A month of March and April Spring sunshine and rain

The passage of time and good intentions seem to have got the better of me and yet again I find myself updating the blog well in arrears. Its the second half of April and I'm in Portugal

I arrived back from Fuerteventura on 8th March and busily went about a bit of birding interspersed with much work on the garden (we have  renewed the area to the front of the house with several new garden beds and lots of plants) and the occasional work related trip to London.

The weather was fairly typical for March and early April, being mainly very cool and breezy but with only occasional rain.

I completed 2 more Breeding Bird Surveys on Stanley Common , the first was poor with very little recorded and no sign of any Woodlark tha I had seen in early Feb, the second visit on the11th April was much better finding a pair of Woodlark and seeing both Tree Pipit and Redstart and Crossbill, along with a decent number of Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Willow Warbler, which must have just arrived.

The main track on Stanley Common

Typical Crossbill view at the top of a pine

A newly arrived Tree Pipit

.. and a newly arrived male Redstart

I had several visits to Selsey and Pagham, with highlights being all 3 Divers, Arctic Skua, Great Skua, Velvet Scoter, manx Shearwater, Little Gulls, Common and Little Terns, Red-necked Grebe,  and inbound, Sand Martin, Swallow, Yellow Wagtails and Wheatears.

One of the triangle posts at Selsey Bill, importantly used to give directions for passing birds

and occasionally used as a perch

Northern Gannet

Northern Fulmar

On a more local basis I visited Blackdown on 3rd April and saw many Crossbill a Woodlark, a Dartford Warbler plenty of Siskins, and Linnets and later in the day 5 different Goshawk, but the best day I had for raptors was the 11th April after my Stanley common visit when I saw my first Hobby of the year followed by a first for home when a Merlin flew over.

As well as plenty of Brambling throughout, the largest count was 32 birds and there were still 2 present on the 19th April just before we came to Portugal. The early Chiffchaffs that were around at home in March have probably moved on but there are 2 Blackcaps singing and the occasional Firecrest and a Willow Warbler was briefly seen on the 9th and 11th of April.

Rather unusual were 2 Canada Geese that decided to try the pond one morning and then 3 Mandarin Ducks (2 drakes and a female) that also gave the garden a try on the 18th.

CHIFFCHAFF ????

Potentially the most interesting local bird was on Friday 12th April. Dave B had let me know that an interesting sounding Chiffchaff had been heard at the end of Vann Road with the potential of it being an Iberian. It was an awkward place to access but just being up the road I went to have a look mid morning and having heard  a couple of Chiffchaffs then found the bird in question.. and its song was definitivey distinct and was actually a good candidate for Iberian Chiffchaff with no real sign of being a mixed singer it displayed a short song comprising 3 phrases,, a few chiffs (no chaffs) followed by a rattle then a few trail notes. The issue for me was the bird looked quite drab, even thought the light was fairly awkward it didn't seem to have sufficient of the yellow tones and green in the upper body, although did have a clean white belly and lighter legs, base of bill and a supercilium in front of the eye. I took some recordings on my phone of the call, and circulated these. There has been no conclusion yet to the ID so remains a potential Iberian Chiffchaff.

A white belly and yellowish vent and yellowish supercilium and lighter legs

In stronger light though it looks like a typically drab Chifchaff

Chiffchaff with a Spanish lilt to its song

From all angles