Pennington Marsh

Having had a day out on the Cuckmere and found, much to our dismay, that similar to other locations it was devoid of birds, we decided that a day at Pennington was in order. Especially as my birding companion had visited there some weeks ago and reported that there was a veritable cornucopia of avian life. So, when we arrived we were dismayed to find that the water levels in the lagoons were at a very low level and it was immediately apparent that very few birds were present.

The targets for the day included Black Tern, a possible elusive Long-billed Dowitcher and some close up views of Curlew Sandpiper. Alas, the well laid plans of mice and birders often go awry. Having watched the Dunlin and Ringed Plovers  move slowly towards the sea wall as the tide approached, boredom set in and we made our way to the "jetty"  on the beach in front of Pennington Lagoon. This was the reported location of the juvenile Black Tern, as we approached all we could detect were a few Turnstones and some obliging Pied Wagtails.

Then, thanks to some local birders, we located two juvenile terns on the poles to the left of the jetty. It was at this point wishful thinking and poor birding skills set in, as in real time we corporately incorrectly identified several birds. My excuse is that they were distant, I only had my bins and that "Collins" was in the car.  We knew that we had seen the Black Tern and recorded it, but confirmation of other birds had to wait until post visit analysis could be carried out on the large amount of photographs we had captured.

Anyway, below are a representative set of record shots, taken at long distance. The salutary lessons that I have learned are - never jump to conclusions  and that the plumage of juvenile terns is remarkably variable.



  Common Tern (juv) with Black Tern (juv)

 

  Common Tern (juv) with Black Tern (juv)

 

 

3 Common Tern (juv)



Common Tern (juv)




Common Tern (juv)




Common Tern (juv)



Common Tern (juv)



Ermm???   Commic!



Common Tern (juv) and Sandwich Tern 



Sandwich Terns



Sandwich Tern

 

Dunlin

Some may view the Dunlin as an insignificant bird, but I happen to think they are quite charming and today they were most obliging, filling a hole in our birding day. We started at Arlington Reservoir, a search for the Little Stint that has been so amenable to having his photograph taken. Unfortunately a circuit, anti clockwise, of the lake revealed nothing more than an extremely flighty Greenshank that certainly wasn't going to pose.  Apart from the dam wall there are very few areas of the reservoir where you can get good views of the water, vegetation has been left to grow virtually unchecked, both around the margins and in front of the hide, a very poor state of affairs. I would have left a comment making this point but there wasn't even a piece of chalk for the recent sightings board in the hide. So after a cup of tea we left for the Cuckmere to try and locate the Curlew Sandpipers adjacent to the Golden Galleon.

A walk along the river gave sufficient encounters with the Dunlin to allow me to give the new camera a go, early results are very pleasing. Apart from the Dunlin we had Ringed Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit and distant views of Spotshank and Sandwich Terns.

Whilst we were down towards the end of the river there was an "incident" at the first "Sister" of the Seven Sisters. Whether someone had fallen or been trapped by the rising tide I know not, however we were very soon surrounded by blue flashing lights and helicopters.

Out and About

Birding on a Saturday is unusual for me, I much prefer to be out and about on weekdays when there are fewer people around. But! today there was a choice of two twitches, Farlington Marshes offering 95% chance of Ospreys and Saltdean offering a 5% possibility of Dotterel. Our strategy was to venture west to Farlington and to keep a weather eye on Rare Bird Alert just in case someone discovered the proverbial needle in the haystack.

Farlington was fairly quiet, a few cars in the car park, perhaps the dark grey clouds on the horizon, which promised squally heavy rain, were keeping people at home. Additionally, the temperature was noticeably cooler than of late. We made our way past the "shed" to the east side, few birds were about on the marsh and fewer flying. Arriving at  the harbour we scanned all the islands, particularly North Binness but no Osprey, we continued and completed a circuit of the marsh, noting Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, Meadow Pipit and a "charm" of Goldfinches. Luck was on our side as we caught the tail end of a shower leaving us only slightly damp. It must have been quiet as neither of us took our cameras from the case.

