Thursday, 6th July: A mix of sunshine and cloud, with a strong and blustery easterly breeze keeping it a little cooler than of late.......
Ferry Pool: This morning there were a Green Sandpiper, a Common Sandpiper, two Curlews, an Avocet, four Lapwings, including a juvenile, and the Shelduck family on the pool, and another Common Sandpiper and c40 Redshank in the channel opposite. (AH)
Common Sandpiper (above). Lapwing, Curlew, Redshanks & juvenile Shelducks around the Ferry (AH)
Tramway/Yeomans Field: Understandably quiet in the breezy conditions, with totals of 2 Kestrels, 1 Swift, 2 Swlallows, 8 Curlews, 4 Chiffchaffs, 3 Whitethroats, 3 Linnets, Blackcap, Sedge and Reed Warblers heard but not seen. In the channel opposite a Greenshank was amongst the 64+ Redshank, 1 Little Egret, Mallard, Moorhen and Coot.
The most interesting find was a sadly deceased Stag Beetle in Yeomans Field. (SR)
Sad end for a Stag Beetle in Yeoman's Field (SR)
Medmerry: Easton Lane to the Stilt Pool - The banks were fairly quiet this morning in the stiff breeze, but there were still and handful of Stock Doves, Yellowhammers, Reed Buntings, Meadow Pipits and Whitethroats, plus lots of Linnets and Skylarks to be found, and between the fields and the Stilt Pool there were c50 each of Swallows and Sand Martins.
On the Stilt Pool there were four Common Sandpipers, at least four juvenile and four adult Little Ringed Plovers, a couple of Ringed Plovers looking like they had young nearby, four families of well-grown young Avocets, a family of a dozen young Shelducks, a family of Tufted Ducks and two Teal. (AH)
Common Sandpiper (above), Little Ringed Plovers, juvenile Avocet, Teal, Skylark, Sand Martins, Swallow & Shelduck-lings at Medmerry (AH)
Selsey Bill: Not much moving but a flock of 52 Common Scoter headed east and some Swallows and House Martins lined up along the telephone wires on the field as though waiting to depart made us feel autumn isn't that far off. (SR/BJ)
(1540-1720hrs)
Fulmer - 1W
Gannet - 2E, 3W
Common Scoter - 52E, 8os drifting E
Sandwich Tern - c20os
Swallow - 15p
House Martin - 12p
Selsey: A few hundred Herring and Black-headed Gulls, with 50+ Mediterranean Gulls among them, were feeding on Flying Ants over the north of Selsey this evening, along with 60+ Swifts and 50+ Swallows and House Martins, plus a few Sand Martins. (SH)
North Wall: A Barn Owl has been seen hunting around Halsey's Farm over the last few evenings. (I. Honeyman)
Selsey Bill (0700-1000hrs): (C&ME)
Gannet - 72E, 2W
Common Scoter - 10E, 7W
Oystercatcher - 3E
Common Tern - 28os
Sandwich Tern - 12E
Black-headed Gull - 38os
Herring Gull - 275os
Pied Wagtail - 2 juv's ob
Swift - 6 p
Swallow - 4 p
House Martin - 9 p locally nesting
Ferry Pool: There were two Common Sandpipers on the pool this morning, along with 11 Redshank, 14 Lapwings and the Shelduck family. (AH)
Common Sandpipers (above) & Redshanks at the Ferry (AH)
Church Norton: The three over-summering Eider, now heavily in moult, were feeding on crabs close inshore this morning and there were large numbers of Little, Common and Sandwich Terns feeding well offshore as well as many sitting out on the mud in the harbour. Apart from the many hundreds of terns and Black-headed Gulls, there wasn't much else in the harbour, save a couple of dozen Mediterranean Gulls, four Great Crested Grebes, a Whimbrel and a few Curlews.
