Pagham Harbour and Selsey Bill

Yesterday saw Gen, Paul and ourselves up before the crack of dawn to travel down to West Sussex for a birding adventure with Beds Birds. John, our leader for the day, had prepared for the trip meticulously including going down a day ahead and scouting out the best viewpoints.

We assembled at the visitor centre before setting off for a walk around the western side of the harbour. From the hide we had good views of Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler and a large number of Shelduck feeding on the water to the west of the road. Lapwing, Golden Plover and Curlew were also present. A couple of Red-legged Partridge were spotted at the back of the field. The walk along the 'embankment' revealed Redshank and Pintail feeding and dabbling in the saltmarsh. Further along the path we saw more Pintail, then a group of Avocet, Grey Plover, Dunlin and a couple of Oystercatchers resting on the end of one of the mud banks. In the distance, across the water, we saw Brent Geese along with more Shelduck. On our walk back to the cars Mike spotted a Goldcrest moving through a bramble hedge but it quickly moved on and only a couple of us saw it. The feeders outside the visitors centre were busy - we saw plenty of Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tit feeding there as well as a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Then we all drove down to Selsey Bill for a sea watch and for most of the group a very fleeting view of a Black Redstart. There were several Med Gulls on and around the beach area as well as a small number of Mergansers a bit further out to sea. We also had an eclipse Eider moving rapidly westwards in quite a rough sea. Further round, near the Lifeboat Station we stopped for lunch and a more prolonged seawatch where the water was not quite so choppy. A large group of Turnstones were gathered on the slipway and at least one Great Crested Grebe diving around the moored fishing boats.

Lastly a visit to the Church Norton end of the reserve gave us views of the waders enjoying the increasing mud flats revealed by the retreating tide. New for the day were Ringed Plover, Little Egret and Knot. A short walk took us to the beach where another sea watch became more interesting as the receding tide left a sandier shoreline for the waders to forage along. The highlight here was the Slavonian Grebe that had been spotted the previous day but took quite a while to relocate. Unfortunately it wasn't a great day for photographs - just a great days' birding with friends!