Hooded Merganser

Today started slowly and finished with a bang. I began at Warblington trying to get close up shots of the Spotted Redshank that resides in the Nore Stream, unfortunately sea defence work was being carried out and the digger and large dumper truck must have spooked the bird. Nothing much to be found on the way back but there are some fine Yew trees in the churchyard and the thrush family were enjoying them. I dithered on where to go next, Church Norton, Fishbourne Creek or home. In the end I found myself on the North Wall at Pagham. Things were brighter here - lots of Brent Geese that were highly mobile. Five Swallows "lolloped" along the wall - time they were gone. Then in the distance a flock of Fieldfares being harassed by Jackdaws, followed by another flock overhead. Not many times in the log have I noted Fieldfares and Swallows on the same day.

Idling away the time with Dave Shepherd, who has an endless stream of jokes, not willing to go home until something turned up. Then Dave spotted a merganser type bird passing over the pool and landing in the sluice. I really hoped for a Goosander and the "red top" had me excited. We easily found the bird and after some discussion we decided "Hooded Merganser" , there are plenty of these in Arundel WWT and I was confident we had it right but we needed the thumbs up from someone more experienced. I contacted the visitor Centre and put out an alert for Owen Mitchell who kindly arrived about half an hour later. I also put out a sighting on Rare Bird Alert but I think they rejected the first so I repeated the sighting and it got posted in the end. Several other birders turned up, Bob, whose surname I don't know, followed by Chris Janman and Ian the "affable" birder. Unfortunately the light was never brilliant but sufficient to record the bird accurately, I managed several photos of the legs and could not identify a ring of any sort. Finally the bird disappeared up a side creek, probably to roost - just hope it stays around, it was originally spotted by Bob several days earlier so there is hope.

 

 

 

Left Wing

Right Wing



Not a large bird by any means