Talking of Summer. August Bank Holidays I recall being the hot-end of Summer and the thoughts of heading back to school were just in view , when the first couple of weeks of term were usually dry and sunny before the sudden breaking of autumn - well not this year as Summer never arrived. July is often wet .. and it was but so was August. The weather man has been giving long range forecasts that seem to stretch ooh at least 4 hours, as anything beyond this seems beyond them even though it normally involves some wind and rain.. I think their computer is broken.
I had an early morning walk around the garden and field on Saturday looking for any additional birds - 3 Roe Deer were present in the 2nd field, and to my surprise I found a pair of
Firecrest in the Holly by the last field. Both male and female looked a little scraggy but I had only seen late autumn birds at Greyhound. I then heard the distinct call of a Crossbill but had no luck in locating the bird in flight so remains off my list for the house , still
Chiffchaffs ,
Blackcap and Bullfinches around and in the lane behind the house 4
Spotted Flycathcers and a
Whitethroat.
Bank holiday Monday I was out before 7am down to the coast and loyally stuck to the Pagham area as there had been a few reports of increasing variety of migrant birds in the last few days. Lots of
Willow Warblers, Whitethroat, Blackaps and a
Spotted Flycatcher were in the bushes around the information centre and a
Peregrine was already hunting over the harbour despite the early hour . The Ferry Pool water level was ideal for wading birds and amongst the dabbling
Teal, Black tailed Godwits,
Redshank and
Lapwing were a samll number of
Dunlin, Little Ringed Plover and a
Little Stint. Lots of hirundines were moving through with a majority of
Sand Martins, Swallows and a few
House Martins and
3 Yellow Wagtails were heard calling from high in flight.
The tide was rising and a
Sparrowhawk shot past raising a
Whimbrel and
2 Greenshank calling as they took flight . A
Lesser Whitethroat and
Whinchat were seen along the path to Church Norton with good numbers of
Willow Warblers and the odd
Chiffchaff in most of the scrub. My first stop looking at the back of the churchyard had lots of
Whitethroat, Blackcap and another
Lesser Whitethroat plus a glimpse of a
Redstart. I then walked out to the Severals where there were a number of birders looking for yesterdays Wryneck which had obviously disappeared with the clear skies last night.
4 Wheatear alighted on the beach and then the bird of the day a wonderful
Osprey, slowly moving into the harbour with
2 Buzzards trying to distract it and working up and down the channels before moving on, I saw another
Redstart flash into the bushes and a
Kingfisher fly up one of the creeks. Back behind the churchyard and 2
Spotted Flycatchers and
2 Redstarts were now visible and then with a small group of willow warblers another good bird with a brief view of a
Wood Warbler. A leisurely saunter back to the Ferry Pool (aided by a few blackberries) where the tide was now well in and the Little Stint had disappeared but a
Ruff was followed by a
Curlew Sandpiper which just flew in from the harbour.
I went round to the North Wall where
6 Whinchat could be seen distantly at the back of the breach pool and a close
Wheatear and
Yellow Wagtail were on the edge the high tide. A
Spotted Redshank was with the roosting Godwits but little else was with the hundreds of Canada Geese. A short stop at one of the Chichester Pits added
Green Sandpiper to a good list of birds for the day.
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| Wheatear - North Wall Pagham |
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| Spotted Redshank - Breach Pool Pagham |
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| Lesser Whitethroat - or most of one |
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| Sedge Warbler - probably a young bird |
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| Yellow Wagtail - Again most of one - haven't used the camera for a while ! |
