BirdForum

April was a cracking month, with a total of 84 species seen which is a new monthly record. This figure was helped by one particular Saturday where it seems that everything was showing itself for me at Pagham, Pulborough Brooks and Arundel. Five new lifers in the month plus 15 new year ticks taking their respective figures to 119 and 105.

Full list below, with lifers in bold and year list additions in brackets:

Mute Swan
Greylag Goose
Snow Goose
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Stoggler

March was everything that February wasn't: I managed to go birding every weekend of the month and really put the hours in, and consequently I saw a lot of birds in the whole month - 75 species in total. With visits to Pagham Harbour, Climping Gap, Pulborough Brooks, and the Arundel and London WWT centres, I managed to get a range of habitats in and so maximised the possible number of species. It was also heartening to see spring truly starting with flowers finally popping out, blossom appearing...

Stoggler

February proved to be a month with events conspiring against me to limit the amount of birding hours available to me, with the consequence that I only saw 54 species during the whole month with no new life ticks and only five year ticks in the whole of February (kingfisher, sparrowhawk, stock dove, nutchatch, and ringed plover).

I did manage a couple of hours at the London Wetland Centre for the first time in about two or three months, which was nice. Otherwise, I just managed...

Stoggler

Despite no birding whatsoever for most of the month (thanks to the weather and illness), January proved to be a very fruitful month indeed with 71 species in total, including seven new lifers. The few occasions I was able to get out I made sure I visited a number of sights to try and maximise possible sightings in the short period of time available, so I got to Climping Gap, Pagham Harbour (North Wall area), Chichester gravel pits, Burpham, Arundel WWT, and Pulborough Brooks RSPB.
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Stoggler

A fabulous month, from the beginning with my first trip to Pagham, right through to Christmas Day with my very first ever Barn Owl, and ending on New Year's Eve at the WWT Centre in Arundel with Common Buzzard, two Kingfishers showing brilliantly (in all senses of the word!), and a Water Rail walking along the path quite nonchalantly just a few yards from me - wonderful!

Seventy species in total for the month, which is the best since I started keeping monthly records. Pagham proved...

Stoggler