birding never sleeps: Shoreham area (05-06 January 2013)

Sunday 6 January 2013

Shoreham area (05-06 January 2013)

Saturday 5 January. Cycled to Shoreham Fort, Widewater and the Adur. Low tide is never the best time for Shoreham Harbour and today was no exception although 2 Purple Sandpipers were seen briefly below the woden pier. 7 Red-throated Divers flew past as did an adult Mediterranean Gull. At Widewater eight Sanderling were seen n the each before eing disturbed by a dog. The Coot was still present but the Mute Swan pair seemed to have chased one of their youngsters off and were moving in on another. It was my first low-tide visit to the Adur for a couple of weeks. the weather was too calm for a lot of gulls but I got my colour-ring reading year off to a good start with a presumed German Mediterranean Gull and two I'd seen before, North Thames Herring Gull KT4T and Dutch Black-headed Gull R3.

Mediterranean Gull AKRK although I never got a readable photo

AKRK had been ringed as a pullus (too small for a colour-ring) at Pionierinsel Lühe on the Elbe near Hamburg, Germany on 14 June 2008. On 23 May 2012 it was caught in a colony on a flat roof in Hamburg and the colour-ring fitted. Two similarly coded Med Gulls (AAZE &AHTK) seen on the Adur in 2010 had also been ringed at Pionierinsel Lühe. Med Gulls often appear with Common Gulls on the Adur, interestingly the colonies around Hamburg where they breed are mainly Common Gulls too.

Black-headed Gull R3. Ringed as a first-year in Holland in November 2009, this bird was on seen by Jake Everett at Southwater Country Park in December 2009, on the Adur in December 2011 and at Widewater in September 2012.

Herring Gull KT4T. Ringed as a 2CY at Pitsea, Essex on 5 March 2011, it waa first seen on the Adur a week later. since then I've seen it in December 2011 and March and July 2012.

Sunday 6 January. A rather distant Long-tailed Duck flew east off Shoreham Harbour as did a Red-throated Diver, 4 Brent Geese and 5 Common Scoter. Another Brent Goose was on the lagoon at Widewater but only the pair of Mute Swans remained. The gulls on the Adur at low tide included two Meds and a North Thames Herring.