The Bird checklist for the Local 5Km Area patch
As previously indicated, my local 5 Km patch covers the Middleton-on-Sea parish, together with the surrounding area, which fortunately includes the Climping Gap.
I should state here that the Climping Gap is an important site in its own right; largely still undeveloped and with some good areas of habitat, it has produced a whole host of scarce and rare species over the years and has a history of being regularly watched by a number of competent local birders. I hope I can include myself in the latter category as I've watched at the Gap on and off since the late 1970's. One of the stalwarts from those earlier times is Bola Akinola and he is still the driving force there to this day, also running a separate blog detailing sightings at that site. I thoroughly recommend a visit to his blog 'The Birds of Climping Gap & Lower Arun Valley' which can be found at climpingbirds.blogspot.com
I continue to be grateful to Bola for showing me some of the rarer birds he's found at Climping, and for the information and bird list on his blog - for all those species previously recorded form a large part of my all-time 5 Km area list - but of course they are not the whole story, with other areas in more recent times adding to the list.
I have researched the Climping Gap and also the other areas on the patch and as a result I can say that, at the start of 2024, the full species list stands at 273 species, of which I have personally seen 235.
It should be borne in mind that whilst Climping Gap has quite a long history of being regularly watched and its birdlife documented, this is not the case with the M-o-S parish and some other areas, where it is only in recent times that regular watching and recording has been carried out, and mostly by one person. Doubtless, over time, these lesser watched areas will contribute more to the overall list as further species are discovered and interest grows. To put this into context, since 2020 when I commenced covering the 5Km area, my annual species list has been:-
2020 = 149, 2021 = 145, 2022 = 154 and 2023 = 156.
The total number of different species over those four years is 190, but promisingly, already in 2024 I have added another species to my personal list with the sighting of a Spotted Redshank at Lidsey WTW in January.
Key to Checklist:
Pink column = All time list for the patch Blue column = my personal list for the patch
1 = species seen 0 = sub-species seen, but not included in totals
Species I've seen on patch highlighted, whilst X in blue column = species not seen
Species in red = added 2024
On the right - to yearlists since 2020 (yellow column = 2024 in progress)
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