Top Paragraph

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.

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

A Garganey at last and

 Late yesterday afternoon an alert from Les had me drop everything and head for the Breech Pool.

Yes, it was there ....a drake Garganey.


Several had been noted in the area and some had been seen coming off the sea at Selsey but to date I had missed out.  It remained all day today.

However as I had not been to Pulborough Brooks this year and as Little Ringed Plovers had been seen there (and I had missed them on the Breech Pool earlier) a visit was needed!

The Nightingales were in full song but quite difficult to see or photograph...


This was the  only shot I managed to get!


There were several Garden Warblers singing from deep "within" together with a few Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs but all were difficult to see. 
As I watched a glider I noticed a huge raptor gliding, also in a thermal...not a single wing flap during the short time it was in view at a considerable height.....it could only be a White Tailed Eagle.

Back on West Meads I was rewarded with 4 Little Ringed Plover displaying with their unusual high speed flights, twisting and turning at a fantastic speed. A pair eventually alighted on a distant island enabling a couple of photos.





Avocets were present too and one was sitting on a nest.


...whilst her mate was feeding or preening close by.




A very distant Buzzard sat on a post.

A few Lapwings were present, some with youngsters





..and a pair of Greenshanks were noted at some distance away.



A pair of Stonechats were in the field between West meads and Winpenny.




Back home, whilst sat at my pc preparing this blog a Stock Dove came to visit the garden. So finally, a shot of this bird which was too close to get all of him in shot! ( I had the wrong lens on the camera!)




No comments: