A fantastic morning!

A real Autumn morning....cold and crisp...excellent lighting for photography!
Firstly a brisk walk round Pagham Spit....a flock of c60 Greenfinches circling and some landing in the bushes....here's half a dozen

 Also accompanied by a few Reed Buntings.

 Here's a couple of them.

Brent numbers are really picking up now but juveniles seem very scarce...all these are adults.

Touchdown.

As I made my way to the North wall I passed the Lagoon and there, right in the middle, my first drake.Goldeneye...winter is on its way!

What a splendid bird!

At the South East corner of the harbour a whole selection of winter ducks...just feast your eyes on these magnificent drake Pintails!

...with their attendant females

...and a Drake Teal

 ...and a group of Wigeon

 ...and Shelduck!

Waders weren't in short supply either posing in the morning sunshine.

Redshank...normally quite skittish but this morning approachable!

 Curlew..on the lookout!

 ..but relaxing after a while.

Black Tailed Godwit in Whites Creek

Oystercatcher probing for his breakfast.

...and finally Red Admirals everywhere!

Pagham Harbour is difficult to beat on a morning like this!

A brief visit to the North Wall proved rather uneventful last week but a few photos below show I'm still about but birding has taken a bit of a back seat in recent weeks.

In the paddock...

Plenty of stonechats along the north Wall.

Juvenile Moorhen by the sluice gate.

Grey Heron...a familiar figure in the reedbed.

Brent Geese have been slow in arriving but small parties have been moving in since late September.

Wigeon numbers have been growing steadily although most have not adopted their full winter plumage yet....

Wigeon
My presence suddenly surprised this one and it made an impressive take off!

Curlew in flight

 This bird which suddenly came into sight certainly made me look twice...but it was only a Carrion Crow ( a leucistic one!)

Never mind...maybe something more exciting will turn up this week...you never know!

Last but not least...Sunset over the harbour.

Cornwall and back...to Pagham

Its been a little while since my last blog as we have been on holiday in Cornwall...Porthcothan Bay to be precise near Padstow in the  north of the county. Birding was quiet with very little of interest during the week. We just missed the Red Eyed Vireo at Porthgwarra which was seen both before and after the week we were there! Typical!
The bay itself has very limited birdlife save for Rock Pipits and Pied Wagtail so I had to satisfy myself with these species....

...but there were lots of Portuguese Man 'o War 'jellyfish' on the beaches!! (these are actually a species of siphonophore,a group of animals that are closely related to jellyfish).

However the birds...

Rock Pipits

A small stream ran into the rocky bay which proved particularly popular with the Wagtails as a washing and preening area.

Pied Wagtail

A Pheasant in a tree one morning created some novelty value ...

...and there was a resident Robin.

On the hillside Stonechats were noted in the gorse but they  were generally unapproachable hence this flight (blur) photo..

Once back at Pagham a quick recce of the Spit produced an interesting list of birds with a lot of the winter geese and ducks now present including a pair of Pochards on the Lagoon. Pick of the few photos taken herewith!...

Reed Bunting

Greenfinch

Wren

Goldfinches enjoying the plentiful teazles

Thats it for now....but I did see a Kingfisher this morning and a local dog walker told me of an owl that flew up a few feet in front of her...presumably a Short Eared Owl from the description...so worth keeping an eye out for!