Paul Matson's Birding Blog: Saturday 4th January

Sunday, 5 January 2025

Saturday 4th January - 2025 is out of the blocks

A stuttering start due to a storm which blew through on the 1st meant that I didn't attempt a foray out. I even struggled to find much at home as I could barely see out of the windows due to the driving rain. So my first days list was 19 species, no exceptions with a Goldcrest and a single Redwing being the only less frequent sightings here.

Roll on the 2nd of Jan, where the stark contrast of a cold, bright day with clear blue skies and a moderate northerly. I started at Selsey Bill at first light with the usual group of regulars and it was a decent sea-watch to start with all 3 diver species Great Northern (2) , Red-throated (22) and Black throated (1), 2 Slavonian Grebes and 8 Velvet Scoter near the large Common Scoter flock along with a few Sandwich Terns and Red-breasted Mergansers being the highlights. Another bonus bird for this time of year was a co-operative Black Redstart, I had to wait until autumn last year to see one.

I then visited 3 other parts of the Pagham / Selsey area with Ian with by far the best bird of the day being a Long-eared Owl at it's daytime roost. There were actually 2 birds visible. Other species were in good numbers including a large flock of Brent Geese, including one Pale bellied (branta hrota), Golden Plover, Lapwing, Knot, Grey Plover and Dunlin in the harbour and several Black-tailed Godwits feeding amongst the Brent Geese. The wintering Whimbrel gave itself up and the only raptors had been a Kestrel and a Buzzard witting distantly in a tree until a smart Marsh Harrier flew over.

I relocated to Burpham and met Paul Bowley where a flock of Redwing, Fieldfare and Mistle Thrush were in the fields and after a bit of a wait we had good scope views of a ringtail Hen Harrier and a covey of at least 8 Grey Partridge. It had started to get bitterly cold so we headed home with a decent day list of 86 Species.