Shoreham area (25-26 December 2011)

Sunday 25 December. Happy Christmas. A couple of hours at Shoreham Harbour and Widewater before being overtaken by family commitments. Very dull weather but a few Gannets and auks moving on the sea and 12 Bent Geese flew west. Two Perergines were on Southwick Power Station chimney with another two flying over, much to one's consternation. The tide wasn't high enough for the Purple Sandpipiers to be on the inner arm, but was too high for any gulls by the Yacht Club. Walked along the beach at Widewater to the Sailing Club, presumably right past the Snow Buntings, but saw them on the way back although by then as running out of time and only a few poor shots were taken.

 Early morning sun breaking through the gloom on Brighton seafront



Snow Bunting between Widewater and Lancing Sailing Club

Monday 26 December.  26 Grey Plover were seen during a walk along Worthing seafront at high tide.  Late afternoon was spent on Beeding Hill.  Looking across to Beeding Brooks a distant Short-eared Owl was seen and 8 Little Egrets flew S to roost while 12 Fieldfares were roosting on Beeding Hill, 2 noisy Ravens flew over and a Little Owl was in a hole nearby.

pre-roost Fieldfares in poor light

 

Little Owl in its quarry home

New Moon on Monday ...

Shoreham, East Head & West Dean Woods (23-24 December 2011)

Monday 19 December.  Encounter with black ice cycling to work resulted in a hairline fracture of left ulna - inconvenient as left handed but at least it doesn't need plaster. 

Friday 23 December. Tried Adur saltings by the houseboats at high tide and the Adur by the airport at low tide. The weather was poor on both occassions despite being brighter during the day. The high tide was only high enough to reveal just one snipe with an adult Mediterranean Gull and Kingfisher the only notable sightings. The low tide was just after dark and pre-roost gulls were particularly jumpy. The biggest flock, including 80 Lesser Black-backs, was north of the footbridge opposite Ricardo's. Low tides are now in darkness until the end of the month.

Grey Heron on Adur Saltings

Herring Gull on Adur saltings

Mediterranean Gull on Adur saltings

Saturday 24 December.  Taking advantage of a reasonable day - some sunshine and less wind - John King and I went to East Head.  It was a very popular choice with dog walkers and birds were generally disappointing with only one Great Crested Grebe seen in the chanel and 40 Red-breasted Mergansers off Pilsea.  On Snowhill Marsh we saw single Greenshank and Spotted Redshank but the sun made viewing harder than normal.  Brent numbers seemed low, which made them easy to check through but nothing unusual was with them.  The marsh area in the dune slacks was much drier than usual, and also heavily disturbed, but we saw the three Snow Buntings by the fenced area at the far end of East Head - for about 15 seconds before they were flushed by dog and walker.  JK picked out a colour ringed/flagged Sanderling amongst c30 others on the beach but they too were flushed before I could get a photo.  Returning to the harbour entrance for a final scan we found the Snow Buntings on the undisturbed beach below us where they gave excellent views making the visit worthwhile after all.  We continued to West Dean Woods where we saw 4 Red Kites, 8 Buzzards, 4 Marsh Tits, 2 Raven and a Redpoll but unfortunately no other finches of note.  Frustratingly a Little Owl was heard calling from the usual tree but must have been in a hole as we couldn't see it despite much searching. 

Snow Buntings at East Head, digiscoping doesn't help with depth of focus 

Happy Christmas!



Shoreham area & Arlington Reservoir (17-18 December 2011)

Saturday 17 December.  On the Adur it was Bait-diggers 1 CR Gulls 0 but morning low tides are not ideal.  Decided to see if Arlington was any better, encouraged by low water levels enticing gulls to roost on the exposed mud.  Spent a couple of hours there with John King.  Lots of black-backs and Common Gull when we arrived with Herring Gulls only really coming in as the light started to fade and then packing in very close making a full view of any impossible.  Some not so distant gun shots disturbed the gulls a few times with most moving out onto the reservoir where it was impossible to see any critical detail, had there been any that warranted a second look.  None did to us with a single North Thames Herring and a Mediterranean the only gulls of note that we saw in two hours.  It was worth a try but I think I’ll stick to watching gulls on the Adur where the chance of the unusual might be less but the viewing conditions are usually a lot better, bait-diggers permitting, should one be fortunate enough to find something.

North Thames KH1T, one of the earlier Herring Gull arrivals at the Arlington roost

Mediterranean Gull at Arlington

Gulls at Arlington

Sunday 18 December.  Two hours on the Downs near Cissbury produced a Sparrowhawk, two Buzzards, 17 Fieldfares, 6 Redwing, 250 Linnets, 8 Corn Buntings and 6 Yellowhammers.  Pleasant but hard work, obviously spoiled from visits to the Burgh!  Back to the Adur where it was Bait-diggers 0 CR Gulls 2, a local Herring and Dutch Black-headed providing the interest.  The latter is the first CR Black-head I’ve seen although its red ring on a red leg was almost overlooked.  Interestingly it had been seen at Southwater Country Park by Jake Everitt on 14 December 2009, having been rung as a 1CY female at Stad Groningen, Noorderplantsoen Kerklaan on 20 November 2009.  After a quick visit to the allotment Megan and I walked from Widewater to Lancing Sailing Club and back seeing 6 Red-breasted Mergansers on Widewater and 26 Sanderling on the beach but unfortunately we couldn’t find the Snow Buntings.

