Tuesday, 9th September: A fairly bright day overall, but with heavy grey cloud and sunny interludes early on, and heavy showers well out to sea and threatening inshore, but never actually arriving inland, in a moderate SSE wind 3-4. Sunnier and warmer by afternoon.
Elmer Rocks: A bit of a mixture today. On arrival I could hear the whistling sound of a Mute Swan's wings, but just couldn't see it until I eventually located it very high up in the sky. Offshore, a flock of nine Common Scoter went east and four Wigeon west and a steady trickle of Swallows were heading east again; I stopped my count at 50. An immature Shag was on the rock islands, as were a couple of Little Egrets, whilst 11 Oystercatchers, 20+ Ringed Plovers and two Sanderlings dropped onto the beach.
Just east of Poole Place there was a gathering of gulls and 26 Sandwich Terns on the rocky beach, several of the latter being juvenile/1st winter birds and still begging food from adults. Gulls were a dominant feature today; the fields behind the beach were being harrowed and a mass of mainly Black-headed and Mediterranean Gulls were present and taking advantage, with just a few of the other regular gull species. There were probably well over a thousand of which perhaps 700+ were Black-headed and 300+ were Mediterranean Gulls. A Kestrel was hunting over the set-aside and a couple of Chiffchaffs were in the tamarisk hedges.
Elmer Rocks this morning: (above) Mute Swan overhead, very high, but its distinctive whistling wings in flight still audible, and (below) Sandwich Terns and Mediterranean Gulls near Poole Place
The immature Shag on the rock islands
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Bilsham farm: A Raven flew over giving its 'cronking' call late morning, whilst in the hedgerows a Chiffchaff was showing and calling frequently and a male Yellowhammer was also present. On the reservoir, there were 16 Little Grebes, a drake Pochard and 26 Tufted Ducks; however, there was a bit more interest today, with four Common Sandpipers together and then a surprise in the form of a Little Stint. The latter was initially seen at some distance on the opposite side of the reservoir to me, and whilst it was obviously a stint I was less sure of its true identity at first as it didn't feel quite 'right' and so caution was needed. I decided to summon my birding friend Bernie for a second opinion, whilst I tried to gradually get nearer for a photo to eliminate other possibilities.
I eventually got to the other side without disturbing the stint, and slowly was able to eliminate other similar species, confirming its blackish legs and no partial webbing between the toes. It surely had to be a Little Stint and Bernie then arrived to confirm it.
(Top two) Little Stint with Common Sandpiper, (lower two) Little Stint - note dark blackish legs and lack of any toe palmations/webbing, (bottom) side view of the Stint
Lidsey WTW area: I spent most of the morning birding at Pagham Harbour, but with news of a small influx of Glossy Ibises along the South coast I made the effort to try at least one potentially good area on the local patch. Alas no Ibis for me today, but there has been a recent influx of Cattle Egrets to the grassy fields behind the WTW, so I thought it was worth a look. It turned out that there were at least 30 present, including a number of juveniles, although the long grass makes their presence hard to detect at first; for example, one area where I initially thought there were just two birds, eventually proved to be hosting a dozen!
Nearby, the small reservoir held a Common Sandpiper, 11 Little Grebes, eight Mallard and three Tufted Ducks.
Cattle Egrets in the long grass behind Lidsey WTW and two flying in to join the group, whilst (bottom) Common Sandpiper, sitting, at the reservoir.
Sunday, 7th September: A mainly sunny and dry day with plenty of white cloud, in a moderate to brisk S/SE wind force 4-5.
Elmer Rocks: There was a steady and constant trickle of Swallows heading east, early on at least, along the beach and over the sea, (no count attempted!) That apart there was precious little to record; half a dozen Oystercatchers and 20 or so Ringed Plovers arriving on the rising tide, a couple of Little Egrets by the rocks, a single Common Gull, a Kestrel hunting over the set-aside and perhaps two Blackcaps in the bushes. At this point my patience expired and it was time to move on.
Kestrel hovering over the set-aside, behind the beach
Bilsham farm: There wasn't much around the fields and hedgerows, the best being a Spotted Flycatcher, several Chiffchaffs and plenty of hirundines on the move - especially Swallows. On the reservoir there were two Common Sandpipers and two Pied Wagtails around the waterline, whilst on the water were 16 Little Grebes, 24 Coots, a drake Pochard and 12 Tufted Ducks. A gathering of hirundines over the water contained at least 50 Sand Martins.
Common Sandpiper at Bilsham reservoir
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