Church Norton

An earlyish start saw us get to Church Norton at about 7.30, the main reason to go was to see if I could get Little Tern on my year list, but it's also a very nice place for a walk, only a few cars, in the small car park, a few Goldfinch and some Greenfinch were in and around the area as we headed towards the harbour.

Goldfinch

Greenfinch

We came out into the harbour with it's stunning views, the Tern Colony obvious, the noise deafening.

There seemed to be a lot of young birds about which is encouraging, very large numbers of Black-headed Gull chicks, Lots of Sandwich  and Common Terns and I eventually found a couple of Little Terns on a mud bank, whilst I tried and failed to get any sort of decent picture of any Terns, I blame the distance and the light, which was horrendous , Margie had better luck with the excellent vistas, although I did manage a couple of flyby Herons and the Moon! There were quite a few Curlew knocking about, some Oystercatchers and a few Redshank but the seabirds were the stars, nice to see quite a few pairs of Med Gulls in among the Black-heads.

Flyby Herons

The Moon, nearly all of it!

View of Pagham Harbour By Margie

View of Pagham Harbour By Margie

View of Pagham Harbour By Margie

So basically after being pretty much blinded by the light, we decided to relocate to the beach, it was clear that the Terns were, flying out to sea to fish, then bringing their catch back over the spit into the harbour. I decided that a bit of judicious  positioning and even I might be able to get a reasonable picture of a Tern!! The walk around to the beach produced little although a Linnet posed well and we had brief views of a Whitethroat family.

Posy Linnet

So we arrive on the beach and wander along, a Little Egret was fishing along the shore line and some Terns were fishing, quite a few fishermen as well, presumably fishing for Bass, some had waded miles out! I walked up towards the fence line that protects the breeding birds and put my positioning theory into practice, nice to hear a Skylark or two singing and another Linnet posed on the wire. Well my theory paid dividends, although it was hard to spot the birds coming in off the sea and I have numerous pictures of half a Tern and several of blue sky where Terns used to be!!😀However with a bit of practice I managed a few ok shots! Good to see that most Terns seem to be bringing fish in, the number of fledged chicks would suggest that fish numbers have been good this season.

Common Tern

Sandwich Tern

Sandwich Tern

Sandwich Tern

Little Tern

Little Tern

Little Tern

Little Egret

Sandwich Tern

Sandwich Tern

While I was happily involved doing this, Margie had wandered off, as she is prone to do and was indulging her habit of trying to get pics of "interesting stuff" as if Terns with fish aren't interesting enough!! Anyway she had found several sorts of seaweed which she gave the treatment! She also managed an atmospheric pic of a Fishing Boat as well.

Seaweed by Margie

Seaweed by Margie

And again

my favourite Seaweed by Margie

Yes you guessed it Seaweed by Margie

More Seaweed by Margie

Some dry Seaweed by Margie

Fishing boat on a shimmering Sea By Margie

So after, half hour or so I put the scope up and scanned the harbour the light was much better from this angle, a flock of nice Summer Plumage Dunlin flew in ,couple of Ringed Plover in with em, but to far for pics, Little Terns were fishing in the harbour, the furthest mud bank had a multitude of Terns and Gulls resting on it working through them I counted 25 Little Terns and with the ones fishing ,means good numbers about, hopefully they will have a good breeding season, certainly seemed to be catching plenty of fish! There was also a nice Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly fluttering about! 

Lounging Med Gulls & Common Terns

Little Tern

Small Tortiseshell

At this point I realised that a bit of my tripod had fallen off, so we decided to retrace our steps ,predictably, small piece of plastic,500 square miles of pebbly beach, we completely failed to find it, not  helped by the Med Gulls flying around distracting me from the task with their delightful calls!! So anyone in the area if you come across it give us a shout!! It's the bit you loosen of to lift the Column out from the legs!!

Med Gull

Med Gull

So we gave up looking and headed back to the car, after a bit of nifty manoeuvring in the now full car park, with at least one person who has no clue how to park, we relocated up the road to RSPB Pagham Harbour, after a revitalizing cuppa ,from the flask we finally remembered to fill with tea, we went for a wander, the Ferry Pool held 5 Godwits and a few Lapwing and the Long Pool even less, so we amused ourselves with Butterflies ,mostly Gatekeepers and another Small Tortoiseshell, were a couple of Large Whites, a few Peacocks and Red Admirals about as well. On the bird front a Blackcap showed ok and a Kestrel had a fly about.

Small Tortiseshell

Gatekeeper

Blackcap

Kestrel

Kestrel

Gatekeeper by Margie

The Long Pool by Margie

Gatekeeper By Margie

On the way back to the car we had a diversion to the lovely pond, on hearing Marsh Frogs ,we put a bit of effort into getting some views, pretty hard to see considering they are bright Green, other highlights here were Whirly Gigs, Pondskaters and I think Blue-tailed Damselfly but happy to be corrected!

Marsh Frog

Blue Tailed Damselfly

Whirly Gig

Flower by Margie

So that was about it, with the crowds gathering it was just about time to head home, a successful trip, in good weather and excellent company. Home in time to make some delicious Chelsea Buns, see previous Blog post. 

All pics by me except where stated!