A yearning to get out and see more birds, had me up and out at 6.30am and heading to Selsey Bill for first light. Some seabirds and estuary birds were needed for the lock-down list. A moderate SW wind didn't have me expecting too much unusual but a 2 hour seawatch was actually quite rewarding.
With Sam, Paul and Bart already there and Ian joining , it wasn't long before the first Gannet was seen, followed by a Kittiwake, which are often just seen in minimal numbers but the Kittiwake sightings increased steadily and as a feeding flock of Gannets and Gulls appeared later there were probably 100+ Kittiwakes moving steadily west. Red-breasted Mergansers showed in small numbers as did Common Scoter although no more than a dozen of each and auks were also sparse in number with a couple of Razorbill close enough to ID a single Brent Goose flew past and there were frequent sightings of Mediterranean Gulls. 3 Great Northern Diver were on the sea and 5 Red-throated Diver flew East with one landing next to a Great Northern. An early highlight was a single Velvet Scoter flying East along the mile basket line, but just as I was thinking of packing up 2 Velvet Scoter flew West and were much closer shortly followed by a single Great Skua.
I moved to Church Norton under fairly leaden skies and the tide was out in the harbour, but task was to add to my lock-down list with waders and any wildfowl being the main targets. It was just past low-tide so there was a gradual rise which helped as the morning went along. Initially, Grey Plover, Curlew, Redshank, Oystercatcher and a few Dunlin were visible, The Channel held 2 Great Crested Grebes 2 Little Grebe, 2 Pintail, Wigeon and Teal and rather surprisingly a female Common Scoter, which had me looking hard for a while as the amount of white on the face was much brighter than I'm used to seeing. Then a couple of Ringed Plover, Turnstone, Knot and eventually a single Bar-tailed Godwit. A bit distantly there were several Shelduck and when the wader flocks took to the skies Golden Plover were visible. A walk towards the spit showed a Peregrine on it's preferred island and a Goosander in the channel near the spit, about 10 Avocet rather distantly before dropping into a channel and 2 Stonechat on the concrete blocks.
It had been a successful morning with adding species to the list, which is now up to 109, and was good to catch up with a few people.
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| Grey Plover, next to grey water on grey mud. |
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| Curlew |
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| Brent Geese |
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| Knot |
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| Pagham Harbour looking over Tern Island |
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| The harbour looking north to Chichester Cathedral |
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