Birding the Selsey Peninsula: 7th

Saturday, 9th December: After a lot of heavy, overnight rain, a murky and drizzly start in in a near gale-force southerly before slowly brightening up as the wind shifted to the west........

Selsey Bill: The first-winter Little Gull went west this morning, and there were lots of Gannets about, along with a couple of Slavonian Grebes and four Great Northern Divers and small numbers of the other regular species. Full log below. (SH/BI/SR/AH)

(0730-0930hrs) (S, F7)

Great Northern Diver - 1E, 3os

Red-throated Diver - 2E, 1W

Slavonian Grebe - 2E

Great Crested Grebe - 1os

Gannet - 15E, 126W, 15os

Common Scoter - 5W

Red-breasted Merganser - 2E

Oystercatcher - 1E

Turnstone - 29

Kittiwake - 1W

Little Gull - 1W

Razorbill - 7W

auk sp - 7W

Gannet at the Bill (AH)

This afternoon there were two first-winter Little Gulls and lots of Gannets offshore. Full log below. (SH/AW)

(1340-1440hrs)

Red-throated Diver - 1W

Great Crested Grebe - 1os

Gannet - 19W, 82os

Turnstone - 2

Mediterranean Gull - 1os

Kittiwake - 1W

Little Gull - 2os

Sandwich Tern - 1W

auk sp - 1W

Little Gulls at the Bill (AW)

Ferry Pool: A Black-tailed Godwit was on the small pool and c400 Lapwings were on the fields this morning, whilst wildfowl comprised c20 Shovelers, c100 Teal, c100 Wigeon and c40 Canada Geese. (AH)

Black-tailed Godwit at the Ferry (AH)

Church Norton: Most of the activity this morning was offshore from the second Several, with a big flock of c60 Gannets feeding before drifting away west, and there were also a Kittiwake and c20 Razorbills west, three Red-throated Divers east and another five west, with six Red-breasted Mergansers, five Great Crested Grebes and half a dozen or so Mediterranean and Common Gulls also about.

The harbour, though, was quiet, with just a few Brent Geese, c30 Pintail among the Wigeon and Teal, and plenty of Knot, Dunlin and Grey Plovers, but a brief Kingfisher and a couple of Meadow Pipits were the only birds of note. (AH)

Red-throated Diver (above), Gannet, Mediterranean Gull, Common Gull & Knot, Dunlin and Grey Plovers at Church Norton (AH)

Medmerry: Easton Lane to the Stilt Pools - The banks were unsurprisingly quiet this morning, but still produced four Stonechats, a Cetti's Warbler and three Yellowhammers, with two Fieldfares and four Redwings in the trees, too.

Seven Snipe flew into the Stilt Pool, whilst 79 Brent Geese, c200 Golden Plovers and c400 Lapwings were on the reserve and a Marsh Harrier, a Buzzard and a Kestrel went over. (S&SaH)

North Wall: A pair of Stonechats and a Collared Dove were in the paddock and a Marsh Harrier was over the reeds behind the Breech Pool, where there were a Shelduck and two Teal with the usual Mallards.

A Spotted Redshank and a Little Grebe were in White’s Creek along with the usual selection of Wigeon, Teal, Redshank and Lapwings, with a few Grey Plovers also about.

It was quiet along the wall, with just a Stonechat on the rocks, and at Halsey’s Farm there were two Yellowhammers in the bushes and 22 Curlews and lots more Wigeon and Teal were around the now very flooded fields. (LP)

Spotted Redshank (above), Stonechat & Collared Dove at the North Wall (LP)

Pagham Lagoon and Spit: There were two Tufted Ducks on the Lagoon along with three Little Grebes, 48 Coots and 24 Mallards, but it was quiet along the Spit with just a Rock Pipit and two Stonechats seen.

In the harbour, on the falling tide, there was the usual mix of Brent Geese, Wigeon, Pintail, Teal and Shelduck, along with small numbers of Dunlin, Turnstone and Grey Plovers, and on the islands there were 40 Mediterranean Gulls, 56 Great Black-backed Gulls and a Common Gull, along with the usual Black-headed Gulls and Herring Gulls. (LP)

Common and Mediterranean Gulls (above), Tufted Ducks & Brent Geese at Pagham Spit (LP)

Friday, 8th December: A fairly pleasant morning of sun and white cloud in a moderate south-westerly breeze........

