22nd - 24th November 2016

Thursday, 24th November: A cool, breezy day, with the blustery wind from the north-east, though with the odd sunny spell....


Selsey Bill: Not much moving again - just a few Brent Geese, a couple of Red-breasted Mergansers and a Great Northern Diver, and a Rock Pipit flew over. Full log below...
(0745-0915hrs): (OM/MJ/BFF/DM/AH)
Great Northern Diver - 1W, 1os
Brent Goose - 3E, 28W
Red-breasted Merganser - 1W, 2os
Turnstone - 35ob
Rock Pipit - 1ob flew E

Ivy Lake: The first-winter male Scaup was still present this morning. (D Knapp)

Ferry Pool: There were two Black-tailed Godwits, two Curlew, three Shelduck and 15 Teal on the pool, with 80 or so of the latter in the channel, and another 50+ in the flooded areas of the field, along with 11 Shoveler and 60+ Wigeon. (AH)

Black-tailed Godwit (above) & Shoveler and Teal on the Ferry (AH)

Church Norton: There were six Red-breasted Mergansers, four Great Crested Grebes and two Little Grebes in the harbour, about 60 Knot among the Dunlin flock, 80 Mediterranean Gulls and a few Common Gulls roosting near the harbour mouth and several hundred Bret Geese were scattered about.
There were a few Skylarks, Meadow Pipits and Greenfinches along the spit, and there were hundreds of Herring and Black-headed Gulls along the beach with a few Common and Great Black-backed Gulls among them, and a few dozen Turnstones, but it was too rough to find anything on the sea. There was also a Mistle Thrush in Rectory Lane again. (AH)

Red-breasted Mergansers (above), Mediterranean Gulls, Meadow Pipit & Mistle Thrush at Church Norton (AH)

 

Medmerry (East side): At the Breach viewpoint the strong wind made for difficult viewing conditions and there was little of note; all standard fare including a few Grey Plover and Redshank, plus a couple of Great Crested Grebes. At the 'Toe-end' area of rough ground land birds were few, with most keeping their heads down in the wind. A Black Redstart gave a fleeting view before disappearing, whilst nearby were just a single Stonechat, about 10 Linnets, a small number of Meadow Pipits, a handful of Greenfinch and a flock of c.30 Goldfinch. (BFF/DM/OM/MJ)

Chichester Marina: In the channel were a Goldeneye and 14 Red-breasted Mergansers, a Tufted with a Pochard, plus several Great Crested and Little Grebes. A couple of large Dunlin flocks were also present with about 300 Brent Geese. Highlights were few but near the marsh a Buzzard flew over low and a tit flock contained 24 Long-tailed Tits, with several Goldcrests nearby, whilst a Chiffchaff was present in Salterns Copse. (BFF/DM/OM/MJ)

Fishbourne Creek: There were 2 Spotted Redshanks and 3 Greenshank in the channel early afternoon. (BFF/DM)

Wednesday, 23rd November: A much quieter day than of late, with a light northerly breeze and generally heavy cloud cover.....

Selsey Bill: (0745-0900hrs) (PB)

Great Northern Diver - 1E, 3os
Red-throated Diver - 1W
Great Crested Grebe - 2E, 1W, 1os
Slavonian Grebe - 5W, 2os
Gannet 1E
Common Scoter - 8E, 3os 

Red-breasted Merganser - 1E, 14W, 8os 

auk sp - 1W

Ferry Pool: Just a Shoveler, c40 Teal and six Lapwings on the pool this morning, and a Buzzard was sat in the adjacent field.. (AH)

Buzzard (above) & Teal at the Ferry (AH)

Long Pool: Four Reed Buntings a Song Thrush and a Jay were along the hedges, a Water Rail was squealing in the reeds and along the far end of the channel there were c200 Teal, c100 Wigeon, c500 Lapwing, plus a few Grey Plover, Redshank and Curlew. (AH)

