Saturday 18th September 2021.
It was another cracking days birding where Andy and I went to both Nore Barn, near Emsworth to view the Glossy Ibis and then on to Medmerry RSPB Reserve where we had a very good variety of birds on a very warm beautiful day. We even met up with Andy's nephew, Richard and his mates at the Ibis site. Not only was the day full of birds, but plenty of insects around to keep me entertained throughout the day. I even picked up three 'year-ticks' to add to my growing year list that now stands at 188 species for the year.
Again, my day kicked off with the moths and having got up at the ridiculous hour of 4am (once I am awake, I am awake and therefore I have to get up!), 6.30am eventually arrived and armed with a cup of coffee, I got busy. Among the 48 moths of 16 species (well down from earlier this week), I had my first Lunar Underwing of the year, a typical Autumn species that will be a lot more common in the weeks ahead. My first Common Marbled Carpet of the Autumn was also present and the most numerous moth was the Box Tree Moths with 15 present.
Over at 'Cowplain Marsh', Andy's moth box attracted a small total of just 10 moths of 7 species, with nothing new of note, though a Cypress Pug was probably the pick of the bunch. As usual, his garden always attracts a few notable birds and a Chiffchaff was skulking about at the back of his garden and a female Sparrowhawk flying over upset the local Starlings. A pair of Swallows flew fast heading south, while a Bullfinch could be heard calling somewhere in nearby gardens. Earlier, before arriving at Andy's house, I treated myself to a coffee from the local Tesco shop and walking back to the car, a Goldcrest was heard calling and then seen flying out of the tree.
We parked up at the Church car park in Warblington, grabbed the scope and birding gear and made our way east along the main footpath. It was a long walk to the Ibis site where Andy had seen it yesterday, but as we passed a large corn field, there was plenty to look at. There was a large flock of House Sparrows in the adjacent Hedgerow and a few Willowchiffs flew in and out of the vegetation. We then came to the Nore Barn Woods and took the footpath south to the harbour where we met up with Andy's nephew Richard and his two chums. The guys had already had eyes on the Glossy Ibis, which unlike yesterday where it was in the field to our north, it was on the salt-marsh preening with a Little Egret in attendance. Still, though the view was not superb and the light was particularly poor for photography, I did manage to reel off several reasonable photos including a flight shot as the bird eventually flew off and landed in fields well to the north.
Though the bird never reappeared for us again, we had a good chat about the birding world. One of Richards mates was sporting the new BTX Swarovski eyepiece, which is like a pair of binoculars that attach to the scope itself. I looked through it myself and the image I got through this bit of amazing equipment was staggering to say the least. With the strong sunlight in front of us, the Ibis was difficult to get a decent look at it, let alone photographing the bird, but looking through this bit of kit, it was like looking through a window!
Richard picked out an Osprey flying over the harbour, though the bird eventually headed off towards Langstone Harbour to the west; but a great sighting nonetheless. A few Yellow Wagtails and Meadow Pipits passed by and a male Kestrel hovered over the field behind us. A good many dog walkers passed us by, enquiring of what we were looking at and after around an hour or so, we all made our way back to our respective vehicles.
Ruff was on my radar and with one being seen at Medmerry RSPB Reserve yesterday, along with a Spoonbill; that was to be our next destination. Fortunately, the traffic was fairly light as we neared Chichester and it didn't take long to get to the small car park at the Reserve around 11am. We took our time as we checked out the fields and sky for anything of note. Though it was quiet at first , with just a few Chiffchaffs noted, nearing the Stilt Pools it began to get a lot busier. On the way there, good numbers of both Common Darter and Migrant Hawker dragonflies were seen and butterflies including large numbers of Small White's, with smaller numbers of Common Blue's, Red Admirals and Large White's. Garden Spiders were literally everywhere with their webs in the Gorse and wild flowers present along the footpath included Ragwort, Tufted Vetch and Fleabane, which attracted many Bees, Butterflies and Hoverflies (the European Drone Fly Erastalis arbustoram and Syritta pipiens or Thick-legged Hoverfly).
Top photo: butterflies were abundant too with Small White butterflies literally everywhere. Bottom photo: a few Common Blue's were noted.
Nearing the Stilt Pools, a kind fellow birder pointed out a couple of Hobbies flying high over the fields and though we thought we had 'dipped' on them, one eventually showed well high overhead. Later, on the return journey, we watched a Hobby chasing the dragonflies over the fields opposite Marsh Barn, which was most entertaining. Thanks to that chap, we would of missed the Hobby, but it was going to be a very good day for raptors. We had a Sparrowhawk earlier at Andy's house and Kestrels here at this site went above and beyond. Viewing the salt-marsh to the east, I counted no less than SEVEN Kestrels hovering/hunting over the fields there; arguably the most I have ever seen in one sweep of the binoculars. Incredible! Another birder who passed us (one of the regular Selsey Boys) pointed out a distant Osprey to us, perched in distant dead trees roughly a mile away; our second one of the day. If I didn't have a scope, we would of struggled to see the bird.
As we neared the packed Stilt Pools, a very small wader took off from the pools and headed of fast east over the fields; presumably the Little Stint that was seen earlier today. The Spoonbill was still present, busy preening itself and then going back to sleep again. The whole area was packed with Geese, which were mostly Canada Geese, with a few Grey Lags and Egyptian Geese thrown in. Incidentally, there were quite of few of the Canada Geese of the much smaller sub-species Lesser Canada Goose and I was wondering if the Selsey guys are aware of this?
There were quite a few Egrets present with at least four Cattle Egrets and around 6 Little Egrets present. Ten years ago, the thought of seeing so many Cattle Egrets simply beggars belief. How things have changed with this Global Warming! Checking the islands thoroughly, I eventually found the Ruff slowly walking around one of the small islands – my second 'year-tick' of the day. I was well pleased with this and it was also joined by a Common Snipe, a lone Dunlin, around a dozen or so Black-tailed Godwit plus good numbers of Lapwing. Both Swallows and Sand Martins were skimming low over the fields and pools and more Meadow Pipits also went through. I find the only 'down side' to this superb site is the seating arrangements. In the infinite wisdom, the RSPB Management have put two benches more or less side by side and after a long walk to the Stilt Pools to the car park, one could do with many more seats along the main path? Surely, the very wealthy RSPB could afford such minor discretion's?
As we were making our way back, Andy said that he had an 'itching' that a rare bird would be found soon and incredibly, it came true. He spotted a soaring White Stork circling high overhead, which was no doubt one of the Knepp Estate birds that have been wandering around (It was seen over Selsey earlier in the day making its way to this reserve). Fortunately for us, the Stork put on a good show overhead as we pointed it out to passers by and I even managed to grab some film footage of the bird. That was my 3rd 'year-tick' of the day and although classed as an introduced bird, one could say the same about the Isle of Wight White-tailed Eagles?
To round off the raptor sightings, I found a Common Buzzard perched on a distant bush to simply round off a superb mornings birding. Annoyingly, I was absolutely desperate to use a loo and so went into the local shops to find one where I belted into a pub loo at breakneck speed. There, we sat outside and enjoyed a pint while watching the world go by and watching a Swallow head south and a Red Admiral butterfly head west. Just goes to show, there is always something to look at wherever you are.
