Saturday 22nd September - Summer fades

On Friday I'd resolved to go down to Dorset to try and see the Short-billed Dowitcher that had been present at Lodmoor for a couple of weeks.  I didn't have a full day at my disposal on Saturday but thought if I went early I would be fine with timing and Sunday was out of the question as we had a Christening to go to in London . .. Like all good plans, particularly at the moment they don't seem to work and I had to re plan as I didn't wake up until 9.30 !! - pretty unusual for me but probably the lack of sleep last weekend catching up.

Late September and full swing autumn migration, so it's better to be out and looking. I headed to the coast at around 11, with a high tide not due until around 4pm I though this would be good for the influx of autumn waders and who knows with all the vagrants appearing around the country in the last week, the south coast might be harbouring a rare one. It's always better to be optimistic when birding ! - at least the weather was nice.

It was more than a tad disappointing, there were very few birds around at all. At Pagham the Ferry pool only held 1 Lapwing !! with 1 Shelduck and a couple of dozen moulting Teal. A small group of Sand Martins over the water.

Over the next 3 hours with the tide rising I walked to the harbour edge and back, and only managed to notch up Redshank, Curlew, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 3 Bar-tailed Godwit, Turnstone, 1 Greenshank, 1 Dunlin ! , 2 Ringed Plovers, Grey Plover. 4 Chiffchaff, 1 Blackcap, 1 Whitethroat,2 Goldcrest  were the sum of the migrants in the bushes and 20 Meadow Pipits flew through. Just a Kestrel and a distant Buzzard on the raptor front. 4 Little Egrets in the harbour were vastly reduced numbers from a couple of weeks ago and 2 dozen Wigeon were the first Winter duck to appear. A couple of waves of Swallows passing through later on hinted of a surge in birds but the numbers  didn't materialise.  Enjoyed the walk though !

Overesposed Little Egret - Pagham Harbour

Not much else around to take pictures of.

14th-16th September - The US of A

Nothing exciting to report but I did have to go to the US this weekend with work. A meeting had been  arranged for all day on Saturday in North Carolina. So we flew there , for some reason via Chicago, arriving late Friday night. Spent all day Saturday in a meeting room in the hotel, followed by a steak the size of a house and starting the journey back Sunday lunch time, arriving in the UK Monday morning.

The City centre of North Carolina is a purpose-built City surrounded by a motorway ring-road. There appears to be no living accommodation within this, other than hotels - and no trees ! So I had about two hours on Sunday morning I decided to go and see if I could find any birds. I had to walk to outside the City ring-road and into the 'burbs. to find a small park. The bird count was low, but at least I found a couple. An Eastern wood-Pewee and a small group of Tit-like birds gave up at least 1 Carolina Chickadee. A large size high-flying Woodpecker remained un-id'd so an American Crow, Common Grackle, House Sparrow were about the sum of the rest, so not much around. An American Kestrel was at the airport and a stocky Hawk flew through again un id'd. Can't really call this disappointing as I expected nothing, but always a bit frustrating to travel so far and not get the opportunity to look for a little more.

Sunday 9th September - Summer arrives

The week has been absolutely glorious weather - girls back to school - wall to wall sunshine- temperatures up to 25c, until a dramatic change late Sunday afternoon as I got the barbecue out for it's first outing this year !

Saturday afternoon I went down to Chichester where there had been a Red-footed Falcon at Ivy lakes for the past three days (or possibly three weeks). The bird was performing well when I arrived (although about 100yds too far for a decent picture - record only quality below). I spent the next hour or so watching it hunt dragonflies from a perch in one of two trees it commuted between, and it put on quite a display. There were lots of Dragonflies around so it had a plentiful supply but as a result it spent a minimal time in flight between it's sorties.

Leaving those with bigger cameras to the falcon, I went down to Pagham and walked from the visitor centre towards the Ferry pool. A Whitethroat and Blackcap were the only migrant birds visible, although a group of Sand Martins and a few Swallows were hawking over the Ferry.
4 Black-tailed Godwits, 3 Green Sandpipers, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Curlew Sandpiper  with Lapwing and lots of Teal. were on the pool.

I then walked a little way up the west side with the tide rising . The newly ploughed fields had a small group of gulls, surprised to find an adult Little Gull with the Black-headeds' and 2 Med Gulls.
 In the harbour plenty of Little Egrets, 3 Greenshank, Grey Plover, 2 Yellow Legged Gulls. but no sign of any more migrants so headed home around 5ish



Red-footed Falcon - hunting Dragonflies.

It proved challening to take a picutre of the falcon

Nice view of tail feathers.

I'd spent a little 'coffee time' around the house just looking at what birds were around, which I hadn't really done since returning from Ecuador. Recorded 32 species in total, which isn't too bad, although nothing out of the ordinary. Bullfinch, Siskin, Goldfinch , Greenfinch and Chaffinchs. Great-Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Goldcrest, Long-tailed Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit. 3 Chiffchaffs and 4 Blackcaps hogging and Elder bush (they could be migrants but probably local birds still lingering). An increase number of Swallows and House Martins were in the skies and a single Common Buzzard was the only raptor, with a vocal Tawny Owl.