Starting the year with a local Caspian Gull (01-04 January 2021)

HAPPY NEW YEAR and to quote Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows:

A long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last 

This blog is image light, or would be if not for the Caspian Gull. My Panasonic lens has been sent off for its broken mount to be repaired and my Canon SX60 isn't working properly leaving me reliant on digiscoping. I can just about get away with it for static birds but when they fly ...

Monday 04 January. A poor forecast made it sensible to stay local. I took Cookie to the Adur for the low tide. Walking up the bank and looking over towards the airport there were no gulls on the nearby sandbank. Dejected I decided to walk north and scanning a group of ten or so Herring Gulls just south of the Old Toll Bridge a four-coloured first-winter stood out and almost screamed Caspian Gull at me. I hurried to the nearest seat and set up my scope, in a bit of a panic incase it flew. Through the scope it looked absolutely perfect and I was cursing my normal camera being out of action. I took some digiscoped images, put the news out and spent the next hour watching it and improving somewhat on my photos. During this time it flew south about 400m landing in the water by the next sandbank. After I'd been watching it for an hour, by which time six or seven others had seen it, I left to check the few gulls near Ricardos, nothing doing, before returning for final look but it had moved on. Also on the Adur the juvenile Brent Goose and 4 Grey Plovers. In the afternoon Megan and I took Cookie to Shoreham Sailing Club, Fort and the east section of the boardwalk. The weather was miserable as were the birds with no Black Redstart and another high-tide blank on Purple Sandpipers but having seen the gull I wasn't overly disappointed. I saw a single Gannet off-shore but didn't linger in poor weather. Back at the car my first Lesser Black-backed Gull was on a factory roof opposite.

first views of the Adur Caspian Gull, looking good from a distance

even better closer up

a typical four-coloured bird with very fine/faded marking on the mantle, the bird had very worn coverts

long, parallel-sided black bill, white head and body, small black eye with very limited shadowing

greyish mantle with fine edges, solid brown coverts with white tips, black tertials with narrow white edges at the tips, long black primaries.

thinking it wants to be an albatross

those legs, those feet

when it flew it had a gleaming white underwing, thick black terminal bar to its tail and solid white rump

Sunday 03 January. A socially distanced day out, meeting David Buckingham at the Black Rabbit before dawn. I saw a Woodcock poorly and heard a distant Tawny Owl call once before he arrived. Barn Owls were even less obliging with a complete no show, disappointing. A Firecrest in a nearby hedge, 4 Cattle Egrets at the back of the field opposite and a male Marsh Harrier flying north were some compensation. We walked around Swanbourne Lake seeing 12 male and 3 female Mandarins, 50 Gadwall, 110 Tufted Duck, 3 Pochard and 2 Red Kites and heard a Marsh Tit. Two Nuthatches and a Mistle Thrush were back by the cars while we saw Water Rail (DB only), Kingfisher, Cetti's Warbler and a Chiffchaff along the Mill Stream. We relocated to Rewell Woods, the idea of driving in convoy much further didn't appeal as we were keen to finish at Burpham. We parked at Fairmile Bottom and walked up to and around Sherwood Rough. There we saw 3 Buzzards, DB a probable Goshawk (I was too slow onto it), 6 Hawfinches (I missed 2 of those too), a smart but distant male Bullfinch, 2 Crossbills and a Yellowhammer. Our last stop was Burpham where I'd heard the Bewick's Swans might be best viewed from the edge of the Cricket Pitch. They were, all 10 adults, visible through gaps in the trees. While watching them DB's impressive hearing picked up calling 2 Firecrests which I would have missed, even knowing they were there and less than 10m way I only just managed to hear one once. Clearly my hearing aid needs retuning. We also saw a total of 5 Marsh Harriers sat in the fields and/or flying towards Arundel WWT to roost. Two were adult males and one a sub-adult male. There were a few Redwings about, more Fieldfares and 12 distant Red-legged Partridges. As the light was fading we came full circle with a Barn Owl hunting along field edges between us and the Black Rabbit, mainly our side of the railway line. What started off being rather disappointing turned into a very enjoyable day, cold but mostly dry, even if most birds were a little more distant than we'd've liked.

Three of the Bewick's Swans at Burpham. That all 10 were adult is rather worrying and will do little to reverse their long term decline in Sussex

Saturday 02 January. At Shoreham Fort between 08:00-09:15 I saw a Guillemot, 2 Razorbills and 4 Red-throated Divers on the sea, all fairly close in. There were at least 85 Gannets offshore while 2 unidentified auks and 8 Red-throated Divers flew east. A Peregrine was on the Power Station chimney and I finally caught up with the Black Redstart in the Sailing Club compound. A 'bubble' trip to Sheffield Park with Megan, Nessa, Josh and Cookie was disappointing with the woodland trail closed, continual shooting nearby and few birds seen, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay and Nuthatch the best.

Friday 01 January. 2021 started with an hour and half at Widewater where a Great Northern Diver on the sea, drifting west fairly close inshore, was the obvious highlight. Also on the sea were 4 Red-breasted Mergansers, a Razorbill and a Red-throated Diver with a Kingfisher on the lagoon. I then met Megan, Nessa and Cookie at the Lancing Ring car park and we walked around Steepdown. The weather wasn't great with 47 Sky Larks, 4 Corn and 16 Reed Buntings best. I returned via the Adur Saltings where a reasonably high tide and some paddleboarders flushed out 53 Common Snipe, Also seen were 25+ Teal, the Curlew, 36 Redshank and the Greenshank. Final stop was Shoreham Sailing Club (twice) and Fort where I failed to find Black Redstart and Purple Sandpiper respectively. The latter a bit of a surprise as it was high tide, the former disappointing as it was seen between my two, admittedly not overly thorough searches. I returned home at 1pm, House Sparrow ending my 2021 year list on an unspectacular 46.