Nick Bond's Blog: 02/22/14

My mate Glen was down from London today so had the day to bird and take him around the West Sussex sites in perfect early spring like conditions. We started at the Burgh where it was generally quiet bird-wise but regular sightings of at least 4 different Red Kites and several Buzzards kept the interest going for a while, whilst all the usual suspects soon gave themselves up (Corn Bunting, Yellowhammer, Red-legged and Grey Partridges etc). We moved onto Arundel and soon added Firecrest and Goldcrest onto our daylist and 3 Little Egrets were seen on one of the flooded fields. Next stop was Littlehampton and parked on the west beach side and straight away picked out the 2nd winter Glaucous Gull and not far away was the Kumlien's Gull which had showed well yesterday. Many birders/photographers were on the east beach and must have surely been viewing the birds into the sun. We moved down to the groynes so the gulls were at eye level and proceeded to throw some bread out to which the gulls responded giving great views all-round. By the time we left the tide had started to come in rather quickly and all the birders/photographers were now spectating from our side of the river so good views were had by all. Talking to a dogwalker here, he claims he saw 3 dead Puffins on the beach here a couple of days ago, a sorry tale that has been heard along the south coast on a regular basis the last few days !
We then headed east, stopping briefly at Goring, was worthwhile as 20 + Mediterranean Gulls were around (my highest count here this year) and at least 30 of each Sanderling and Grey Plover.
Another hour was lost watching two fantastic Little Gulls at the southern end of the main lake at Brooklands Park, showing really close in perfect light, these birds proved difficult to photograph as they were feeding so quickly, one individual had a stunning pink flush to its breast, several Teal and a Water Rail calling were also observed here, I am sure these will prove popular with birders and photographers alike if they remain!
We checked Widewater for Goosanders but our luck was out with these, not surprisingly with the amount of people and dog walkers around, a single Red-breasted Merganser was noted here.
Onto Steyning and eventually found the site of the reported Siberian Chiff-chaff, connecting straight away but unfortunately we did not hear the bird call. Several other Chiff-chaffs were around and a Grey Wagtail, shortly followed by brief views of 2 Barn Owls, as the followed the same flight path into the barn we were stood next to. By now the wind had picked up and had turned cold, time to drop Glen back to Worthing station, surely happy with what West Sussex birding had to offer today! the sunshine had even tempted a Small Tortoiseshell out...top day out! click on the images below to see larger versions