April is the month when Spring migration really gets going, it does rely on a bit of favourable weather to see the best bits, but from the second half of this month for 6-8 weeks it is the best time of year.
On Thursday 1st, which was the last of the recent really warm days I did a local walk in the morning and found both male and female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker with the male actively drumming, when they are as active as they were it is hard to see how they can be missed, but they are tiny birds and if they just keep quiet and remain at the tops of trees they are hard to see, plus they can have a 'home range' of up to 40 hectares, so are difficult to pin down.
Good Friday saw me back at Selsey, the weather had turned from the warmth of the previous few days and the wind was now a fairly strong cool North Easterly, which also kept the birds fairly distant. It still produced a decent list with highlights being a Long-tailed Duck, along with Common Scoter, Shoveler, Shelduck, Pintail and Red-breasted Merganser. My first Fulmar of the year, 4 Great Northern Divers on the sea, a small number of waders included a Curlew, 5 Grey Plover, 17 Sanderling, Gannets, Sandwich Terns and a Common Tern but only 4 Meadow Pipit, 1 Sand Martin and 1 Swallow on the migrant front.
In the increasingly strong and cooling wind I stopped at the visitor centre in Siddlesham and walked along the long pool. The Spotted Redshank was in the channel and 4 Sedge Warblers were singing in poolside brambles although mostly trying to remain hidden out of the wind.
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| Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (male) |
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| Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (male) |
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| Spotted Redshank |
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| Sedge Warbler |
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| Sedge Warbler |
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