New Years Eve

A brisk wind this morning and a much cooler feel to the day than of late!

Thirteen Mediterranean Gulls on the Lagoon...later in the day there were 31.

...and unusually a drake Shoveler

and a drake Red Breasted Merganser

plus the usual Tufted Ducks (I had a Scaup/Tufted Hybrid on Christmas Eve which was subsequently seen by several observers on Boxing Day causing much discussion, as hybrids always do! )

Red Breasted Mergansers flying up the main channel

Wigeon and a Curlew sheltering from  the wind.

The Church Norton Spit was breached in the night and again this afternoon...

Quite an impressive sea!
See more photos on my Pagham Beach Blog 

...and enjoy your Christmas lunch....Roast Turkey or Worms!

Spoonbill!!

A pleasant surprise on a dull morning(8.00a.m.)! Out in the middle of the harbour from the Spit Hide a Spoonbill feeding alongside the gulls...

Hopefully it will come closer..

 ...and as the tide moved in the Spoonbill did move closer but with poor light, high ISO resulted in 'noisy' photos.

Preparing for lift off (1)

Preparing for lift off (2)

...a real treat.

...looking towards the Church Norton hide

The Peregrine on  New Island

...and another surprise, in the post....the very latest Sussex Bird report...and what an excellent tome this is...congratulations to all concerned for yet another excellent production.

Another day at Pagham.

Once the drizzle had ceased I made my way to the Spit hide and on the way noted three Goldeneye on the Little Lagoon (2m,1f)... here's a male

As I looked out from the hide a Great Northern Diver came in with the tide...a nice surprise... terrible photos but the light was bad and I had the wrong lens!

A nice bird to have on your  'patch'.

Part of a large wader flock at high tide

Also present...

Grey Heron

Great Crested Grebe

Cormorant

Returning later to try to get better shots of the GND resulted in the bird being a long way off...but I was rewarded by a visit from a Kingfisher...

Kingfisher

Kingfisher...what a cracking little bird!

In the afternoon quick check of the harbour resulted in an obliging Curlew..

Curlew in the late afternoon sun.

...and another.

Church Norton visit in the sunshine!

Following many  days of gloom it was refreshing to see the sun and it was obviously time to give the camera an airing! A Firecrest and a couple of Dartford Warblers had  recently been noted at Church Norton so that was an obvious choice close to home, especially as I had heard the car park had been transformed from a sea of mud to a respectable proper tarmac area!

Very little life showed up in the Churchyard so a visit to the harbour was next....

Perfect peace and tranquility!

 Little in the way of bird life here so I trudged along the beach to where the signpost points to  the path inland. Suddenly I heard a brief 'churrrr' and a small bird shot out of a bramble and dropped into a bush a little farther along. Another birder was also watching, who I now know to be Ian Redmain but alas the bird did not show again. Ian wandered off but twenty minutes later the Dartford Warbler reappeared albeit very briefly. A few quick shots produced some poor record shots but I was pleased to get anything!

This is the best!

A large 'crop'

It did not show well!

A deer lurked about in the undergrowth...

...but apart from a few over flying Brent there was little else.

Brent

We made our way back to the shore hide whereupon Ian pointed out a Whimbrel...the semi resident winter visitor.

Whimbrel

Thanks for that Ian and no doubt we will meet again sometime!