Next up was a visit to Budd's Farm sewage works, a place I have been intending to visit since last year. Scanning the lagoons gave all the usual suspects - Gadwall, Tufted, Mallard and sharp-eyed Martin picked out a single Shoveler.  One last scan of the harbour, all the islands from a different viewpoint returned nothing. A scan of port hand spars in the channel revealed a Cormorant and a rather dark bird eating something, just the jizz of the bird had me back to the car for the scope - success - an Osprey fairly distant, dining on a fish. No problems with the ID but a passing boat spooked the bird and it relocated to the grass of Long Island. Tick in the box but no photographs.

A visit to Hayling Ferry Point gave nothing of note so we relocated to Chichester Harbour just down from Northney Marina. Not a lot of activity except for some Black-tailed Godwits relocating on the high tide, as we walked back to the car park around fifty birds were jostling for ever decreasing real estate.

This was followed by a visit to Pagham North Wall just as the tide was peaking. On Breech Pool all the usual suspects, Common Snipe, Teal, Black-tailed Godwits, 3 Spotted Redshanks and a sprinkling of Lapwings. On the stones were Wheatears and several Yellow Wagtails occupied the path. A raptor flyby caused a quickening of the pulse but after a small chase it proved to be a Common Buzzard rather than anything exotic.

Plenty of Swallows over the pool, all looking well fed and in fine fettle for the upcoming journey.



Africa - are you sure Dad??

 

Red-backed Shrike

As we drove to Rottingdean this morning I was sure that we were too late for the Red-backed Shrike. After all it had been around for four days, surely it must have gone. On the roadside only one vehicle was parked, not many birders about then. However, as we approached the location there was a single birder peering intently into the field, it was still here!! Then what followed was the most pleasant twitch that I have ever experienced, an obliging bird, perfect conditions and getting close to the subject. I hasten to add, for those birders that believe birders with cameras are demons, that in this case it was the bird that chose to come close to the photographer.

 

The bird fed happily all the time we were present, finding a plentiful supply of grasshoppers, bumble bees and sundry other unidentified insects. Even when several more birders turned up the bird remained content to feed from the wire fence some twenty yards distant.

On the wires were the usual suspects, Wheatears and Whinchats. One Whitethroat took exception to the close proximity of the RBS and made a comical half-hearted protest.

 

 

Nice to meet Paul and Bill on their local patch and thanks for the info on another possible bird close by.

Wryneck

With the weather set fair and some good reports for Farlington Marshes on the net, we decided that a visit was in order, especially as one of the reported birds was a Wryneck. I picked Martin up at 0900 but following a posting on SOS by Jan Jupp stating that the Cissbury Wryneck was still present we changed our plan and set off for Findon.

Of course we had to pass the Lloyds Registry in  Durrington and lo and behold one of the Peregrines was home and having breakfast to boot. Setting up our cameras in the road caused no consternation to passers-by, most were aware of the birds and I detected a certain amount of local pride in their presence.

"At the sign of the Black Horse"

Pigeon for breakfast

 We arrived at the lower car park at Nepcote and with some haste set off for the horse paddocks. On the path an obliging Whinchat posed for the camera but it was the Wryneck that was the target so we pushed on.

Not quite sure of the exact location we paused and then spotted a lone birder in the distance. This turned out to be Russ Tofts who had located the bird and we were on it immediately - thanks Russ. The bird remained in the vicinity for quite a time but never came closer than when we first arrived so we contented ourselves with decent record shots and a year tick - don't think I will catch up with Martin before the end of the year though.







Happy to sit in the warm morning sunshine.





By the time we left at midday the bird had gone into hiding and there was a considerable heat haze developing, so there was little chance of improving on what we had already captured. Nice to meet up with Nick Bond again, hope he got some decent shots and a big thank you to Jan for the timely posting.

Quite a few Redstarts were about, we also noted a Spotted Flycatcher in the hedge below us and a busy Willow Warbler working from the tops of the bushes but as the sun became more powerful the birds just slipped into cover and it became rather quiet.