Having only visited the Selsey peninsula area twice before (both to Pagham Harbour RSPB) and with the weather conditions looking excellent for some nice birds I decided that Sunday would be the day when I would visit a couple of sites on the peninsula I have never visited before.
I started mid-morning at Selsey Bill for a very short sea-watch, it was rather quiet. Although 2 Pomarine Skuas were reported a couple of hours later there was none of that sort of calibre passing when I was there. A couple of Gannets went East along with a Skua sp which I didn't see. A small group of Common Scoter went West.
It was better on land however with a couple of Swifts feeding up over the gardens and a single Grasshopper Warbler reeling and a Sedge Warbler singing in them also. I hadn't heard a Grasshopper Warbler since I visited Northumberland in 2014 so it was a treat to hear one this early. Sedge Warbler and Swift were also both new for the year.
From Selsey Bill we moved to Medmerry RSPB where a group of 3 Spoonbills had been reported while I was at the Bill. I was hopeful that they would be there, at that point I was on 999 world bird species and I had been waiting for the 1000th to turn up for quite a while. Spoonbill is one of my bogey birds, I really should have seen at least one by now!
Walking from the car park at Easton Lane the fields were alive with Skylarks singing everywhere, and multiple Common Buzzards were soaring over as well. From a ditch running alongside the track I heard a Common Whitethroat, my second of the year, and I found another singing in clear view in a bare tree just metres away from me a bit further down the track.
The first pool we saw on our left contained an unwary Little Egret fishing, a Coot and a couple of Mallard so nothing too unusual. Stilt Pool was very busy with a number of pairs of Avocet and hundreds of Black-headed Gulls. Mediterranean Gulls were flying over constantly, this was the first time I can remember them being so vocal. Their call is surprisingly (to me) different to that of a Black-headed Gull.
Looking in the other direction over the saltmarsh to the east of Stilt Pool, where the Spoonbills were reported, viewing was very difficult due to a heat haze however there were more Avocets to be seen. There was a distinct lack of Spoonbills, which I thought would be easy to spot.
I spoke to a small group of birders who said that they flew off North a couple of hours ago, only ten minutes after they were first reported, which was a bit disappointed! They also mentioned that they had seen some Yellow Wagtails feeding around the cattle which I had missed, however they must have been feeding up very briefly as they weren't there when I returned to the cattle to check. Would have been a nice year tick but hopefully there will be plenty more opportunities this spring/summer.
After a brief stop at the beach we walked back to the car the way we came. Stilt Pool had gained a Common Sandpiper and a group of Dunlin. Even better however was when I heard an unknown call from above me and then another one from a different individual - the birds flew right over my head and circled the Stilt Pool a few times. In flight I could see that they were both Little Terns, and luckily they both landed on the Stilt Pool. They were among Black-headed Gulls and the size difference was far greater than I was expecting! I haven't seen a Little Tern for quite a while so I was rather pleased.
I decided to quickly scan the saltmarsh again just in case a/the Spoonbill(s) had arrived/returned and I was quite surprised to notice a huge white blob! I could see nothing more in the heat haze except that it was a bird and a preening one too, however it was clearly too large for a Little Egret and wrong shape for a Great White Egret... I was watching my 1000th world bird!
That was an excellent way to finish off my first visit to RSPB Medmerry and I will definitely return again as soon as I can!
I started mid-morning at Selsey Bill for a very short sea-watch, it was rather quiet. Although 2 Pomarine Skuas were reported a couple of hours later there was none of that sort of calibre passing when I was there. A couple of Gannets went East along with a Skua sp which I didn't see. A small group of Common Scoter went West.
It was better on land however with a couple of Swifts feeding up over the gardens and a single Grasshopper Warbler reeling and a Sedge Warbler singing in them also. I hadn't heard a Grasshopper Warbler since I visited Northumberland in 2014 so it was a treat to hear one this early. Sedge Warbler and Swift were also both new for the year.
From Selsey Bill we moved to Medmerry RSPB where a group of 3 Spoonbills had been reported while I was at the Bill. I was hopeful that they would be there, at that point I was on 999 world bird species and I had been waiting for the 1000th to turn up for quite a while. Spoonbill is one of my bogey birds, I really should have seen at least one by now!
Walking from the car park at Easton Lane the fields were alive with Skylarks singing everywhere, and multiple Common Buzzards were soaring over as well. From a ditch running alongside the track I heard a Common Whitethroat, my second of the year, and I found another singing in clear view in a bare tree just metres away from me a bit further down the track.
The first pool we saw on our left contained an unwary Little Egret fishing, a Coot and a couple of Mallard so nothing too unusual. Stilt Pool was very busy with a number of pairs of Avocet and hundreds of Black-headed Gulls. Mediterranean Gulls were flying over constantly, this was the first time I can remember them being so vocal. Their call is surprisingly (to me) different to that of a Black-headed Gull.
Looking in the other direction over the saltmarsh to the east of Stilt Pool, where the Spoonbills were reported, viewing was very difficult due to a heat haze however there were more Avocets to be seen. There was a distinct lack of Spoonbills, which I thought would be easy to spot.
I spoke to a small group of birders who said that they flew off North a couple of hours ago, only ten minutes after they were first reported, which was a bit disappointed! They also mentioned that they had seen some Yellow Wagtails feeding around the cattle which I had missed, however they must have been feeding up very briefly as they weren't there when I returned to the cattle to check. Would have been a nice year tick but hopefully there will be plenty more opportunities this spring/summer.
After a brief stop at the beach we walked back to the car the way we came. Stilt Pool had gained a Common Sandpiper and a group of Dunlin. Even better however was when I heard an unknown call from above me and then another one from a different individual - the birds flew right over my head and circled the Stilt Pool a few times. In flight I could see that they were both Little Terns, and luckily they both landed on the Stilt Pool. They were among Black-headed Gulls and the size difference was far greater than I was expecting! I haven't seen a Little Tern for quite a while so I was rather pleased.
I decided to quickly scan the saltmarsh again just in case a/the Spoonbill(s) had arrived/returned and I was quite surprised to notice a huge white blob! I could see nothing more in the heat haze except that it was a bird and a preening one too, however it was clearly too large for a Little Egret and wrong shape for a Great White Egret... I was watching my 1000th world bird!
That was an excellent way to finish off my first visit to RSPB Medmerry and I will definitely return again as soon as I can!