Selsey Bill: There were up to a dozen Great Northern Divers about and 59 Red-throated Divers went west this morning - both the best totals of the autumn, and there were also the five Slavonian Grebes present again, with a Velvet Scoter and 31 Brent Geese going west, too. (BI/SR/MO-W/AH)

(0730-0915hrs) (W, F4)

Great Northern Diver - 4E, 2W, 6os

Red-throated Diver - 5E, 59W, 3os

Slavonian Grebe - 5os

Great Crested Grebe - 1E, 1W

Gannet - 3E, 8W

Bent Goose - 21W

Eider - 1E

Velvet Scoter - 1W

Common Scoter - 1E, 5w, 8os

Red-breasted Merganser - 6E, 5W, 8os

Mediterranean Gull - 2W

Razorbill - 1W

auk sp - 1E, 6W

Great Northern Diver (above) & Red-throated Diver at the Bill (AH)

Ferry Pool: There were c30 Shovelers back on the pool this morning, along with c100 Teal and c30 Mallards, whilst the fields held c150 Wigeon, c400 Lapwings and c30 Canada Geese, and there were also four Little Egrets about. (AH)

Little Egret (above) & Shovelers, Teal and Lapwings at the Ferry (AH)

Church Norton: A dozen Avocets were in the main channel, and a Marsh Harrier was about again, along with a couple of Bar-tailed Godwits, c30 Grey Plovers and lots of Dunlin, but not much else of note in the harbour.

Between the beach and the harbour mouth there were c80 Mediterranean Gulls and c150 Common Gulls, along with c30 Great Black-backed Gulls and many Herring and Black-headed Gulls, but there was nothing on the sea at all.

Around 40 Linnets were at the start of the spit, but a Meadow Pipit and a couple of Skylarks were the only birds on the spit, though another half a dozen of the latter were in the harbour.

The only other things about were c30 Pintail, c50 Wigeon and c20 Teal in the harbour, along with c60 Brent Geese, and another flock of c100 Brent Geese in the fields west of Rectory Lane, whilst a Raven was in the trees there. (AH)

Common Gull (above), Mediterranean Gull, Brent Geese, Wigeon & Dunlin, Common and Black-headed Gull at Church Norton (AH)

Thursday, 7th December: A very grey and overcast start, with rain setting in later on, and with the wind from the south and close to gale force .....

The below is a very interesting summary of how well, or otherwise!, the breeding season went this year in the area, received from Adam Taylor at the RSPB -

Obviously a very difficult year for Pagham’s seabird colonies. The mixed gull and Sandwich Tern colony on Tern Island returned from their wintering grounds with clearly decreased numbers, which matches with the HPAI deaths experience last summer and reports from NW Europe of continued major die offs in Black-headed Gull colonies over the winter.

Despite nest building and egg laying taking place at the start of the season, the birds were clearly agitated, taking longer than usual to settle after disturbance events (eg Peregrine flying over / taking a kill). This ultimately culminated in the colony abandoning site over the course of a weekend in late April. Crows quickly moved in to polish off the abandoned eggs. A later survey found a few nests still active, but we effectively dropped from over 2000 pairs of breeding seabirds down to just 18 Black-headed Gulls.

The exact reason for the birds abandoning site is unknown, but the most likely explanation is that it is a follow-on effect of bird flu from the previous year; other seabird sites in the country affected by HPAI reported similar abandonments.

We believe the majority of the Tern Island birds then relocated to the islands at Langstone Harbour (based on survey figures and dates); in contrast to Pagham’s poor performance, Langstone had a record year for both Mediterranean Gulls (1252 fledged from 2184 nests) and Sandwich Tern (125 fledged from 217 nests), with 2017 Black-headed Gulls fledged from 4096 nests.

Productivity was not as high as hoped, but impressive considering HPAI was present in the colonies from the start. This provides further evidence for viewing the Solent seabirds as a wider meta-colony, and work is going on in the background to try and link up organisations and agencies across the Solent to build up a full picture of breeding success.

Sadly Pagham’s Little Terns didn’t fare any better than their neighbours, despite a promising start to the year with flocks of up to 70 birds reported in the harbour. Although they escaped the direct impacts of HPAI, the abandonment of the main Tern Island colony meant there were no larger species around to deter Carrion Crow from the area. Following the feeding frenzy of the abandoned nests, it was a short jump across to the still active Little Tern colony spaced across the two shingle islands, and virtually all of their eggs were predated within a two week window. Some birds persevered and made second attempts but with similar luck, and the end of year figure was just 1 chick fledged from 18 nests. The true number of nests was likely higher as the figure was obtained from the initial nest count where the birds were sitting on only one or two eggs, indicating laying had only just started, but they had all been predated by the time of the next visit.

Other Little Tern pairs went on to try their luck elsewhere, and we recorded the first ever confirmed nesting attempt along the Medmerry beach frontage. The pioneering pair fared much better, successfully fledging all three chicks; three further pairs were drawn in by the success, but no further fledglings were recorded. We also saw an uptick in pairs at Langstone Harbour, with 13 nests discovered across the islands.

Those nesting adjacent to the gull colonies sadly didn’t get any chicks off, but two successfully fledged from a nest on a quieter island, the first recorded at Langstone since 2016. We also heard of successes in Chichester Harbour on the Stakes Island shingle recharge area.

