Today was my first birding day of the year in the UK. Since I've returned from South Africa the weather has more than dominated proceedings. The rain has barely stopped and the mini-tornado that rushed through the whole area on Saturday afternoon brought more trees down. We've been very lucky at home as the damage has been limited to large branches rather than whole trees.
My 2014 UK bird list before I set out this morning was 30 and I was determined not to end January with such a miserly total ( I also didn't want to get a drenching) . At the weekend I'd added
Firecrest at home and a
Tawny Owl was sitting in the road on the way to the pub on Sunday night. Today looked like a break in the rain at least, so this was my chance.
A familiar route chosen, I arrived at Selsey Bill at 8am - a murk hung over the water but the wind was light - and I ended up with a decent start in the first hour and a half . Firstly
3 Eider then 5
Slavonian Grebes, 2 Great Northern Divers, 3 Red-throated Divers, with 8
Common Scoter several
Red-breasted Mergansers and a
Razorbill on the sea being the highlights.
Moving to Church Norton the tide was rapidly filling the harbour , with good numbers of common waders at the roost on the groynes, which was rapidly disappearing under the rising water;
Dunlin, Knot ,Grey Plover, Redshank,Turnstone, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew and a single Ringed Plover. Offshore was quiet, with only
3 Eider and a large number of
Med Gulls.
There was nothing of note on the Ferry pool so I drove around to the North Wall. On the drive there it was announced on the radio this has been the wettest January since records began over 100 years ago - no surprise there then. Despite the amount of rain, the exceptional amounts of water on the north wall fields are the result of the diversion of run-off water away from Chichester town centre and pumped into the Pagham Rife - It seems to be working well for the town and the birds seem to like the extra wet fields too.
Out in the harbour a I counted
184 Shelduck with a brief scan, which is good total for a bird noted in the latest Birds of Sussex book as being in alarming decline, also 2
Ruddy Shelduck which have been around the harbour most of the winter and approaching 200
Pintail. The fields held large number of
Lapwing (est 1,000),
Black-tailed Godwit (est 250) and
Golden Plover (est 200). A few
Snipe showed themselves and a
Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and several
Buzzards patrolled the area. Winter months sometimes don't have the diversity of summer species but can provide fantastic spectacles as this morning when the flocks of waders took to the air.
I called in briefly at Ivy lake and picked up
Pochard and
Gadwall, which was all I expected as these lakes only become more interesting after a spell of exceptionally cold weather. I continued on to Amberley , where from the viewpoint over the brooks in the village I picked up
9 Bewick Swans and later another 6 from Rackham.
I finished up at Waltham Brooks where a Great-Grey Shrike had been appearing almost daily for the past 3 weeks - but not today - I had compensation with a
Marsh Harrier, Stonechat and a large
Fieldfare flock. So 80 species for the day and my annual count is now 494.
It may look as if I've fitted Grey filters to my camera - but this, unfortunately,. is English daylight grey
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| Razorbill - offshore at Selsey |
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| looking along the Spit at Pagham beach. |
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| Waders at high tide in the harbour - their roost is about to disappear . |
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| The Breach Pool at Pagham North Wall |
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| Shelduck |
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| Some of the Lapwing flock - quite a spectacle |
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| Black-tailed Godwits |
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| Golden Plovers |
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| The flood over Amberley Wildbrooks |