Autumn!

A chill north west breeze greeted me this morning and although sheltered along the dog walk beside Slipe Field I felt I was severely under dressed along the North Wall! It wasn't until I was almost at Halsey Farm that the warmth of the morning sun was noticeable. The bushes surrounding the fields  held some interesting birds, mostly Whitethroats, Lesser Whitethroats and Blackcaps but pride of place for me were a pair of Spotted Flycatchers...

Lesser Whitethroats were quite well hidden and less approachable!

Conversely a  Reed Bunting was very approachable

A rather dull looking male Mallard in eclipse plumage

Turnstone by the sluice gate

Greenshank viewable from the salthouse.

A Little Egret about to plunge for a fish

...and about to take flight.

Black Tailed Godwit

...and finally an approachable Curlew

Today it really felt that Autumn had arrived.

Late summer

A couple of recent visits to the North Wall and Halsey farm area....a small selection of photos - just for the record. 

Robin with damaged foot by the Salthouse

Whitethroats ...the most abundant warbler species

Sedge Warbler

Redstarts...

A brighter individual...male Redstart.

Another Whitethroat.

Lapwing in the mud ...along the North wall

 Curlew...Whites Creek

 Turnstone on the Spit

(Busy on the domestic front at present, hence brevity!)

A beautiful late summer's morning

North Wall, Pagham Harbour on a morning like this is hard to beat!
Whites Creek was alive with waders but the most interesting to me were three Spotted Redshanks...always  very photographic subjects...

Superb birds!

A couple of Common Sandpipers were by the sluice....

...and further along a Greenshank, many Redshanks, Lapwings, a Grey Plover and, as a bonus, a fast flying Kingfisher.
Way out on the mudflats a party of Knot and Dunlin...a poor highly cropped record shot..

Back on the beach dozens of Painted Ladies adorn the buddleia

 A few of them looking quite tatty....

... but most in good condition

Here, a single small tortoiseshell




A late afternoon stroll along the spit turned up a 'tortoishell' (almost summer plumaged) Turnstone feeding on grubs in the seaweed in the Little Lagoon

Lastly, this is one of five Wheatears on the spit balancing on the fence wire....the wind has got up again!!

Someone mentioned Whinchats early this morning but certainly no trace now (5.00pm)

A day to remember....

August 16 2016...a fantastic minute (08.37 to be precise), in fact less than a minute when an Aquatic Warbler showed itself just a few metres away on the top of a hawthorn near Owl Point Pagham Harbour!
Here are two of the uncropped shots of that memorable morning...

....and these are two cropped shots

...for a split second it fanned its tail.

So this morning I thought a return visit to the very spot would be appropriate. Going via the Halsey Farm entrance to check on the Squacco Heron I was disappointed on a 'no show'. However there were 3 Cattle Egrets in the trees bounding the 'favoured field' but little else.

A distant shot of one of the three Cattle Egrets 

But at Owl Point, not even a warbler of any kind...so no repeat of the excitement of 3 years ago.

*****************

Here are a few shots of a visit to the harbour on August 6...

Coming down the rife.

An odd looking leucistic Starling...
when at first seen I thought it was going to be a Yellow Wagtail considering the company it was keeping.

Wheatear on North Wall

Oystercatcher involved in dirty work.

Grey Plover close to the North wall

...in stunning summer plumage...great!

Little Egret with small fry.

Here's hoping for a good Autumn migration...I've already dipped out on the Osprey that's been around for a few days!