Common Terns had a devastating year across the sites, with the large colony on the West Hayling rafts (86 pairs) being completely decimated by HPAI. Seemingly unaffected at the start of the season, numbers of deaths quickly ramped up and the entire colony was lost within the space of a week. Chick mortality rate was nearly 100%, and a large number of adults were found dead, with the rest presumed to have abandoned the site. Swabbing carried out by RSPB staff confirmed that HPAI was the cause.

Wader numbers were low across the sites, with Lapwing and Redshank pairs well below potential capacity. Mammalian predation remains an issue as well as human disturbance, and maintaining water levels at a suitable height remains outside of our direct control due to a lack of infrastructure needed for water retention.

Thankfully plans to enhance the wetlands at both Ferry Field and Halsey’s Farm have made significant progress this year in the background, and all being well will be delivered over the coming years as part of the NHLF funded partnership project ‘Downs to the Sea’. Work is also ongoing this winter to reduce levels of scrub within the fields to make the habitat more attractive to the target species.

The Medmerry Avocets fared better, with 17 pairs recorded at the Stilt Pools. Follow up works to install anti-perching spikes on the in-water fences over the winter appears to have had the intended effect, with corvid predation markedly reduced from the previous year.

In fact the only reported incident of avian predation came from an entirely unexpected source, with the photo of the Cormorant scoffing down a sizeable Avocet chick that appeared on the blog earlier in the year! Productivity rates remain hard to ascertain, as the adult birds seem to herd their chicks across the sea wall and out into the wider marshlands soon after hatching.

In general, the Stilt Pools was one of the best spots to see activity this year, with the southern island at one point hosting five different nesting species practically within the view of a single eyepiece (Avocet, Little Ringed Plover, Ringed Plover, Lapwing, Oystercatcher).

Ringed Plovers across the Solent had an interesting year, largely because of the piloting of a nest cage project. Designed to let the adult Plovers on and off the nest without any difficulty, whilst using a small enough mesh to prevent mammals and larger predatory birds accessing the eggs, early results are encouraging with a clear statistical difference in hatching success between caged and uncaged nests.

A slight concern is that caged nests resulted in higher rates of adult mortality, with the thinking being that some predators such as Kestrel are able to connect the presence of the cages with the presence of the adults, resulting in them waiting nearby for signs of activity and attacking the birds when they leave the nest. The project will continue next year to allow us to collect more data.

The Cormorant colony at Medmerry continues to do well, with 52 apparently occupied nests observed this year, a record number and slight increase on last year.

The Owl Copse heronry had a fantastic year, with a huge increase in numbers observed for both Little Egret (31 pairs, up from 12 last year) and Cattle Egret (29 pairs, up from 14 last year). Grey Heron numbers also saw a small increase from 4 pairs to 6. For the Cattle Egret, this represents an exponential growth in their colony size, going from 7 pairs in 2021 when they first colonised and doubling in size each year since.

The Pagham birds were the largest reported colony in the 2022 BTO Heronries Census, and we’re excited to see how they fare this year. (As a slight caveat, for the first time this year we employed the use of drones to survey the heronry which produced some spectacular imagery and ensured no nests were missed, which they may have been in previous walk through surveys. We will be using both methods next year to get a comparative count and see how results differ.)

Selsey Bill: Five Slavonian Grebes were offshore this morning, with five Guillemots going east and a big flock of Gannets feeding close in. Full log below. (SR/LP/SP/IP/AH)

(0800-0945hrs) (S, F7-8)

Red-throated Diver - 2E, 1W

Slavonian Grebe - 5os

Great Crested Grebe - 4os

Gannet - 80E, 65os

Brent Goose - 1E

Common Scoter - 7E, 8W, 50os

Red-breasted Merganser - 5E, 4W, 6os

Common Gull - 6E, 3W

Kittiwake - 14E, 1W

Guillemot - 5E

Razorbill - 6E, 8W, 6os

auk sp - 10E, 1W

Slavonian Grebes (above), Guillemot, Red-breasted Merganser & Gannets at the Bill (AH)

Ferry Pool: Early on, a Marsh Harrier put up a least 300 Lapwings from the pool, but later there were just c200 Teal, c100 Wigeon, c40 Mallards and just a handful of Shovelers on the pool and c30 Canada Geese in the fields at the back. (AH)

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

Chichester Canal: Not much in the rain this morning, a Kingfisher, five Little Grebes, the call duck, and a flock of Long-tailed Tits being about it.

With the canal almost at bursting point, the field at Donnington is beginning to flood again, though it only currently holds ten Mute Swans, 14 Canada Geese and a few Black-headed Gulls. (SR)

Church Norton: A Marsh Harrier was over the harbour, and c50 Brent Geese were about, but there were relatively few waders present, though c200 Golden Plovers were on the mud, with, otherwise, with just a couple of Bar-tailed Godwits, c20 Grey Plovers and Redshanks and c300 Dunlin noted. (AH)