Buzzard on the Downs

Corn Bunting on the Downs

Dutch ringed Black-headed Gull R3 on the Adur

Sussex ringed Herring Gull A7PM on the Adur

Shoreham area, Ferring & Pagham (10-11 December 2011)

Monday 5 December.  A Peregrine was on the edge of the Southwick Power Station nestbox in the pre-dawn gloom on my way to work.  Subsequent mornings were probably too dark for it to have ventured out.

Saturday 10 December.  Low tides were before dawn and after dusk so the Adur was not visited although Normandie Greater Black-backed Gull 70E, back for its third winter, and North Thames Herring Gull YW7T were seen near Shoreham Harbour Yacht Club, the former relocating to the inner arm of the harbour as the tide rose.  A Purple Sandpipier was on the wooden jetty inside the harbour entrance, my first there this winter, while a summer plumaged Guillemot was on the sea just off the western breakwater and the Peregrine could be seen distantly on the Power Station chimney.  On to Widewater where 22 Little Grebes, a Red-breasted Merganser and 6 Sanderling were seen with a quick stop at the Adur Saltings as the tide came in and a plastic decoy pintail was bobbing around with the Teal!  Megan and I walked a circuit over Beeding Brooks in the afternoon and saw 1 Barn and 5 Short-eared Owls and 30 Fieldfares.

Normandie born Greater Black-backed Gull 70E back for its 3rd winter in the Shoreham area

North Thames ringed Herring Gull YW7T seen again in the Shoreham area this winter

Purple Sandpiper on the old jetty in Shoreham Harbour

Turnstones and Purple Sandpiper on the old jetty in Shoreham Harbour

Summer plumaged Guillemot off Shoreham Harbour, the next picture shows the apparent pale bill to be a trick of the light

Cormorant at Widewater



Red-breasted Merganser at Widewater, saw-bill just about evident

Barn Owl at Beeding Brooks, telescope left at home

Sunday 4 December.  A morning of strong winds and showers in West Sussex with John King started at Ferring where saw 6 Little Egrets, Water Rail, Jack Snipe, 2 Common Snipe and a Stonechat.  Being too rough for the Burgh we went on to Church Norton expecting some shelter but were disappointed.  The sea was very hard work with a high tide and deep troughs making it almost impossible to get onto anything.  I saw 6 Red-throated Divers flying west, a Slavonian Grebe very briefly, 30 Gannets, 7 Red-breasted Mergansers, 3 Kittiwakes, 2 adult Mediterranean Gulls and 6 auks.  In the harbour 4 Avocets, 100+ Grey Plover and 200+ Knot were the best we could find.  No photos taken.

Shoreham area & Beeding Brooks (03-04 December 2011)

Saturday 3 December.  A low tide visit to the Adur was thwarted, not for the first time, by bait diggers with most of the few gulls remaining being further disturbed by a helicopter and flying off before I’d checked through them all.  Two red colour-ringed North Thames Herring Gulls were present, AR4T and Y???.  The latter was the right age for YW7T and if it was that bird then I had previously seen both of them on the Adur on 5 November.  Also on the Adur were 11 Grey Plover and an adult Mediterranean Gull.  An afternoon visit was made to Beeding Brooks where I met John King and Tony Wilson.  Short-eared Owls put on a fine display although it was very hard to keep track of how many were present.  Several times we were convinced we had seen at least 8 individuals.  Also seen were 20+ Fieldfares and c25 Yellowhammers while the hoped for Barn Owl finally appeared with the light all but gone.

Grey Plover on the Adur

North Thames Herring Gull AR4T on the Adur

Mediterranean Gull on the Adur

Fieldfare at Beeding Brooks

Short-eared Owls at Beeding Brooks, the light was acytually a lot better than it appears from these images with the owls flying around at 2.30pm when we arrived

Sunday 4 December.  Staying local I started at Shoreham Harbour and Fort but nothing was moving on the sea and a Peregrine on Southwick Power Station chimney, 20 Turnstones below the wooden pier and 2 Greenfinches were all that was noted.  At Widewater the Snow Buntings couldn’t be found near the beach huts or during a three hour search by us and others.  JK and I looked from Kings Walk to Lancing Sailing Club and back and just as we returned to the original area the buntings were found there by others and gave superb views.  Also seen were 8 Red-breasted Mergansers, a female Merlin, c10 very distant Sanderling, 60 Turnstones and 2 Rock Pipits.  A final stop at the Adur, rather cold now after standing watching the buntings for the best part of an hour.  No biat diggers and 89 Greater Black-backed Gulls including Jersey "C" and Normandy A26.  I had seen the former on the Adur in November 2009 and this October, the latter in February & December 2010 and this September and October.  Also a metal ringed Common and a Herring Gull but digiscoping needs to go up a level to enable them to be read.  It makes me wonder why gulls are ringed without adding a colour ring too?

the delayed shutter relase when digiscoping strikes again unfortunately

Snow Buntings at Widewater, wonderful birds and one of my all time favourites

Greater Black-backed Gull A26, ringed as a chick at Chausey Island, Normandie in June 2007 and present on the Adur for at least its third winter