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Pagham Birder: The Blog

A regular account of the birds seen mainly on and around Pagham Spit, the Lagoon and the North Wall plus other birding exploits from time to time.
Any news of interest regarding the ongoing erosion problems on Pagham Beach will, from now on, be shown on my other blog together with general beach photos.. Click on the link... Pagham Beach Blog on this page.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Kittiwakes at Pagham Beach

At about 3.30 when the rain eased,  I ventured out onto the beach to see the effects of the high tide
after yet another rough morning.  On walking along the top of the revetment my attention was drawn to a very dark coloured 'gull' in flight above the rocks. As I got closer I noticed  that a Kittiwake was nestling in the rocks and the dark coloured  'gull' in flight was in fact a heavily oiled Kittiwake. It was dipping down and was showing what appeared to be concern about the  other bird on the rocks. Kittiwakes mate for life and it was obvious the birds were a pair. I took a few photos with my compact camera of the Kittiwake on the rock which permitted a very close approach making me assume it was injured.

After going home to get the SLR and decide what action I should take to catch the 'poorly' bird  I returned to find that the oiled bird had disappeared and the other Kittiwake was flying up and down the revetment as it would a rock face in its nesting quarters.

However, all seemed well and I managed a few photos in very poor light as it was an unusual occurence for me to see  Kittiwakes on the beach...I see a few off shore!



Note the characteristic 'dipped in ink' wing tips.

I'm now not at all sure that it is 100% well looking at the somewhat dull eye.

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