Pagham Harbour

Pagham Harbour - cool and cloudy, NW3 - Spent the weekend with family in West Sussex but did  manage at day out on Sunday at the RSPB reserve. The most productive spot was from the hide overlooking Ferry Pool where during two visits a decent collection of waders included 96 Black-tailed Godwits, 12 Avocets, several Lapwings and Oystercatchers and singles of Redshank, Common Sandpiper and Little Ringed Plover, plus 20 Shelducks, Shoveler and Teal. The long walk down to Church Norton produced some farmland birds on the rough fields such as Kestrel, Buzzard, Stock Dove, Lapwing, Reed Bunting, Skylark and Yellowhammer, while the harbour side delivered a few Little Egrets, a Spotted Redshank and Curlew. The area around the church and the Severals was very quiet, in contrast to the harbour islands where several hundred nesting Sandwich Terns, Mediterranean and Black-headed Gulls provided a fine spectacle. At least 20 Little Terns were also noted but only a handful of Common Terns, plus nine Turnstones and four Ringed Plovers.

                                  Little Egret

                                  Distant tern/gull nesting island

                                 Waders and Shelduck on Ferry Pool