My attempts this Spring to experience the migration of the thousands of birds that pass into and through this country (sometimes by mistake) has so far been hit and miss to say the least. My efforts last weekend manage to notch up a Hobby and a Swift but little else in between the significant rainfall. Earlier in the week, when I was at work, the weather had momentarily swung round to a more promising south easterly blow resulting in a decent passage of Pomarine Skuas on the coast, but then back again to an un-springlike cold northerly. This weekend being a bank holiday it was already looking like I wouldn't manage any birding time on Saturday or Sunday, so I booked today off as a holiday but with the wind reverting back to a light north-easterly I was beginning to wonder whether this would be another quiet day and just maybe I would miss the opportunity of a Pom' Skua this spring.
Arriving early at Selsey (5.30am !) - I wasn't the first there - but a Grasshopper Warbler singing in one of the Tamarisks and seen briefly was a good start. Off shore a Greenshank and Grey Plover were on the sand bar, 2 Common Sandpipers on the beach, and a Black Tern was with the group of Common, Sandwich and Little Terns feeding just offshore. The bushes of the gardens which back onto th sea seemed to hold more birds than usual (usual is none whatsoever) - several Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs, Whitethroats a Lesser Whitethroat and Redstart.
The sea was flat calm and there was little in the way of seabird movement, small groups of Whimbrel, Bar-tailed Godwit and Sanderling went past and a single Arctic Skua, a Great Skua, 4 more Black Terns and 8 Arctic Terns, but the action was the migrating passerines, it didn't take long to work out there was a big movement of birds arriving off the sea
Several Wheatears flew in and around 20 Yellow Wagtails, and a steady stream of Swallows throughout the morning with a few Sand martin, House Martin and Swifts , but small passerines were regularly picked up distantly heading for shore, we saw 4 that didn't quite make it - they kept pitching down on the water then up again until they were becoming increasingly salt water sodden, they were all Whitethroats, 2 of them got taken by Herring Gulls the others just went under the water within feet of making it to shore - and after such a long journey !
We had several Reed Warblers, a Sedge Warbler,Blackcaps, Garden Warblers, more Whitethroats, another Lesser Whitethroat, 2 more Redstarts, 2 Whinchats, and a bird flew in which looked to have a more rufous tail and eventually we found a Nightingale skulking around the base of a bush, the only bird seen that I missed was a Spotted Flycatcher. I even got my camera out for a bit - not something I do very often at Selsey.
A distant bird had us perplexed for a while - we couldn't work out whether it was a falcon or a seabird like a shearwater but it was too distant and kept heading east. a little while later another bird with a similar flight was picked up heading directly to shore, for a while it was thought to be Hobby but when it was closer we could see it was a Nightjar ! it flew over the beach and pitched down somewhere in the nearest group of houses. Another distant possible hobby turned into a Cuckoo.
Then completely unexpected given the calm weather was 4 Pomarine Skuas together drifting slowly East and to cap it off another Nightjar flew in off the sea. The movement of birds tailed off towards midday but it had been a surprising morning. The distance across the English Channel is between 20 and 35 miles depending which route a bird flies, but consensus was that there must have been a mid-channel storm which disrupted the birds route as many normally night-time migrants were arriving tired through the morning. Turned into the day I'd been hoping for all Spring !
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| Whinchat |
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| Just arrived ! |
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| A Reed Warbler just flown in and skulking in the nearest bush |
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| Not a great picture but this Nightingale flew in off the sea |
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