Tuesday 16th September - Peninsula Birding

 A couple more visits to Selsey and the Pagham area in the last few days have turned surprisingly productive. I love this time of year, when migration is happening, it is visible but you just don't know what you might see when, but it does generate a lot of optimism. 

Sunday 14th - There had been a storm front yesterday which had produced sightings of over 100 Balearic Shearwaters and 3 species of Skuas. Today was much calmer and I had assumed this would largely be after the lord mayors show and at best a few stragglers might be left. How wrong you can be, and the morning from 6.15 to 8.30 over 130 Balearic Shearwaters flew West, some spent time in very large feeding flocks of mainly gulls but also included Gannets, Sandwich and Common Terns and a single Black Tern was id'd. After I had moved on another pulse of Shearwaters started moving and dripped into the afternoon which gave a total number of some 530 birds which is a Sussex record and a considerable percentage of the global population of what is considered a threatened species. Recently the scientific powers have renamed the bird as Mediterranean Shearwater along with Yelkuan Shearwater... I think I will carry on calling it Balearic for now.

I called in at the Visitor Centre after I left Selsey and did a loop to the harbour finishing at the Ferry Pool. The tramway bushes had numerous Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, a Lesser Whitethroat and a Tree Pipit flew over calling. A Kingfisher flew up the channel and the harbour looked pretty empty until I noticed a Marsh Harrier  which dived at something on the mud before carrying on, retracing the scope I landed on an Osprey on the ground which was obviously feeding on something and having to fend of the attention of a couple of Carrion Crows. A couple of Whimbrel and a Black-tailed Godwit were the only notable waders while a steady stream of Swallows and a few Sand Martins were heading out over the harbour.

The Ferry Pond is undergoing a facelift and whilst in progress this has much reduced the bird population (hoping that the end result is the opposite and not just a haven for Avocets and Canada Geese, like some of the RSPB ventures). A single Common Sandpiper and 50 Med Gulls were on the pool but nothing else with 2 Wheatear behind the pool in the bushes.

Tuesday 16th - Another early visit with low expectations. The wind had switched to a Westerly and very little was predicted. The sea-watch list did not have anything particularly unusual but it was still interesting. An early movement of c85 Kittiwakes was a little surprising and the highlight was a Merlin which tracked along the coast but stayed out to sea. 54 Meadow Pipit, 43 Swallows, 2 Grey Wagtail and a Tree Pipit were remnants of passerine migration.

I moved to Church Norton and even though blustery the sun was appearing in intervals and it was fairly warm. There were 2 Spotted Flycatchers behind the hide and in the harbour the tide was just turning to fall. 16 Pintail and 34 Wigeon was an obvious increase in duck numbers and just the commoner waders were present. 3 Wheatears were around the concrete blocks and a Whinchat and up to 6 Stonechat were in the bushes near the severals. Having concluded that was it for the morning I started walking back towards the car with Andrew when a Wryneck flushed from the edge of the reeds in the Severals, perched  for a minute or so  in a small oak then flew again. We saw it fly again into another small tree. A number of observers turned up who eventually got views , but it was a good end to the morning.

Balearic Shearwaters

Balearic Shearwaters

Osprey

Whimbrel

Spotted Flycatcher

Whinchat

Stonechat

Wryneck

Wryneck

Thursday 11th September - Catch up May-Sep

A busy period yet no blog posts at all, I've done more mothing than birding in the UK in this period.  So an attempt to get up to speed before autumn is over.

For 3 weeks in June I was birding on the Tibetan Plateau, a trip I will write up although having only just completed the Costa Rica January trip, therefore it may take a while. The birding there was very good, scenery spectacular and logistics and food surprisingly good and not that numbers have meant too much for me, I did manage to see my 5,000th species on that trip.

Closer to home, birding has been principally around Sussex, the local bird surveys were completed by the end of July. Some of the commoner birds have seemed to do well this year, with good broods of Great and Blue Tits benefitting from a surplus of insects and caterpillars in the long spells of dry weather. On the heathland Dartford Warblers have had a high number of territories but lower numbers for Stonechat and Woodlark. Garden Warblers and Whitethroats were in good numbers but another reduction in Willow Warblers probably highlights their relocation northwards. A few more Crossbill turned up at the end of June. Honey Buzzard, Goshawk and Hobby did ok on the raptor front and Nightjar and Woodcock seemed to have a stable population.

My garden bird list has been boosted by 3 this year, with the early Spring Marsh Harrier added to by 2 Sedge Warblers at the end of July and 2 Yellow Wagtails that flew over during August, a Garden Warbler in the garden in early August was only my second record.  Autumn Tree Pipits and Spotted Flycatchers were seen on limited visits to Black Down but nothing else locally from a migrant point of view.

When I have put the moth traps out I have had surprisingly good numbers and several new species putting the garden list at well over 500.

Trips to Selsey and Pagham have only just resumed and have produced some regular autumn species such as Whinchat, Spotted Redshank, Curlew Sandpiper, Wheatears, Redstart, Spotted Flycatchers, Yellow Wagtails and Tree Pipit. A highlight on the 6th Sept was the number of migrating hirundines, mostly Swallow but well represented by Sand Martins and House Martins, such a joy to watch this continuous stream of birds heading South, This was followed by a walk into the harbour at Pagham where I found a Grey Phalarope, that was initially asleep on the mud before the rising tide pushed it into the harbour to feed for 25 minutes before it flew off at least allowing a few others to see it. An Osprey heading out to sea on the 9th Sept was a good sighting and hoping that the autumn has more 

Crossbill

Brief Garden Warbler in garden

Goshawk

Goshawk

young Dartford Warbler

Chiffchaff

Willow Warbler

Spoonbill

Grey Phalarope

Grey Phalarope

Peregrine with prey

Reed Warbler