Saturday 22nd January - Sussex again

With no great speed I lumbered out of the house this morning. A very grey start and reasonably cold at 4c with a northerly wind. I called in on various gravel pits around Chichester, firstly Drayton then the Ivy Lake complex. Good numbers of common wildfowl were seen. Gadwall, Wigeon, Shoveler, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Coot, Great Crested Grebes, a single Goldeneye and 2 Pintail, but nothing more unusual.
Onto Fishbourne Creek on  rising tide produced large numbers of waders with a flock of c350 Black-tailed Godwits but also singles of Little Stint, Spotted Redshank and Whimbrel and large numbers of Dunlin, Knot, Grey Plover, Curlew, Turnstone, Snipe and Little Egret. The channel was full of Wigeon, Teal and Dark-bellied Brent Geese, with 10 Goldeneye including 4 smart drakes. 2 Peregrines came in for lunch and caused chaos before successfully catching a Grey Plover in mid-air. I stopped briefly in Amberley to look over the very flooded brooks, and picked up c60 White-fronted Geese but the weather was getting very grey and I lost momentum so headed home.

The garden birds seem to be very static in numbers although a 30 strong flock of Redwings are frequenting the adjacent field and a Long-tailed Tit flock has been foraging the hedgerow.

Long-tailed Tit - normal variety

Redwings in field next to house