Grey Phalarope

A call from Martin alerting me to the presence of a Grey Phalarope at Hove Lagoon had me hurriedly throwing my gear into the car and setting off for Hove. Unfortunately Sunday is not a good day to be in a hurry, no one driving on the road wanted to make any progress, preferring to watch the incoming tide pound Worthing beach yet again. I arrived at the lagoon, parked as best as I could and searched for a crowd of birders - none to be seen, then I saw Martin waving and it dawned on me that the bird was in the kiddies paddling pool. By now the light had gone, beneath yet more dark rain clouds, so it was high ISO to photograph the most obliging bird I have ever seen.  Anyway I managed a few decent record shots, such a shame there was no sun as a few catchlights would have made all the difference.

Nice to meet Leigh Prevost and Gary Faulkner at last - thanks to Martin for another year tick.

Grey Phalarope and Kingfisher

A day out with two great looking birds. First the Grey Phalarope that had been reported at Newhaven Tidemills.  No problem finding  the bird thanks to two friendly birders who were already on it as it fed in the eastern part of the creek. Whilst the tide was out the bird was happy to feed a bit then rest for a while and then feed again. It had no problem finding lugworms and it certainly isn't short of food. When the tide came in and the mud was covered the bird became flighty, retreating to the far side of the creek and eventually disappearing.

Next up was an obliging Kingfisher, another bird that wasn't going short of food. However, photographing it when it dived for fish was virtually impossible and none of the flight shots that I obtained were truly in focus.

 

Within the large flock of Canada Geese that were present - two singletons, a Bar-headed Goose and a Greylag Goose.