Around Shoreham and a trip to the Selsey Peninsular (28 July-01 August)

Sunday 01 August. I dropped Megan at the Brighton Centre and continued up to Devil's Dyke with Cookie. We saw 115 Swifts, Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, 6 Sky Lark, 13 Swallows, 3 House Martin, Long-tailed Tit, Chiffchaff, 7 Whitethroats, 750 Starlings and 11 Meadow Pipits.

view west from Devil's Dyke

view east from Devil's Dyke

Starlings

Cookie in the long grass

back where we started

Saturday 31 July. David Buckingham and I had a very enjoyable day on the Selsey Peninsular. We started at Medmerry seeing 2 Avocets, Snipe, 6 Common and 3 (possibly 4) Wood Sandpipers, 62 Mediterranean and an adult Yellow-legged Gull, 4 Cattle Egrets, Buzzard, 4 Sand Martins, 10 Swallows and 5 Yellowhammers. At Sidlesham Ferry were 3 Avocets, 66 Lapwings, 151 Black-tailed Godwits, Common Sandpiper, 3 Spotted Redshanks (now in winter plumage) and Cattle and 4 Little Egrets. An extended period on the bench at Church Norton was spent watching the terns, gulls and a few waders as the tide came. Two Roseate Terns were the highlight, a ringed bird that was sat on the mud sleeping and preening for at least an hour. It disappeared into a creek and while out of sight an unringed bird dropped in briefly then flew around and out to sea. The ringed bird then reappeared, did a circuit and also flew out to sea. Other birds seen from the bench were 20 Oysterctchers, 2 Grey and 5 Ringed Plovers, 9 Whimbrel, 26 Curlew, 3 Turnstones a summer-plumage Knot, 21 Dunlin, 34 Redshank, Greenshank, 40+ Mediterranean Gulls, 260+ Sandwich and 13 Common Terns and 12 Little Egrets. We finished at the North Wall seeing at least 37 Cattle and 38 Little Egrets, 33 Curlew, 10 Black-tailed Godwits, 9 Greenshank and 36 Mediterranean Gulls.

Common Sandpiper at Medmerry

Common and Wood Sandpipers at Medmerry

rarely have I had better views of a Wood Sandpiper

Cattle Egret at Medmerry

Mediterranean Gulls at Medmerry

Mediterranean Gull with unreadable colour-ring

grass just too high to read this one

another unread ring

juvenile Mediterranean Gulls looking very smart

Roseate Tern roosting in Psgham Harbour

it was sleeping for most of the time it was on view

lots of activity from the Sandwich Terns

summer-plumaged Knot at Church Norton

part of the North Wall Cattle Egret flock

Roe Deer by the North Wall

Friday 30 July. Josh and I took Cookie to the Adur seeing 25 Great Black-backed and 250 Herring Gulls and hearing a Sparrowhawk.

Herring Gull G2JT - my tenth sighting of this bird on the Adur. It was ringed on a landfill site in Essex in November 2014 when a first year.

Thursday 29 July. Megan and I took Cookie to the Adur seeing 11 Mute Swans, 3 Oystercatchers, 3 Lapwings, Whimbrel, 26 Turnstones, Dunlin, 16 Redshank, adult Mediterranean Gull and 4 Little Egrets. In the afternoon I returned to Beeding Hill with Cookie to look for her coat which I'd dropped the previous day. We found it but saw very little with 3 Kestrels, 2 Sky Larks, 4 Whitethroats, 17 Linnets and 3 Corn Buntings.

Corn Bunting on Beeding Hill

very tatty Painted Lady on Beeding Hill

view west from Beeding Hill

Wednesday 28 July. Cookie and I met David Buckingham at the Beeding Hill car park and walked along Monarch's Way, up to Truleigh Hill and back via Room Bottom. Highlights were single returning migrant Wheatear and Willow Warbler. Also 2 Kestrels, Buzzard, 6 Sky Larks, 5 Swallows, 3 Whitethroats, 8 Linnets and 5 Corn Buntings.

view NW from Truleigh Hill

raining in Henfield