Also a Kingfisher was in Ferry Channel. (PB)

Reed Bunting (above) & Lapwing from Long Pool (AH)

Church Norton: The Long-tailed Duck was in the main channel again with two Red-breasted Mergansers this morning. (IL) Also there was a Great Spotted Woodpecker about and a lot of Brent Geese in the harbour. (PB)

North Wall: Two Egyptian Geese headed north just after dawn this morning, and the Black Brant and two Bar-headed Geese were in with the Brent Geese. Also, two Bearded Tits and two Kingfishers were around the Breech Pool. (IL)

Ivy Lake: The first-winter male Scaup was still present at lunchtime today, along with c40 Pochard and c20 Tufted Ducks. (AH)

Scaup on Ivy Lake (AH)

East Head: It was very quiet this morning, with just a handful each of Skylarks, Meadow Pipits and Reed Buntings, though there was a flock of at least 100 Linnets on the saltmarsh, whilst in the harbour there were just four Red-breasted Mergansers and six Great Crested Grebes. Also, a flock of c120 Golden Plover went high over west. (AH)

Golden Plovers (above) & Linnets at East Head (AH)

Snowhill Creek: It was quiet here, too, with two Greenshanks and 30 Black-tailed Godwits of note, along with a couple of hundred Lapwing, a few Redshank, Curlew and Grey Plover and 100+ Wigeon and Teal, but barely 50 Brent Geese were seen. (AH)

Black-tailed Godwit (above), Greenshank & Greenshank and Redshank at Snowhill Creek (AH)

Birdham: A Buzzard was at out in a cropped field along Sidlesham Lane. (AH)

Buzzard in Birdham (AH)

Tuesday, 22nd November: Another morning of gale force winds, almost due south in direction, and a mix of cloud, some showers and brief sunny spells......

Selsey Bill: Given the weather conditions and wind direction, it was surely reasonable to hope that something unusual might get blown into the Channel, so there was a certain amount of anticipation this morning from the small but hardy gathering of observers present. Alas, it wasn't to be and a four-hour watch proved to be above and beyond the call of duty! It was very quiet again, with just a few Gannets and Common Scoter on the move and a Great Northern Diver offshore. Full log below..... .

0745-1145hrs: (OM/DF/CRJ/AH/JD)

Great Northern Diver - 1E, 1os

Diver sp - 1E

Great Crested Grebe - 2W

Gannet - 2E, 18W

Brent Goose - 2E

Common Scoter - 3E, 8W

Red-breasted Merganser - 5E, 3W

Razorbill - 2E

Kittiwake - 2E

Mediterranean Gull - 4E

(above) A possible explanation for why nothing is being seen off the Bill at present! (AH)

(below) Sunbeams and heavy cloud over the Mile basket as the rain heads in. (OM)

Church Norton: One of the Long-tailed Ducks was in the harbour this morning, along with six Red-breasted Mergansers, six Great Crested Grebes and four Little Grebes, whilst among the scattered waders there were a couple of Bar-tailed Godwits and a few Grey Plovers.

There were many hundreds of gulls along the beach - mostly Herring and Black-headed, with a few Mediterranean, Common and Great Black-backed Gulls among them, and lots of Turnstones, Dunlin and Grey Plover, too, but passerines were all but non-existent save a few Goldfinches and Goldcrests around the Mound area. (AH)

Long-tailed Duck (above), Red-breasted Merganser, Bar-tailed Godwit, Common Gull, Great Black-backed Gull & Wigeon, Teal and Mallard at Church Norton (AH)

Ferry Pool: There were 15 Shelduck, five Curlew, four Black-tailed Godwits, ten Lapwing and a dozen Teal on the pool this morning. (AH)

Shelducks on the Ferry (AH)

Sidlesham Churchyard: There were a couple of Fieldfares, a couple of Song Thrushes and a couple of Goldcrests present this morning, but that was about it. (AH)

Fieldfare in Sidlesham Churchyard (AH)