A Chiffchaff and a Song Thrush were singing well, but otherwise it was very quiet in the hedges, save a couple of Whitethroats and Linnets, and along the beach there were just a couple of Skylarks and Swallows. (AH)
Eiders (above), Sandwich Terns, Common Tern, Little Tern, Sandwich Tern and Black-headed Gulls, Whimbrel, Chiffchaff, Linnet, Skylark & Song Thrush as Church Norton (AH)
Late this afternoon there was a 1st-summer Little Gull showing occasionally around the harbour, along with a Whimbrel and an adult and two juvenile Peregrines. (JPC)
White's Creek/East side: A lovely, flat calm day...... Swallows were feeding 4 young behind the sluice gates, and along the east side of White's Creek were 9 Curlew, 6 Oystercatchers, a Whimbrel and 7 Little Egrets, whilst a Reed Warbler was busy flying from the bushes to the foreshore and feeding on sand flies. Further out in the Harbour were 2 Yellow-legged Gulls. (JDW)
White's Creek: Swallow feeding juveniles, Curlew and Little Egrets with Black-headed Gull (JDW)
Tuesday, 4th July: A warm, muggy day, with a mix of sunshine and cloud and a modest westerly breeze.....
Ferry Pool/Tramway: There was a summer-plumaged Spotted Redshank among 25 Redshank early on, and there were also four Little Ringed Plovers, 16 Lapwings, two Black-tailed Godwits and the Shelduck family.
A Kingfisher flew up the channel, where there was also a Whimbrel and two Common Sandpipers.
At least three Blackcaps and a couple of Chiffchaffs were singing around the Tramway circuit, and there were also several Whitethroat and Linnet families about. (AH)
Spotted Redshank (above), with Black-tailed Godwit and Redshanks, Common Sandpiper, Whimbrel & Whitethroat around the Ferry (AH)
North Wall: There were 84 Black-tailed Godwits, 14 Redshanks (beware the pale-plumaged and spotted-mantled juvenile!) and six Teal on the Breech Pool this morning, whilst four Yellow-legged Gulls were in the harbour (two adults, a sub-adult and a probable first-summer). A newly-hatched brood of Moorhens in the main sluice were a delight.(ARK/OM/JDW)
Panoramic view of the Breech Pool (OM)
Black-tailed Godwits at the Breech Pool and Moorhen with young at the sluice (OM)
Pagham Lagoon & Spit: Spent the morning on the Pagham side and we took a walk via the Lagoon down to the harbour mouth. Very few waders were on show, just the occasional Curlew, but still plenty of terns in the harbour, constantly on the move back and forth to the island. We heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker calling as it was flying across the harbour mouth from the east side. We watched it gain height well out over the harbour, then suddenly it changed course and gave out an alarm note; we then noticed a pair of Peregrines bearing down on the unfortunate Woodie! After a very short pursuit it was all over, with the GSW in the talons of an adult Peregrine. Not seen that before? (BFF/DM)
Peregrine in flight with Great Spotted Woodpecker prey (DM) .....do we spy a satellite tracker fitted to this Peregrine (which is also ringed)? (Eds)
Medmerry: Breach area and Chainbridge - A pair of Corn Buntings was carrying food on the waste-ground by the Breach view-point this morning, suggesting a nest was nearby, and also about were a couple of Meadow Pipit families and several Skylarks and Linnets.
A Sandwich Tern, a Common Tern and two Mediterranean Gulls were offshore, whilst out on the main pool there were a couple of Curlews and c40 Grey Plovers with a dozen Dunlin and a couple of Knot among them. Also there were dozens of Small Skippers, Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers along the banks.
Around the Chainbridge Field there were several Whitethroats, Linnets and Skylarks, a couple of Reed Warbler families in the ditches, a Sand Martin over and another Corn Bunting singing towards Ham. (AH)
Corn Buntings (above), Meadow Pipit, Reed Warbler, Sandwich Tern, Grey Plovers, Knot and Dunlin & Small Skipper at Medmerry (AH)
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