Goring and Ferring

I hope my seven readers will forgive me, as today is not really about birding. After some twenty four hours of snow the sky brightened and as I was feeling much better I decided to take my camera for a walk. One of my favourite perambulations is via Ilex Way to Ferring beach, taking in Groyne No.4 of course and along to the Bluebird cafe. Here, I normally turn up the western side of Ferring Rife, today I had to take the eastern path as the footbridge where I normally cross over is closed for repairs. I then continue through Ferring Churchyard to the cricket ground and back along Ilex Way to home.

 
So first up was Ilex Way, a canopy of huge evergeen Holm oak over a carpet of snow. Holm oak, Quercus ilex, or Holly Oak is a native to the Mediterranean region and thrives in Sussex, I have no idea who planted these trees but I would like to thank him or her, they are host to lots of wildlife.





The information board only considers summer!

 

On via the turn for Goring Hall and The Plantation to the gull roost at Ferring. At first I thought the fields to be devoid of gulls then I realised the white lumps of snow in the north west corner were birds hunkered down to avoid the vicious easterly wind. A majority of the flock were  Common Gulls with a sprinkling of Black-headed Gulls. I did manage to spot a Mediterranean Gull, albeit after I had downloaded the photos at home.

 



 

From a distance - just like snow





Mainly Common Gulls



3 species of gull present



A single Med Gull

Groyne No.4 was almost devoid of birds, just solitary Turnstone and Ringed Plover with a few Black-headed Gulls loafing offshore.

 

By the Bluebird cafe the beach huts looked incongruous with snow in front of them and icicles hanging from the roof. Even the shingle strand looked different with a covering of drifted snow.

On to a snow covered footpath on the eastern side.

Along the rife just a few Meadow Pipits were struggling to find something edible.

 

These snow covered tussocks gave me the impression of some alien form of hedgehog!!

 Back into Ilex Way accompanied by dogs and walkers enjoying the sunshine

 

That's not a stick  - it's a log!!

Finally, home for a hot mug of tea!

 

 

Ferring, Groyne No.4

No apologies for revisiting my local patch. After a miserable start to the day with torrential rain and westerly gales a break in the weather gave early afternoon sunshine but the high winds remained, a perfect time for a walk. At Ferring the shingle is high, the longshore drift has deposited several extra feet of beach and the sand just below the shingle line seems much more extensive. Perhaps the winter storms will take much of it away, probably to Brighton and beyond. I guess most of this has been eroded from Selsey, Pagham and Climping, probably half of Trevor's garden!



Shingle and groynes as far as the eye can see



Groyne No.4 - Perfect shorebird habitat

On the beach there were few birds, just  Turnstones, Sanderlings, Ringed Plovers and Dunlin. With the incoming tide being pushed rapidly up the beach by the wind the Ringed Plovers left early and were settled down in a sparsely populated gull roost, hunkered down in the freshly ploughed stubble.

These beach birds are hardy souls and don't give up what remains of the beach readily. This makes them approachable, just find the highest point on the sand, and as the tide rises they will come to you - so pressing is the need to maximise feeding time. Only when the sand is finally covered do they take to the shingle roost. The patttern is always the same - Turnstones roost in the seaweed remains higher up the beach and the Sanderlings take the lowest shingle.

Following the previous posting about the beach I was asked to keep an eye out for ringed birds, alas nothing this time, but it is much more difficult than colour ringed Godwits. Birds offshore were few, just a couple of Cormorants battling west against the wind and two optimistic Sandwich Terns looking for snacks among the numerous windsurfers.

 Red-backed or Black-bellied Sandpiper



Turnstones still looking 'scruffy'




Flying into the gull roost

Ferring Beach

I had just enough time to make a quick dash to Groyne No.4 at high tide this afternoon. The fact the school holidays are over and most of the holidaymakers have gone makes the beach attractive again. However, the excellent weather meant there were still plenty of people about, What a contrast in consideration, walkers when they saw the camera actually made a detour so as not to scare the birds.

A conservative estimate gave - Turnstones 70+, Ringed Plovers 30+ and about 20 Sanderlings. Just one Dunlin on the sand and he was constantly hiding in the mob, though we did have a fly by of three more. The most striking observation was the variety of plumage of all three species, though the Turnstones have definitely lost their summer tones.

As the tide pushed higher the Turnstones came ever closer until they were too close to focus, the Sanderlings remained at a distance and the Ringed Plovers occupied the middle ground. Nice to see the "Friends" are still about.

The "Friends" have returned in good numbers.....



....in various plumages...

 




....young and old.



Perhaps a small crustacean under the camera bag?



Given the excellent camouflage the count remains conservative.