In advance of our planned week on the Scillies, this years 'team', comprising Ian, Chris N, Gary and I agreed to meet up for a pre-trip chat and for Gary to meet Ian and Chris for the first time.
There had been very little exciting on the bird front, so we decided to gather at Selsey Bill starting around 6.45am. It turned into a a reasonably productive couple of hours there with the highlight being a movement of hirundines with over 1000 House Martins being dominant with c100 each of Swallows and Sand Martins. In addition 60+ Yellow Wagtails with several dropping onto the Oval field a similar number of Meadow Pipits, 7 Grey Wagtails and a couple of 'Alba' Wagtails. The bushes around the Oval field are often devoid of birds but 2 Spotted Flycatchers were found along with Blackcap and Chiffchaff and 2 Wheatear dropped in. The sea was relatively quiet with 14 Teal, 4 Common Scoter and some Sandwich Terns. A Hobby heading quickly South to sea was obviously in pursuit of the hirundines.
We decided to relocate to Medmerry, with a quick stop at the Ferry pool on-route where a Little Stint was showing albeit a bit distant along with 2 Greenshank and a Spotted Redshank.
We arrived at Medmerry around 9.45am and it was already turning into a hot sunny day albeit a little breezy and we slowly made our way out towards the Stilt Pools. There was actually very little i the bushes although we did hear a Tree Pipit, but the Stilt pools held Little Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper and Ruff, 4 Cattle Egret along with more Sand Martins and Swallows, 2 Wheatear were at the breach and distantly an Osprey was seen with Marsh Harrier and Red Kite.
It was after 1pm when we returned to the cars, Ian and Chris headed off and Gary and I decided to head to Pulborough. Our target here was a Pectoral Sandpiper, which was picked up quite quickly when we arrived at the Hangar viewpoint but other than a single Dunlin and a few Snipe, there was little else on the reserve, we were just about to head back and call it a day when news of a Greater Short-toed Lark at Climping came throug. We initially dismissed the idea as it was already approaching 4pm, but by the time we reached the car we realised Climping was only about 25 minutes away so our mind was changed.
We arrived at Climping beach around 4.30 having seen 2 Peregrine from the car on the way. and walked a short distance to where a few people were looking into a scrubby field, the Greater Short-toed Lark was visible although mainly hunkered down in the weedy field, scope views were reasonably good but it was a bit too challenging for pictures in the glaring light and strong wind.
We ended up with a good list to the day and the icing of a decent bird to finish.
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| Wheatear at Selsey |
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| Wheatear |
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| A fast disappearing Hobby |
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| Little Stint on back of mud at the Ferry. |
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| Spotted Redshank on the Ferry |
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| Cattle Egret, Medmerry |
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| Greater Short-toed Lark |
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| Greater Short-toed Lark |
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| Greater Short-toed Lark |
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