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.