The problem with Spring is you end up so busy, when you are already so busy, and despite the beautiful weather and the extra daylight on offer, time goes by in a flash and you find you haven't managed to do everything you said to yourself that you would achieve. I did, however, manage a fair amount of birding, but it was in between a lot of work and the many activities going on at home with the family and bathroom hell with various work on the house. So trying to find time to keep up this blog has been impossible and the camera has had few decent attempts to perform so generally a lack of accompanying photos, but having said all that I've just got back from an excellent birding trip to Sumatra and Java, so this is my attempt to get up to speed so I can concentrate on getting that trip report finished.
Much of any spare time early in May was spent on the coast to try and catch up with the spring migration. Highlights were
2 Pomarine Skuas, a few
Arctic and
Great Skuas, but not seen in high numbers, a single
Black Tern along with a few days when larger movements of
Common and
Arctic Terns. Reasonable numbers of
Manx Shearwaters and a
Short-Eared Owl in off the sea, were also highlights. Passerines were a little thin on the ground, despite the weather being very pleasant it doesn't usually equate to great numbers of birds dropping on the coast. There was one early morning that seemed promising with a
Grasshopper Warbler, several
Whitethroat, Willow Warbler and
Chiffchaff and some
Yellow Wagtails but the early action predictably stopped. Hirundines were noticeably absent with no days when a good passage of
Swallows were reported and it is something I've noticed at home where only 1
House Martin nest appeared in the village, whereas its has been into doube figures and my maximum
Swift count was 6 until the post breeding flock at the end of June, when I saw around 20 but they disappeared very quickly. Again there were a few days when good numbers of
Whimbrel and
Bar-tailed Godwit were moving, only a couple of
Velvet Scoter recorded with
Common Scoter. It was an odd spring, but the fantastic weather seemed to encourage the resident birds to breed well and I've noticed good numbers of Blue Tit, Great Tit, Nuthatch, and Goldfinch with numbers of fledged young.
I did a local May Birdrace with Dave Burges on 25th May. We had planned this after our January attempt and decided to do the same route concentrating on the area between Milland and Blackdown, so only a few sq KM's. We recorded 74 species which we were quite pleased with given our inland location with a lack of water. The bird of the day was a surprise
Quail we flushed from under our feet on Blackdown in the heather !. We saw a number of local specialist species which included
Woodcock, Nightjar, Redstart, Tree Pipit, Woodlark, Dartford Warbler, Crossbill, Spotted Flycatcher, Cuckoo, Hobby, Honey Buzzard and
Goshawk.
I had a few records of
Turtle Doves at home in May but nothing since until today (11 August) when one was in the Veggie patch.
On the 19th June, a report came through of an Elegant Tern at Pagham, It was a Tuesday afternoon and I was at work in London, it was presumed to be the same bird which turned up last year which I had seen, so I wasn't in any rush to try and get there. By the time I had got back to Haslemere in the evening rush-hour the reports had changed the bird into an
Amercian Royal Tern. I had already committed to take Adie out for a quick Pizza, so it was 7,30 before I left and charged down to the coast, luckily it was a clear evening and I arrived at around 8.15pm to a packed car park at Church Norton, so stuck the car in a bush and walked quickly to the harbour. Luckily the bird was on view on Tern island in the tern colony. although a little distant, it gave good views through the scope. I stayed for an hour when the light was deteriorating and the bird hadn't really moved and looked settled. It was lucky I made the effort as it departed 10 minutes after first light on the Friday.
...and now onto autumn !!
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| Fulmar, Selsey May |
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| Pomarine Skuas, Selsey, May |
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| A calm sea at Selsey looking towards the Isle of Wight |
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| Flock of Whimbrel, Selsey May |
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| Sandwich Tern, Selsey |
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| Common Buzzards, Pagham |
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| Common Whitethroat, Pagham |
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| View to Woolbeding, Fernhust |
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| Roe Deer, Fernhurst |
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| Mandarins, Furnace Pond, Fernhurst |
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| Tree Pipit, Stanley Common |
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| Birders at Church Norton looking at the American Royal Tern as sunset approaches on 19th June |
