Monday 24th March - Spring flurry

 A final trip to Selsey before another trip away for a few weeks. Without huge expectations, the winds had switched to northerly and a mist lingered offshore reducing visibility. So it was cold and unwelcoming and it was also pretty slow. A small number of Brent Geese went through and the same with Common Scoters but neither more than 30 birds. Intermittently, a small passerine was spotted coming in off the sea, and most fairly low and close to the sea. We saw Chiffchaff, Meadow Pipit and Skylark and a single bird which was unfortunately too distant to ID properly was likely to be a Wheatear. There were 2 Black Redstarts in the local gardens. It to had gone very quiet when in a 5 minute spell, 2 Wigeon were followed by 2 Pintail and then the highlight of the morning 4 Garganey which flew together close enough to ID. Wheatears will have to wait until April when I return.

Black Redstart (m)

Sunday 23rd March - It all starts to move

With the increase in daylight hours and the slight rise in temperatures not only sees the fresh shoots of spring flowers, but a movement in the birds. The residents starting the dawn chorus with more gusto and even earlier (5am start for the Blackbirds and Robins) and the Winter birds are increasing their activity for a final feed-up before hitting the departure lounge on their way back to their northern Spring breeding grounds. Summer migrants have yet to really arrive although a few species are being recorded in small numbers. I managed to see a Sand Martin on the 11th March, having had a fairly unsuccessful  morning at Selsey, we went Wheatear hunting in a cold north-easterly, failing to find any Wheatears but lucking into a single Sand Martin which had obviously just arrived.

Locally, my trips to Black Down have been largely disappointing, with my last visit on the 20th, with only a single Woodlark, with the best birds of the morning being 5 Redpoll and a Crossbill. My attempts to find a local Lesser Spotted Woodpecker have so far drawn a blank. With walks to the furnace pond still producing a very large finch flock in the arable field , with estimates of 250 Chaffinches, 100 Linnets a few Greenfinch and 3 or 4 Brambling. At home, there are 2 Chiffchaffs singing, a pair of Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, occasional Treecreeper, a Grey Heron devouring the frogs and newts in the pond and at last a Firecrest on the 20th. Goshawks have been visible and displaying in the right weather.

A morning visit to a sunny Pulborough on the 14th produced a Little Ringed Plover and 2 Ruff and 3 more visits to Selsey in the last few days, probably more in hope than expectation was crowned by large movements of Brent Geese with the largest flock being around 400 birds. Other than that 5 Little Gulls on Friday was a highlight with a few Common Scoter and Sandwich Terns starting to head East and Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails seen bounding in off the sea with a high count of 120+ of the former. Without getting too despondent about what was seen on the visits, it still produced good seabird lists with Great Northern and Red-throated Divers, Slavonian Grebe, Eider, Long-tailed Duck, Gannet, Sandwich Tern, Shag, Fulmar, would be as good a list in any Southern county sea-watching site and a particular highlight was a very tight flock of 8 Great Northern Divers together, which I don't think I've seen anywhere before.

The spectacular views from Black Down on a morning of almost no birds.

The large arable field on the walk to the Furnace Pond

Linnet flock

Siskin

Mandarin Duck

Mandarins

Mandarin drake on the Furnace Pond

Grey Heron in pond

Grey Heron

Brent Geese migrating

Brent Goose flock 350+ birds

Brent Geese

Saturday March 8th - Spring already

I appear to be writing this when the first singing Chiffchaffs have arrived at home, following a week of unseasonably warm and sunny spell giving a real feel that Spring is here.

Even though last update was the second week of Jan, this was followed by spending nearly 3 weeks in Costa Rica - not a birding trip - but a great country to visit and fantastic wildlife and a blog report will eventually find its way on here.

Since returning, some Winter birding has been fitted in. Until a week ago the weather had been particularly cold, but mainly calm and dry, with frost, fog and misty mornings being persistent.

Locally, I have more frequently walked between the house and Furnace Pond. Some highlights have been 2 or 3 Woodlark,a large flock of finches in the arable field which has currently been left full of clover, with over 200 Chaffinches 100+ Linnets, a few Greenfinch and one or two Brambling. The Furnace Pond had a Teal count of 28, several Mandarin, Kingfisher with probably 2 Goshawk pairs locally, although they only started to be visibly displaying at the very start of March. I had a run of Hawfinch sightings at home, mostly singles but 2 seen last week on the 5th and unusually my first Firecrest for the year was near the Furnace Pond on the 5th, I've not had one in the garden this year as yet.

A last minute 2 day trip to Norfolk, which was not really a birding trip, added a few species. Calling in at Welney WWT on the way to the coast, seeing the 1,000+ Whooper Swans, a few Bewicks and 5 Tundra Bean Geese, amongst thousands of common wildfowl was another spectacle and still nice to see a number of Tree Sparrows there. I manged to see 5 Shorelark on the beach at Holkham gap, with a Greater White-fronted Goose in with the Pink-feet and 9 Lesser White-fronted Geese were nice to see, although being from a seemingly successful Swedish re-introduction scheme they will no doubt be in Category E, which the birding police wouldn't allow you to count. But seeing 9 species of 'gooses' over a couple of days was quite good going.

The biggest surprise of the period was a nearby Black-throated Thrush that turned up in someone's garden in Lindford (about 20 minutes from me, just over the county border in Hampshire). Even through it was a private garden, access was arranged for a few hours on a slightly misty Saturday morning and I went along with Paul Bowley and amongst 50-100 other birders saw the very smart male Black-throated Thrush, which was a new bird for me.

I have visited Selsey and the Selsey peninsula a few times, without any significant Spring migration yet as it's a little early still, but still seeing some of the peninsula's good birds Slavonian Grebe, Great-northern Diver, Long-tailed Duck, Black Redstart, Long-eared Owl.

Here's hoping for a good spring haul.

Black-throated Thrush

Black-throated Thrush

Black-throated Thrush

Migrating ? Brent Geese 

Common Scoter

Great-Northern Diver

Black Redstart

Pintail and Shoveler

Skylark