Little Ringed Plover (above) & Teal on the Ferry (AH)

Friday, 2nd September: Cloudier and somewhat fresher than of late with a moderate SW wind, heralding a bit of a change weather-wise.....

Church Norton: The Wryneck showed again this morning along the first Several, though was generally elusive in the less than ideal conditions, and a Spotted Flycatcher and a Lesser Whitethroat were along the hedges by the hide. Also the Osprey was over the harbour early on & there were three Wheatears towards the start of the groynes. (TR/RS/GW/BI)

Wheatear (BI) (above) & Wryneck (GW) at Church Norton

This afternoon the Wryneck showed again at 1.30pm, a Water Rail was calling from the Severals and a Redstart and half a dozen Yellow Wagtails were along the west side. 

Out in the harbour between Norton and the Ferry there was a good selection of waders, including the Curlew Sandpiper, two Little Stints, a Ruff, a Common Sandpiper, two Greenshank, three Knot, 10+ Whimbrel and 20 Grey Plovers. Also seen were two Sandwich Terns and a Peregrine. (MD)

Ferry Pool: A Greenshank was briefly on the pool twice, but not much else of note - just two Little Ringed Plovers, eight Lapwing, four Black-tailed Godwit and a dozen or so Teal and Shelduck. (AH/SR)

North Wall: Around the Breech Pool there were four Little Stints, a Dunlin, c50 Black-tailed Godwits and c150 Redshank, with up to eight Greenshank and three Spotted Redshank coming and going between the pool and White's Creek, where there were also two Curlew Sandpipers and a Common Sandpiper, along with a dozen Wigeon and eight Pintail.

The Osprey briefly ventured over the harbour, and a Peregrine also went over, whilst out on the mud there were 20+ Grey Plover and a few Dunlin and Ringed Plover.

There were just the odd Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler along the hedges, but there were 70-80 Yellow Wagtails among the cattle and similar of Swallows over. (AH/JD/DS et al)

Yellow Wagtails (above), Little Stints, Spotted Redshank, Greenshank & Common Sandpiper from North Wall (AH)

Medmerry: Easton Lane - A brief stop produced an Osprey distantly over the Breach area and half a dozen Yellow Wagtails flying out of a maize field. (AH)



Thursday, 1st September: Another lovely start to the day, with light breezes and plenty of sunshine....quite warm at times and still feeling summery, though today is the beginning of the meteorological autumn.... 

Selsey Bill (0715-0915hrs): Once again the sea was dead apart from three Sandwich Terns offshore, so efforts were concentrated on the land. First up, an elusive warbler flicked up quietly from long grass into low vegetation along the edge of Oval Field - it surely has to be at least a Gr'opper thought I, excitement building - but no, it stayed just long enough to reveal itself as a Sedge Warbler! Then a walk along the beach produced not a single Wheatear - but after an hour I repeated my circuit and suddenly there were at least 10 birds, including a flock of five. Two Willow Warblers, a Pied Wagtail flying west and six local House Martins completed my tally....it was time to go! (OM)

Skulking Sedge Warbler at Selsey Bill Oval Field and below, a Selsey view that is due to change considerably in the not too distant future when the new Lifeboat station is completed and the old long-established boat-house is removed. The new building is fast taking shape (far left of picture, just right of white cottages), whilst diggers are shown hard at work. (OM)

Church Norton: The Wryneck was performing very well (at times, at least!) to a succession of admirers this morning along the first Several, with a few Whitethroats but not much else for company. Earlier on there were a Lesser Whitethroat, a Garden Warbler, a few Whitethroats, Blackcaps, Willow Warblers, Long-tailed Tits and a few Goldcrests along the hedges, and seven Wheatears and a Green Woodpecker along Rectory Lane.

The harbour was fairly quiet on the rising tide, though there were half a dozen Knot and Grey Plovers around the concrete slabs and a few Swallows and House Martins over. (AH/SR/A&YF/C&JM/MR/BFF/DM et al!)

Later, near high tide, two Little Stints were first picked out by BFF on the edge of Tern island, and a Raven went over west. (BFF/DM/OM)

Wryneck at Church Norton (AH above, DM  & AF, lower)

This evening the Wryneck showed off and on between 17.00 to 18.00 and there were at least a dozen Wheatears, a Whinchat and a Whitethroat around the concrete spit with two Little Stints, a Curlew Sandpiper and two Grey Plovers mixed in with the Dunlin flock close by on the mud. (S&SaH)

Curlew Sandpiper (above) & Wheatear at Church Norton (SH)

Ferry Pool area: The Glossy Ibis flew low over the creek along the Tramway at 8am, heading west towards the Ferry, but there was no further sign of it by late morning. In the main creek in the adjacent harbour a Greenshank and a Spotted Redshank flew out in opposite directions, but the hedges were quiet save a few Whitethroats, Willow Warblers and a Chiffchaff. 

On Ferry Pool there were just two Green Sandpipers, three Little Ringed Plovers, six Lapwing, two Black-tailed Godwits and a dozen Teal and Shelduck. (AH) Also, an Osprey flew over into the harbour. (DP/MP)
Later, there were three Green Sandpipers in addition to the other above-named waders, plus two Greenshank which flew in to join them, and there were 20 Yellow Wagtails at the back of the pool near the cattle. (OM)

Glossy Ibis (above), Greenshank, Little Ringed Plover & Chiffchaff around Ferry (AH)

North Wall: The Breech Pool remains the main attraction with a good selection of waders. This morning there were 120 Common Redshank, 4 Spotted Redshanks, 38 Black-tailed Godwits, 14 Lapwing, 5 Greenshank, 4 Little Stints, 3 Dunlin and one each of Ruff and Snipe. In the field behind were 13 Curlew. A Kingfisher was busy along the Wall where there were brief sightings of Reed, Sedge and Willow Warblers, but elsewhere was very quiet though there were 6 Stock Doves together at Honer. (JDW)

Later on 12 Greenshank, 4 Spotted Redshank, 2 Little Stint and singles of Knot, Curlew Sandpiper and Common Sandpiper were the highlights amongst the roosting waders. (BFF/DM)

Fishbourne Creek: There was a massive flock of roosting Mediterranean Gulls on the salt marsh opposite the sewage works. I managed to count a 1000 birds when I had to give up as my concentration was going haywire there were still birds drifting in from the east up until we were leaving! Otherwise there were 14 Greenshank and 3 Yellow-legged Gulls, but not much else of note. (BFF/DM)