A very wet and windy end to the year and hopes abound for the new one. It's been a mixed year. My only trip away with the family to the US and Canada was enjoyable and I had a couple of decent weekends in Norfolk and Portland, but overall a year dominated by work pressures and fairly uneventful on the bird front. Lets hope I can make more of 2018.
The last few days have been relaxing but the weather has been decidedly mixed. A cold snap on Wednesday didn't last long before we have been thrust back into westerly wet airstreams. On Thursday (28th), the morning was cold and bright which was helpful. I went to Selsey first thing, not expecting too much, the highlight was the number of
Red-throated Divers on the move with a single flock of 16 being exceptional. 3 or 4
Slavonian Grebes were on the sea with at least 3
Great Northern Divers and several
Razorbill, Guillemot and R
ed-breasted Mergansers were visible, along with
Gannets and
Shag .
After a couple of hours I moved to Church Norton, the day was bright but the harbour was quite quiet with a low tide.
c1,000 Lapwing were visible in the distance with the large
Brent Goose flock. A few
Dunlin, Knot and
Grey Plover were scattered in the harbour and a long scan revealed a single
Ringed Plover, Avocet and the long-staying
Whimbrel. A walk out to the end of the spit had a single Stonechat and a small number of Skylark and Linnet, where there was nothing on the sea, although a number of Pintail were visible towards the North side and several Wigeon, Teal and Shelduck were in small groups.
There are still a number of finches at home, I had thought that my previous sightings of
Hawfinches had dried up completely as I hadn't seen one since 21st, until today when I flushed one from the bottom of the field where it flew off calling. Also the flock of
Little Egrets that were seen down the road had increased to 16 on the 29th. I'm planning to do a local New Year Birdrace on the 13th with Dave B , so it would be good if they hang around until then as otherwise birds have generally dispersed and finding anything in the muddy tracks of the West Weald will be a challenge,
Onwards to tomorrow and Happy New Year,
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| Pagham Harbour from Church Norton, with a fairly low tide |
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| Grey Heron |
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| Teal |
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| Green Woodpecker in garden |
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| Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Siskin |
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