Saturday 16th November - Bright and Sunny !

Bulbs Done !!! - There's now the wait to see whether they've survived .

Headed to Selsey this morning, with a light NW wind and not much visibly happening - it picked up a little, with Common Scoter (25), Eider (3) , Red-breasted merganser (13)  a flock of Wigeon(23) with a single Shoveler and after a short while 3 Great Northern Divers were seen on the sea and then a short flurry of 10 minutes saw several divers flying through with 8 Red-throated Divers (one landed) and a single Black-throated Diver that was flying with 2 Red-throats making a useful comparison. A Razorbill sat close on the sea before flying off a Rock Pipit flew along the beach and 2 large Starling flocks around 200 birds ) flew in from the sea, at which point the glare from the sun was making viewing difficult.

I headed inland to the downs near North Stoke, the views were great in the sunshine, and again great numbers of passerines in flocks in the arable fields. 2 Ravens cronked as I got out of the car then I flushed a covey of 20 Grey Partridge and marvelled at the flocks of Linnet, Meadow Pipit, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting and especially the numbers of Skylark which were everywhere and many doing unseasonal display flights. At least 5 Red Kites were seen and 8 Common Buzzards, 1 Sparrowhawk and 3 Kestrel, but nothing more unusual on the raptor front.

one of the many Skylarks,

Sunday 10th November - Pigeon domination

The Woodpigeon-fest still seems to be in full swing, over the last few days I've regularly seen hundreds of birds, Saturday morning I counted well over 2,000 in just an hour with birds continuously flying through in flocks off 100+. Birds from the house have been my only outlet over the last week, but the weekend weather has been hugely unappealing

Last Saturday (2nd) was a dry morning and I had to make the most of this as I've had around 1,000 bulbs to plant in the new flower beds - I got about half done and it's been too wet since to finish off (and I'm a little worried about the drowning the planted ones must have had in the last week), but luckily they are mainly Tulips so I can plant right through December assuming I find dry weekend.

On the night of the 7th  I woke around 5.00am hearing an Owl call, once I'd tuned in and shaken the sleep haze I realised,  it wasn't a Tawny Owl but a Little Owl. It had been calling continuously for what seemed around 5 minutes by the time I made it to the curtains but it ceased as soon as I stuck my head through making me think it was probably sat on one of the barns - but that was it, and no more sight or sound since.

Despite seeing 2 new birds for the house list, these probably weren't the highlights over the last week, instead I would count the Woodpigeon spectacle at the top, a pair of smart Grey Wagtails that have been visiting the new patio, and a build up of the Siskin, Lesser Redpoll  and Goldfinch numbers feeding on the Alders next to the orchard allowing some scope viewing with maximum counts of 55, 15 and 40 respectively.

The new birds were a flyover Yellowhammer, which I would have ignored if it hadn't called at the right moment, and 2 fairly distant Egyptian Geese. Impressive numbers of thrushes have been seen in the hour or so I've been watching, notching up around 100 each of Redwing and Fieldfare. The Redwings being small groups and individuals and the the Fieldfares in 2 flocks of 50 strong. Another highlight has been 3 Bullfinches, 2 smart males and a female, that have been on the bramble in the first field. A single Marsh Tit is roaming in the gully and has been around for a few weeks being quite vocal. I haven't seen the Firecrest again but a couple of Goldcrests have been seen in the same area. 2 Flyover Skylarks also were of note.

Can never quite capture it , but this was a Woodpigeon flock early morning last week

Friday 1 November - Pigeonopoly

.. just an observation, but on my way to the station this morning around 6.45am just as a little light was showing there seemed to be hundreds, if not into the thousands, of Woodpigeons .....everywhere.

Saturday 26th October - Semi-wet birding

The weather prospects for the weekend looked fairly shabby, but with a free Saturday it was nice surprise when Gary agreed that trying for the Semi-Palmated Plover, which had turned up on Hayling Island last weekend, was probably the only limited option that seemed worthwhile. The bird had been ranging around Chichester Harbour but was most consistently seen, on the Hampshire side of the harbour, just before high tide in the wader roost at Black Point on the South Eastern tip of the island. High tide was not until 5pm.

We headed out from my place around 8am, first calling at Ambersham Common, where the Shrike I'd seen the previous week had a single report of a re-appearance since. However it was extremely windy with squally rain and not ideal for any passerines and less so for a Shrike. We heard flyover Crossbill, saw several Redwing and Fieldfare a small Siskin flock and heard a Bullfinch but no Shrike. It wasn't a complete disaster as  the other side of the common did hold 2 or 3 Dartford Warblers, Stonechat, Chiffchaff and Goldcrest,

We went towards the coast and called in at Fishbourne Creek, the tide was pretty much out and the wind and rain had picked up with at times horizontal rods of rain making looking through optics impossible, but we still managed a few birds with Greenshank(5), Rock Pipit (1), Stonechat (1) amongst the Brent Geese, Curlew, Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit and Grey Plover.

We carried on to Hayling Island and stopped at the Oyster beds, consumed a sandwich in the car then  hid behind a bush to keep out of the wind to see very little - Little Grebe, more Brent Geese, Dunlin and Ringed Plover and some mad windsurfers waiting for the high tide and scaring the birds off.

Around 2pm we headed to the South of the island, parked near the lifeboat station and walked to the spit where a gathering of 60+ birders were waiting. There had been no sign of the bird yet, but high tide was still a couple of hours away, with just 5 Sanderling on the spit. A distant Common Tern then a Sandwich Tern was seen in the harbour and gradually groups of waders started to appear with small numbers of Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Sanderling and a couple of Grey Plover. Viewing was still difficult, at times impossible, being very wet and windy, but every so often there would be a small respite. By 4pm there must have been 1000 waders gathered, intermittently taking flight and returning as the tide rose, and thankfully moving closer to where we were standing. Around 4.15pm, the murmur of the bird being seen spread through the gathering birders, and quite quickly we were on to the Semi-Palmated Plover, which coincided with a relatively calm bit of weather. An American bird with only 5 confirmed records in the UK, the similarities to Ringed Plover possibly resulting in it being under-recorded. Luckily this bird was close enough that through the scope you could pick out  it was considerably smaller than the Ringed Plovers, a shorter bill with a white gap patch at the base of the bill, and although we didn't hear it call nor managed to see its' palmations, we were satisfied enough with the features shown confirmed the bird as true.

After decent looks and approaching 5pm with the weather closing in again, we headed back and even though my camera stayed in the car throughout, it did feel as if we'd defeated the weather.