Saturday 17th December 2022.
Yet again, I had to scrape the ice of the windscreen off the car on a very cold morning as I eventually made my way to Cowplain to pick up Andy. Thoughts of the American Wigeon, near Lymington, were very tempting, but though I have not seen one since 1999, I really fancied a trip east and over to Pagham Harbour instead. It has been a while since I have been there and with a reported Red-necked Grebe seen off Church Norton yesterday (not seen one this year), it was eastbound this morning.
On the way there, we passed a frozen Sidlesham Ferry Pool and Andy quickly spotted a Fox walking over the ice on the Ferry Pool, which I got the briefest of glimpses (I was driving at the time!). I would of loved to got a photo of that. The car park was very quiet, with only a few cars present and quickly getting my RSPB Membership card out to display on the dashboard (one has to pay here to park now!), I only hope the RSPB fixes those horrible potholes within the car park from the monies they receive from the paying public! A flock of Goldfinches landed in a nearby tree as we made our way to the harbour and as we turned to walk to the beach, Andy fell ‘arse over tit’ on the ice on the gravel. Thankfully, only his pride was hurt, but it was a close call.
It was low tide within the harbour and there was a good showing of both Redshank and Curlew on the salt-marsh. Looking south, it looked a bit moody over the beach with a lot of cloud over the sea and with the low sun, visibility over the sea wasn’t at its best. Nevertheless, we did find a few species of note that included a couple of male Eiders, at least 7 Common Scoter (2 pairs and a small flock of 3 birds flying west over the sea), 2 distant Slavonian Grebes and at least 2 Great Crested Grebes. There was no sign of the Red-necked Grebe, which was a shame, but that's the way it goes.
We made our way to the two benches overlooking the harbour and from here, we had a nice selection of waders. Making our way to the benches, a large flock of Knot and a smaller flock of Golden Plover took flight and swirled around in the sky, but there was no sign of any raptors soaring over. Once on the bench, an Avocet was seen flying towards us but settled out of view. However, I found another 6 birds further out to the north of the harbour, within the harbour channel. At least 4 to 500 Knot were feeding on the mudflats along with good numbers of Dunlin, Grey Plover, Turnstone, Ringed Plover and Curlew. We even found a couple of Bar-tailed Godwits feeding in a small pool nearby. Up to three Common Snipe flew off from the salt-marsh and flew west towards the Pony Fields.
The most amazing sighting today was the Snow Bunting! This bird has been residing over on the east side of the harbour entrance, perching up on the metal framework by the entrance and on seeing a couple of birders over the far side photographing something small, we could only guess it was the Snow Bunting. So, setting my scope up from this side of the harbour on my highest magnification, we could make out a snowy white passerine perched on the metal, especially when it flew and landed again. From here, Andy got his 201st species for the year! That saved driving all that way to see the bird and for all you Carbon Footprint freaks, happy days! On getting back to the car, a Green Woodpecker flew up to a tree near the car park to round off our trip here at Church Norton.
Not finished with the day's birding, we took a stroll along the footpath by Chichester Gravel Pits today and as expected, most of the lakes around here were frozen, however, there were a few areas free of ice and the Gulls and wildfowl took full advantage of it. Pochard, Shoveler, Mallard, Pintail and Tufted Duck were in good numbers here, enjoying the small areas of water or simply sitting on the ice, while other flocks flew overhead in search of other areas to land. Three species of Geese were present here that included large numbers of Canada Geese and a pair each of Greylag and Egyptian Geese. I was hoping that a Bittern might be lurking in the reedbed over on the far north-east side, but three Grey Herons were the only birds of note here.
We walked right up to Peckham Copse Lane, taking in small flocks of Titmice and the occasional Goldcrest and lots of very confiding Robins. I was well impressed with Andy as he scraped his boot into the leaf litter and dug up some earth with his boot in helping the Robin find potential food. Well done that man. Andy was fortunate enough to see a Kingfisher twice, while I dipped out both times. I was more fortunate with a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers that were searching for food in the trees beside the footpath and a Kestrel was seen flying north over Ivy Lake. We were also hoping to see a Water Rail on the water's edge, but the best we could get was one heard calling.
Sadly, I had shopping to do when I got home and so I made our way back to Cowplain to drop Andy off, enjoying at least two Common Buzzard sightings on the way back. An incredible 102 Barnacle Geese were seen early this morning on Farlington Marshes, which were all probably wild birds that have been dispersed by the cold weather. The family party of 5 Russian White-fronted Geese were still present here too. It looks as though we did not miss too much at Pagham Harbour today, though an Arctic Skua flew over Selsey Bill this morning!
As I am writing this, a friend of ours has sent me a voicemail of a Tawny Owl calling in her back garden in Denmead, near Waterlooville, tonight. Well, I'm jealous!
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