Saturday 2nd April - Into the land of the living.

.. Well last weekend was a wipe-out. A lingering cold the previous week manifested into something heavier which laid me out for the weekend but relented sufficiently to endure work and so with more determination I was itching to get out this weekend.

Sally and the girls were dropped at Gatwick  early morning for their week in Portugal and I headed down to Selsey arriving at 7am. The winds had been SE for the previous day which is probably the only good direction for a productive seawatch at Selsey and luck was in as there were a fair number of birds moving almost exclusively in an Easterly direction.

A steady movement of Sandwich Terns continued until I left in all c250 . Large numbers of Common Scoter in various size flocks 450+, 2 Velvet Scoter, Great Northern Diver 4os, Red-throated Diver 8, Brent Goose 26, Little Gull 3, Common Tern 4, Med Gull 2, Eider, 14, Great Skua 1, Red-breasted Merganser, 6, Turnstone, Oystercatcher, Gannet, Fulmar, Kittiwake 2, Shoveler 2, Teal 7, Shelduck 3. 

It was also bright and a fairly pleasant temperature which made it an enjoyable 3.5 hours. I then headed to Pulborough where a flock of 20 Waxwings were at the garden centre firstly hawking insects from the tops of trees then enjoying the remnants of some cotoneaster berries.




Waxwing enjoying Cotoneaster for lunch.



A few of the 20 Waxwings.