Middleton on sea - any good? (1 Viewer)

As the title suggests........

I'm going to be in middleton in a couple of weeks, hoping to pop out for a couple of hours dawn birding when I can. What's the sea watching like there? Anywhere (very) close by that I should consider?

TIA

Perry

Climping's probably your best best - about a 10min drive from Middleton

birdboybowley said:

Climping's probably your best best - about a 10min drive from Middleton

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Thanks, I'm limited to what I can do before breakfast! Climping should be doable.

Any tips on what and where?

I can see from the OS map that there is a footpath that goes out along things and then up the Arun, is there a permissible path to cut back to the main road before the prison may be along church farm?

Cheers

Perry

Any other tips?

Hi Perry

Climping is a good area. There's a car park at Atherington by the beach, with an area of woodland with a small pond behind there which can get some good birds.

You can walk along the beach eastwards where you get a number of waders (oystercatchers, ringed plovers, sanderling and dunlin), plus a range of birds in the trees and shrubs and fields just over the wall behind the beach (e.g. mipits, skylarks, kestrel, peckers, common whitethroat).

Where the footpath starts by the beach, you can either continue along the beach where there are some lovely sand dunes, or take the foot path to the north side of the golf course where you'll find some reed beds (reed and sedge warblers turning up now), linnets a-plenty, plus other edge-of-woodland birds. The odd Common/Grey Partridge has been known to be seen on the golf course too along with the usual pheasants, as well as wheatears.

The path reaches a road that, following north takes you to a road heading back west towards the main A259, where you can take another quiet back road and then footpath back to Climping (south of the A259) and down to Atherington.

Hope that helps

Alternatively, Pagham isn't a million miles away either.

Thanks Stoggler - that's sounds great.

Hi,

Thanks for the advice, I spent a few mornings along the sea front from Elmer to Atherington, highlights included: grey partridge, wheatear, whitethroat, blackcap (lots!), reed warbler, ringed plover, turnstone, sanderling, dunlin, grey plover, curlew, whimbrel, barwit, little egret, med gull, (poss) caspian gull, sandwich tern.

Cheers

Perry