10th - 11th November 2024

Monday, 11th November: After some light rain overnight, at last a bit of a welcome change with the heavily overcast skies giving way to some brighter, sunny interludes with broken, scattered cloud in a cool but fairly light N/NE breeze 2-3.

Elmer Rocks: Not a whole lot on going on this morning in a fairly short visit, but there were a few birds of interest. A Grey Heron arrived and took up a perch on the upper storey of a house, until driven off by some angry Herring Gulls, whilst roosting on the rock islands were 40+ Ringed Plovers and six Sanderlings. Offshore there were six Brent Geese heading west, plus up to four late Sandwich Terns (two went east close inshore, then an hour later two flew west much further out - perhaps birds emanating from the Selsey area where there is now a small wintering population). On the sea were also ten Great Crested Grebes and 4 Red-breasted Mergansers.

A single Chiffchaff was in the bushes behind the beach and 50+ Goldfinches and a couple of Pied Wagtails went east, whilst a late Red Admiral butterfly was on the wing enjoying some sunshine.

At Elmer beach this morning: (top to bottom) Rooftop Grey Heron, Great Crested Grebes, Sandwich Terns and Red Admiral.

Lidsey WTW area: There was little on the small reservoir - just a Little Grebe, four Tufted Ducks, seven Gadwall and two Shoveler - with bird of the morning here being a Raven flying over and giving it's 'cronking' call as it went. At the WTW works I only logged three Chiffchaffs in the adjacent hedges, plus half a dozen Chaffinches, six Pied Wagtails and a Grey Wagtail.

Sunday, 10th November: Similar weather to yesterday though perhaps a shade less chilly; dry with grey skies and light winds NE 1-2 as high pressure continues to dominate....

Bilsham Farm: The reservoir was again busy with birds but with little change since my last visit. On the water were ten Little Grebes, the Black-necked Grebe, 32 Canada Geese, 18 Shoveler, three Tufted Ducks, 12 Pochard and 185 Coots. There were several hundred gulls present again and I took time to search through them, but sadly couldn't find any of the scarcer species - the best being a single Lesser Black-backed Gull (of the graellsii form).

Shovelers on Bilsham reservoir

Black-necked Grebe, still present on the reservoir (with Coots)